MAKING WAVES

Frontiersman

PALMER — Waverli Rainey said she didn’t quite expect her opinion would be noticed around the world. The Palmer High School sophomore also said she wasn’t prepared for grandiose praise her readers were inspired to make.

The 16-year-old’s Spectrum “Valley teen has some big questions” was published in the Nov. 14 Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and online at www.frontiersman.com. Since then, her writing has generated more than 800 comments online from around the world.

“It’s really nice to hear them, but sometimes it’s kind of weird because they’re [commentors] comparing me to like these really famous people that I would never compare myself to,” Rainey said.

She said she’s read comparisons to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama.

The opinion piece contains Rainey’s experiences supporting Obama in a decidedly pro-Palin area of the country. It also delves into her disappointment at racism she encountered as she wore a Barack Obama T-shirt.

“I understand for awhile there her letter was like spam,” popping up unbidden in folks’ e-mail in boxes, said Waverli’s father, Tom Rainey.

If Web traffic is any indication, a lot of people went straight to the source, reading the piece at the Frontiersman’s Web site.

“I really liked the ones that said how great [of] parents we are,” Tom said, adding that, “we were surprised it made it to beyond Palmer and Wasilla.”

It’s part of the magic of the Web, said Tom, who first encountered the Internet in 1993 and still remembers his first search. He was looking for a recipe for scallops.

“About four hours later I realized I was reading a book in the Cambridge library in England and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Tom said.

Waverli said she’s pretty sure her mother started the ball rolling.

“My mom sent it to, like, everybody she knows because she’s my mom and she’s proud of me,” she said.

One thing led to another and Waverli’s words ended up crossing the globe.

“I don’t know how it got to Germany,” Waverli said. A girl there has written to Waverli to say she was forwarding the e-mail to everyone she knows.

In addition to support for the opinions she expresses, the Palmer High student has also been praised for the quality and maturity of her writing. A university professor in Colorado wrote to say Waverli should skip the rest of high school and head straight for college. Television affiliates have also expressed interest.

“One of the judges down here in Palmer has expressed interest in taking Waverli to lunch and then taking her to court during some sort of discrimination court case,” her father said.

Tom said after he read the piece he was surprised at how politically aware his daughter has become. He said he was impressed with how she noticed that the party at the Multi-Use Sports Complex on election night appeared to be dominated by Republicans.

What doesn’t surprise him, he said, is his daughter’s heart and compassion.

“I remember vividly when she was in kindergarten and first grade, she just kind of gravitated toward the disabled kids,” making friends with children who often had trouble fitting in, Tom said.

Nor, Tom said, is he surprised at her talent.

“She’s had an artistic bent. She writes a lot, but she’s more into, like, pictures and putting things together,” Tom Rainey said.

But far from being political, he said her writing tends to be more in the fantasy vein, stories about “light sabers and dragons and that sort of thing.”

Waverli backed up that assessment.

“I try to write fiction stories, but usually I don’t have enough concentration or patience to finish them,” she said.

As to what her plans are after high school — whether she’s destined for a literary career or a gig as a columnist — Waverli said she hasn’t thought that far ahead.

“I’m only a sophomore,” she said, “There is a creative writing class at my high school.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.