It seems my Tweets have been gaining more traction than I could have ever imagined. Unfortunately, all that traction is thanks to the inability of Mark Whittington to effectively parse a simple English American sentence.
On July 21st I Tweeted "I have to wonder if & or when @sarahpalinusa will learn the meaning of our state motto: "live free or die." #NowHamp #NH #NHSen" via TweetDeck.
According to Mark Whittington this means I think Sarah Palin should die. WTF?
Apparently, Whittington wasn't privy to the prior Tweet (not 4 minutes before and left as unprotected and free floating as all my other Tweets) which noted how David Frum, a, if not the, leading Conservative intellectual, criticized Palin's endorsement strategy. In addition, Whittington wasn't privy to the savage criticism of Palin offered on the Front Page (A1) of the Conservative Union Leader by the publisher, Joseph W. McQuaid. The latter, for everyone else in the state concerned with politics, was the political news of the day.
Now, considering I speak English (or, more accurately, the mutant offspring known to the English as "American") and, supposedly, Mark Whittington does as well, I don't and can't contribute Mark Whittington's gross misinterpretation to some sort of translation error. He deserves no benefit nor will he get any benefit from me now or in the future.
Despite this admission, it occurs to me that if Whittington's grasp of grammar hinges on his seeming inability to write on anything current other than Sarah Palin he may not have fully understood my Tweet, given that it occurred sometime after the end of the Cold War, unlike his fiction, then perhaps I ought to explain it to him. So here's the email I'd send him if I had his address:
Dear Mark,
I'm glad that you've seen my Tweet fit to repeat but I must protest at your mischaracterization of my words. I did not state or imply, nor will you find any reasonable person who would attest that I had stated or imply, that Sarah Palin should die (or any form thereof).
As you should know, I currently reside in New Hampshire. The state motto is "Live Free or Die." This motto is derived from a toast given by (Revolutionary War) General John Stark who used it in the context everyone now uses it, in a kind of summation of Patrick Henry's statement on liberty and doing the right thing no matter the consequence (please find his speech "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" here). Perhaps it is because we here in New Hampshire, the first state to vote in Presidential Primaries, have such a love of our country and our electoral system that we forget that Texans and other non-New Hampshirites, such as yourself, do not possess that same love of liberty and faith in the electorate that we have and so we recklessly explain our actions through our state motto. I know I speak for all of New Hampshire, liberal and conservative alike, when I quote Mr. McQuade and say that "New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say."
If you really want to know what I meant when I said what I said please refer to Mr. McQuade's editorial. New Hampshire voters are not impressed by losers and losers are all those people we've already rejected as worthy of our votes. And, if you've forgotten, McCain-Palin did not win our state. In fact, Palin has never even bothered to try to convince us to part with our votes on her own. She has never run for anything for which we were allowed to judge her ourselves. She has never entered a primary or general election in our state where she stood on top of the ticket. Until she does she will always be a loser in the eyes of New Hampshirites. Why else would Kelly Ayotte's website drop all mention of her Palin endorsement?
You sir are a charlatan. Your cheap tricks and pathetic excuses for news articles may attract page views but please don't think yourself clever. What you write is not snappy political commentary, it's idiotic and worthless drivel. Maybe in Texas, where the Governor hails secession, a treasonable offense, as a viable option where political disagreements are concerned, it is fine to self publish a few books and fancy one's self a writer and to disparage and slander the fine citizens of other states but that is not how things are done here in New Hampshire. We don't have loud protests and riot police. We like to hear out our opposition and debate their points in polite conversation, making sure that we understand what our opposition means. You, sir, did not even bother to allow me that courtesy. Instead, you preferred to attempt to savage me on Yahoo!'s Associated Content. Unfortunately, you've failed and made yourself look like an idiot in the meantime.
That said I'd like to offer you an invitation. Come up to our state and visit any political campaign, join any political event, or just hang out before the upcoming elections and you'll learn what I meant when I questioned if and/or when Sarah Palin would learn about New Hampshire. I don't care what campaign you visit, what event you take in or where you visit, you'll find that eventually you will come to understand why we are so committed to liberty and you'll come to understand why we don't care about Sarah Palin or her opinions.
Let me regal you with a story of an event that happened to me just today. I was at the barber getting a haircut and a woman running for State Representative came in to campaign and ask to leave literature. She never mentioned with what party she was affiliated. She never mentioned if she was an incumbent. She never mentioned if she had a lot of support. She just came in and, beautifully framed in front of the American flag hanging just outside the window gave, in a quivering voice, her stump speech. She told us what she believed was wrong at the State House and told us what she would try to do to fix it. And you know what? Not even those who vehemently disagreed with her interrupted or even attempted to refute her points. That is what it means to live free or die. It is the fundamental understanding that comes with the ability to express, entertain, and the free exercise of an idea even if one does not agree with that idea. But it is so much more than even that encompassing description, it is, in essence, understanding what makes the political process in New Hampshire so potent. It is something which escapes whatever paltry words I put to the page but something any New Hampshirite, no matter his or her political persuasion, can demonstrate, if not necessarily describe.
I realize that you are a Texan and the concept of liberty, as we understand it here the Granite State, is foreign to you, but please, in the future, do not mistake our references to our state motto, a potent and formidable authority, as threats. They are not. They are simply reminders of what it means to live in a free and open society.
So, when I, or any New Hampshirite, wonders if and/or when Sarah Palin, or anyone else for that matter, will understand what it means to "live free or die" we mean to imply that the object of our ire is simply not espousing the values and concepts necessary to endear him or her to our hearts. It takes a lot to win our votes and we ask a lot from our candidates. That's what I want Sarah Palin to learn. And I guess that's what I want you to learn too.
Politely,
Natch Greyes
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