Who Remembers High School.....

When I was in high school on Vancouver Island there were well defined social boundaries. You could generally split the schools entire population into 4 distinctive groups: the "Beauties" (I include the "Wannabes" in this group), the "Jocks", the "Freaks", and the "Smart Ones". I myself was a proud member of the "Freaks", and still hold fond memories of glorious THC filled days during my final years in school. I was already beginning to question the legitimacy of decisions made by politicians at all levels of government, and was very well aware of the bigger picture regarding the world around me. This isn't to say that I felt I was any better than anyone else, and it definitely didn't make my life at school any easier. Attempting to bring up subjects such as the plight of the Vietnamese Boat People with my peers, no matter what social group they belonged to, usually led to blank stares or comments along the line of "You're weird".

All of these social cliques had their hierarchies as any group inevitably does. The leaders of the "Beauties" tended to be driven by ambition at any cost, controlling, domineering, shallow, and in many ways simply put, vicious bullies beneath their glitter. Very rarely would anyone within the group choose to cross these lovely ladies, as this would invariably lead to exclusion or cruel retribution. Academically they were no more successful than those in my network, if not less so. We freaks tended to stayed out of their way, attempting to ignore them as best we could.

When John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, I instinctively knew I was familiar with this type of person and needed to be wary. It took me a while to understand why my stomach churned as she made her acceptance speech, but it has become clearer as time goes on. This woman will be a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States of America, and she's queen of the "Beauties". I don't think any of us will be able to ignore her, nor should we.