The Truth About Sarah

The Thirteen Days in October, have been referred to as The Most Dangerous Two Weeks In History. Thirteen Days in October, chronicle the crisis in the fall of 1962, when Russia had moved nuclear missiles into Fidel Castro's communist Cuba, 90 miles from America.

The Russians' had smuggled them into Cuba beginning in August of 1962, under false cargo manifests'. The soviets' also had forty thousand soldiers and technicians stationed there feverishly and secretly trying to make them operational. They had intended revealing the missiles after completion and they were nearly successful.

But with more missiles still on the way in mid-October, the missiles already in Cuba were detected by American U2 over-flights, and that discovery, began two weeks never before experienced by human history, two nuclear powers close to an all out nuclear war.

I was still in high school and remember the entire country looking to our then, President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His calm steady demeanor never betrayed the real peril we faced. His steady firm command of the situation showed the qualities that American's admired about him.

I just watched the movie "Thirteen Days In October", again last night. And relived the experience through the eyes of first hand observers in the White House. The pressure JFK was under from the military to act precipitously was enormous. His single minded focus on navigating the crisis and preserving peace came partly from a book, "The Guns Of August", he had read, that chronicled the events of pre World War One, that led to one of the bloodiest events in human history.

The leaders in Europe all missed opportunities, made blunders and suffered under false assumptions, on both sides, that could have prevented the war, if only they had talked to one another. Instead they floundered and made critical thinking errors, based on missed opportunities and miscommunication.

Kennedy's' cool unflappable temperament was thoughtful, courageous, and he saved mankind from a descent into nuclear madness.

This October, is the Forty-Sixth Anniversary of those thirteen days. It seems to me somehow appropriate in the midst of this heated presidential campaign, that we put the name calling and accusations aside, and ask ourselves as Americans what qualities we really need in the candidates, in these times.

Sober reflection requires that we ask ourselves if we really want Sarah Palin, a heart beat away from a 72 year old man at the helm of this nation. The consequences are in my opinion too terrible to contemplate.

She is not running for prom queen or miss congeniality, she is running to be America's Second in Command and she, may very well be, in the position of deciding this country and the worlds fate.

The truth about Sarah Palin is that she is not ready.
And this country would be fool hardy to think that she is ready.