The Mudflats

AKPetMom did some great “boots on the ground” video reporting from The Governor’s Picnic in Wasilla. What was on the menu?

A whole lotta patriotic word salad with God bless America croutons!  (That means anything but politics)

I thank everyone for coming out today on this beautiful Alaskan day. Thank you for celebrating the military, celebrating Alaska with us and our fiftieth anniversary of the state. I appreciate you, so many of you have traveled from outside of Alaska. Raise your hand if you… Look at all these tourists! I just thank you so much for being here. And of course our good hardy Alaskans. I love you guys. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for that warm welcome and thanks for your many years of support for Alaska’s military families, particularly those here at home in the Mat-Su Valley.

Now, I won’t take my time at the podium to talk politics today because we get to do something more worthy than speaking of politics. We’ll be honoring the families of those who have loved ones who have served or are serving today, and that’s what I’m going to talk about. And besides, sometimes politics, talking politics isn’t a whole lot of fun once in a while. In fact I had a reporter recently who said to me, she said, “Wow, you’ve had a rough day here or there. How do you handle the rough day?” and, and the way she was suggesting the questions, and what my answer should be was kind of pessimistic and you know, that that question about “how do you overcome the negativity or having a down day” and I said, “Oh no! It is not a down day. My son called this week from Iraq. He is safe. He is sound. It is always a good day when my son calls from Iraq.”

And I wish that some of the media would keep things like that in perspective, what is really important in our country and what is important is our freedom, America’s security, our liberties, and it is you who are protecting our freedoms and God bless you and thank you.

Now, one thing that Alaska is known for is our patriotic people who do support our military, and I think I have received no greater compliment than hearing from our troops who are stationed up here in Alaska saying they’re so thankful to be in communities throughout Alaska who truly love and appreciate our country and our United States military defending our country. No greater compliment have I received, so that goes back to the military. I thank them so much for all that they are doing and today as we get to present the blue stars to the families who are supporting their loved ones in the line of duty, we get to appreciate them too.

It is those families that have to exchange though that blue star for the gold star. They are the families whom I do wish to honor. Just yesterday the Lt. Governor and I, we attended the memorial service for three very brave, very young Alaska based soldiers. Sean Parnell and I were at the chapel at Fort Rich and we heard for the last time in honoring these three soldiers that last roll call and that sounding of Taps. My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones in this service to our country, and let us do all that we can…let us do all in our power to show that support that we have for those families, and let’s… that ultimate sacrifice, their deaths, let them never be in vain. Let us continue to love our country, be proud of our country, never apologize for being American. I think that is how we can honor these families.

Recently, too, I was in Kosovo visiting our Alaska National Guardsmen as they are on a peacekeeping tour over there, and I saw in Kosovo America’s bravest depending on the love and the support and the encouragement of their families and their friends at home. They need to know that we believe in them, and again as Burt said, the blue star banner, it symbolizes sacrifice and honors, honors the valiant efforts in supporting our military members overseas as they defend our freedom. Happy to get to participate in this today. My family and I, we join you in honoring the heroic effort of our service men and women, and Todd and I we do proudly display our blue star banner in our home and I wear my pin to show my support for not just my son, but for all who are serving today and have served this great country. I urge you to do the same. Continue to draw together to offer community support to our courageous military and their families.

We’ll get right to other parts of this program, but again from the bottom of my heart and especially this being my last time to speak to the Valley community as your governor I do want to tell you sincerely that I love you, I appreciate you and your support, the support that you’ve shown my family. God bless you and God bless America.

And you know what’s really incredible and amazing?  You’ll notice she did that whole thing without a teleprompter!  (gasp!)  It just rolled off the top of her head, all spontaneous-like, perfectly formed… Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Barack Obama!

God, I’ll be sad when she gets a speechwriter…

And what could top this eloquent, melifluous moment in history?

Weenies!