Palin Gobbles Up the Dough At Turkey Tech

California State University Stanislaus, known for years as Turkey Tech, is located at the geographical center of California in the most productive agricultural area in the world. It sounds like Sarah Palin felt right at home there for her controversial appearance on Friday evening.

This despite being greeted by signs saying things like, “Bush in Lipstick,” and “Sinister Sarah.” But then, a $500 a plate/$100,000 speech at Podunk U contained all of Palin’s specialties: Money grubbing, media grabbing, and mainstream greasing for a likely presidential run in 2012.

“I was expecting quite a few protests," said Palin, who was accompanied by her daughter Willow (she’s Sarah’s teenage Mom, a sterling example of Palin’s ‘abstinence only’ solution to teenage moms). "It's been nothing but absolute loveliness here in this part of California, in spite of some of the hoopla around this dinner."

Ah yes, the hoopla. There was the little matter of a laundry list of ridiculous, elitist demands for Palin’s engagement, including, besides her staggering celebrity fee, first-class plane seats, the best hotel (motel) room in town, as well as various and sundry small, but important things like “bendable straws.”

Then there was the little issue of the Right-wing ‘independent’ foundation putting on the gala event, a foundation that happens to have its offices and personnel on the Stanislaus State campus, indistinguishable from the campus and a portion of its staff.

A past governor, present attorney general, and future Democratic nominee to replace The Governator for the late, great state of California, Jerry Brown, is calling for an investigation. Turkey Tech, it seems, left the barnyard as far as state-run colleges and universities go.

California State University Stanislaus got its nickname because the first classes in the early ‘60’s, were held at the county fairgrounds, at the hub of extensive local turkey production. Its olfactory delights, especially in the early mornings, continue to this day.

In the early ‘80’s, Turlock, where Stanislaus State is located, still had its own small-town, Central Valley character. When I lived there, the town was physically distinct from sprawling Modesto, which was 20 minutes away and since has engulfed it.

Returning to California after a few years in my native state of Michigan, I found the Turlock area Midwestern in everything but climate. As a returning student in a student body of less than 5000, the classes were small, the people friendly, and the atmosphere conservative. It was Palin Country before the Palin nightmare descended on America.

At that time, there were still many open spaces on and around the college grounds. On a really clear day during the winter, you could see Half Dome in Yosemite with the naked eye, over 50 miles away, though many people who lived in Turlock for years didn’t believe it until being shown through binoculars.

One of my sisters tells the story of flying into California with her husband to visit me. As the plane began its descent over the Central Valley into San Francisco, someone asked where they were headed. “Turlock,” she said, “to visit my brother at Stanislaus State.” The entire section of the plane erupted in laughter.

But I had a few good profs at Turkey Tech, wrote for the college paper and won an award for best column in the California State and University system one year; and ran my one and only year of college track, meeting my goal in the 400 and doing well in the conference meet, which happened to be held at Stanislaus State that year.

Before the Palin episode, I wasn’t proud of where I got my degree. But I wasn’t ashamed of it either.

Like Stanislaus State, Sarah Palin is a laughingstock. Like Stanislaus State, Sarah Palin is posing as something she’s not. Palin is no more a serious political figure than Turkey Tech is a university.

Of course, Palin’s lack of bona fides hasn’t prevented her from being a contender on the American political scene, anymore than it prevented Turkey Tech from calling itself California State University, Stanislaus.

Indeed, Sarah Palin is no joke. She represents the embrace of ignorance by half of the American body politic. These are the people, fed and led by Fox and company, which have made a virtue out of combining stupidity and celebrity.

Not that Palin and many of her comrades-in-arms are lacking in smarts. Ignorance isn’t the lack of smarts, or even the lack of knowledge and information. It’s the refusal to educate oneself, to take a wider and longer view, to see beyond one’s own country and its mythic greatness.

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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