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Everytime I came within sight of a TV today, Governor Palin was on it. One thing that I find a little odd is that since I came to Alaska nearly three decades okay, I have met every governor, except one; I have photographed every governor for publication, except one; I have interviewed the majority of the governors.
Of course you figured it out. The one governor that I have not met, photographed or interviewed is Sarah Palin, the one who lives in the same town as me, the one whose father was a substitute teacher to my own children.
When I got the idea for this blog, I did not even think about Governor Sarah Palin, only about documenting life in Wasilla, getting to know my community a little better while still getting away from it from time to time, and of experimenting to see if I could create a new kind of platform for my work, which has always been print based.
So, I thought that one day, when the time was right and I had the time, I would start the blog. Then Governor Palin became VP candidate Palin, and even though the time was still not right and I had very little time to spare, I decided I had to launch.
I suppose it is inevitable that I will photograph her one day. Perhaps I will interview her, too. True, I voted for Barack Obama and there was much about Governor Palin's campaign that greatly disturbed me, but the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Obama-Biden and she still gave them an interview, just the other day, when she let them into her house as she prepared dinner.
Here are some other Wasilla scenes that I saw today, when I was out and about without a TV in front of me:
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Man riding a four-wheeler.
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Charlie, the frisky pup who I first met yesterday.
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Charlie again.
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Varmit, the tiny cat who hangs with Dan, a camera-shy but friendly disabled veteran who I often talk to when I go walking.
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Another dog.
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An under-construction house in upper Serendipity. This just makes me sad. For over 20 years, these woods were mine, and I was not in the field, I was in them daily, walking, skiing, mountain biking. Then this damn Serendipity development comes along and now I must stay out of the woods, walk on roads, with houses all about. There is no place to pee. Back then, a person could pee anyplace he felt like.
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A boy in the post office. His mother has dropped something on the floor. They looked good together and I wanted to photograph them together, but by the time she picked whatever it was she dropped up, I was being waited on, and had to give my full attention to the clerk.
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The Wasilla Library, as I found it when I came out of the post office at 4:30. I heard this library mentioned by Governor Palin a number of times on the TV over the past couple of days. She cited it as an example of the absurdity of all the untruths circulated about her during the campaign. One of the rumors that she cited was the falsehood that she had banned books - even Harry Potter - from this library.
As I recall, she never did ban a book, but she was reported to have asked the librarian if she would be willing to ban books. The librarian said, 'no.' Sarah Palin fired her. This resulted in a community uproar and Sarah Palin hired the librarian back. No books were ever banned.