How gossip starts...

I am in Orlando for a National Firm Owner’s Conference at the Ritz Carlton – man, I bet these people here don’t wash Ziploc bags…..I was thinking I’d be surrounded by these rich, intelligent possibly snobby people who own these firms in Los Angeles and New York City, and I’m finding they are as down to earth and friendly as any of us – shows you what preconceived notions get you! 

As I was trying to navigate my way around in a new rental car with buttons and  gauges I wasn’t familiar with, on roads I’m not familiar with, I got to thinking about a story I probably haven’t told yet.  When Tal was in college, she worked for the Bush administration on the Advance Team.  What the Advance Team does is go in to a city where the President has a visit scheduled, work with the people at the location to make sure security is all right, the catering is set up, put up the pipe and drape, you name it.  She would go somewhere every six weeks or so – they’d fly her to a city (she was 21 at the time, I think) – and she’d pick up a rental car, drive all over this unfamiliar city purchasing the things they needed, running errands, whatever was necessary. 

She called me once while driving in Houston or somewhere in Texas, and I’m like, “Stop talking on the phone!  You’re driving a 15-passenger van that you know nothing about, in a city you know nothing about, and you’re talking on the phone!  Call me later!”  She was never afraid to do any of those things, and I don’t know that I would volunteer for that myself.

They had one really bad event – they were in Nashville for a tour of a bread company, and they had done the sweeps of the place for security, made them turn off all the machines so they could be searched, etc., and about an hour before the event, they tell the company they are allowed to turn it all back on.  That’s when they learn that, duh, when you turn off bread that’s in a machine, you don’t just turn it back on and it all works.  You have to clean the machines out and start all over!  Well, guess what – President Bush comes to tour a bread factory and there’s no bread popping out…….bad, bad.  It’s a wonder she didn’t get fired for just being a part of that team – what a debacle.

The story I wanted to tell this morning is that she was working the McCain campaign and was part of the team that was working the Sarah Palin announcement, and she snuck mom and I into her hotel room late the night before Sarah was to be announced, and we were able to be there for that morning.  I had heard of Sarah before I went to this announcement, and I really wanted her to be the one – I liked her morals, the fact she gave not one thought to aborting her Down’s syndrome son, a great family person, fiscally conservative, down to earth, all that.  I forgot who else was in the running now, but I thought they were boring and dull and McCain was dull enough for two people already!  Tal didn’t know who it was that was going to be announced, even working there, so she wouldn’t/couldn’t tell us.  We made it to the event, and the excitement was palpable.  The place was charged!  It was probably the biggest moment of the McCain campaign….

Anyway, after the event, Tal was able to go home with us for a couple days before she had to fly back out to another event in the campaign.  She had been up all night the night before decorating and preparing the coliseum where the event was, trying to shuttle people back and forth in the van, you name it.  We figured she would sleep all the way home.  We barely get in the car, and she pipes up from the backseat, “You know, I think Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol is pregnant.”  I gasp, and quickly say, “Oh my goodness, I cannot believe you would say such a thing!  How mean is that – Tal, I’ve raised you better than that – what in the world?  Just because someone has a little pooch does not mean they’re pregnant!”  On and on I went. 

She says, a little softer, “I’m telling you, when I was getting the kids ready for the People interview, she bent down and her dress came tight to her belly, and she’s pregnant.”  I launch into another tirade, and she says, “Whatever, I’m going to sleep.”  I am just torqued – what a terrible thing to say about a teenager, and in such a public role this kid has been thrown into, yada yada. 

Well, we all know the end of the story.  It was the next day that the news broke.  I heard it on the news and hollered for Tal, and we stayed glued to the TV the rest of the day.  What turmoil they put that poor family through.  I tell this story to say, number one, that our impressions about people are sometimes formed by just plain gossip, by untruths or half truths or snide comments.  I wonder how many of you reading this story are thinking, “Well, that Sarah Palin is this and that and she’s not smart, and she can see Russia from her house,” blah, blah, blah.  How much of what you think about her is even true, if you checked into it?  Did it come from the mainstream media with their bias?  I do have to say I’m disappointed that she did that reality show, and I haven’t even watched one segment of it – why would I have that impression that I was disappointed in her?  It could have been very good.
​
Just wanted to leave you with the thought to keep in the forefront of your mind to give people the benefit of the doubt, believe what you know yourself to be true, not what others tell you that may be skewed by their impressions or lack of knowledge.  Let’s say and do positive things to each other, rather than backstabbing and belittling one another.  That’s the quickest way to lose your witness as a Christian, to look down on someone else.  Have a great week!