Sarah Palin Hung in Effigy as a Halloween Prank

It’s hard sometimes to continue reading the sexist, misogynist drivel on the Web and hearing it unceasingly from TV pundits as this election year winds down. And I admit it’s getting harder to find the energy to protest. I already felt down this evening after watching smirking talking heads go on about the latest shredding of Sarah Palin.

Later on I came across an item circulating on the Internet showing Gov. Palin hung in effigy. In response to the report in the LA Times, Heidi Li Feldman writes:

“Sarah Palin has been hung in effigy by an alleged adult who thinks that showing the lynching of a woman is excused or warranted by it being Halloween time. Please go here to not only read but watch the coverage of this latest in the barrage of misogyny that continues to go unaddressed by Senator Obama or his surrogates.

“Senator Obama, your silence is dangerous and unforgivable.

“You should be convening a press conference with your top advisers, supporters and surrogates, including John Podesta, Senator Clinton, President Clinton, Senator Biden, Senator Kerry, Governor Rendell, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Colin Powell, William Weld, Susie Buell and anybody else you can get to stand with you, and at this press conference you should not only condemn this depiction of a lynching, you should apologize for your complicity thus far in creating an environment where anybody in his right mind could think that a children's holiday - Halloween - is a good time for depicting the lynching of any woman, let alone a woman running for vice-president of the United States of America. You owe it to every woman in America and to every man who cares about any woman to make it clear that you realize that this display is horrific but, tragically, not atypical for this election year.

“And if you fail to speak to this event, as you have failed each and every day for months to acknowledge that you have been the beneficiary of misogyny and sexism and as you have failed each and every day to even acknowledge the rampancy of these ills in our body politic, the advisers, supporters and surrogates I have named - and those who I have not - should rescind their support of your candidacy and refuse to continue to aid your election and announce that they will not accept a position in the administration of a President who does not speak out against the virulent and pervasive hatred of women that has arisen anew in a year when two women have stood a serious chance of serving as President or Vice-President of our country.”