Wants a woman for vice president, but not Sarah Palin

It's a shame the first woman nominated by the RNC is so hard to support. I can't accept Sarah Palin's denial that global warming results from human activities, when overwhelming scientific evidence shows this to be true.

Her close connections to Big Oil raise concerns for the health of our planet, and her husband is employed by British Petroleum. This oil company sponsored her inauguration as governor.

My many objections to her nomination go beyond her policy positions. Her experience as a mother seems not to have influenced her political decisions. I was thinking of this paradox before her candidacy was announced, when speaking with a lifelong friend and staunch supporter of the Republican Party's last eight years.

My friend is an intelligent and personally generous man. He vacations outdoors. While he realizes better stewardship of our environment is desirable and necessary, he's unwilling to use his vote to further environmental causes. I couldn't reconcile this contradiction.

But I believe that parenthood profoundly influences one's world perspective. And I concluded that my friend retains his nonphilanthropic, social tendencies because he is childless. Thus he has no treasured heirs to inherit the world he leaves behind. Our environmental future is, therefore, of little consequence to him.

Successful parenting requires judgment and wisdom that considers the next generation. I don't pretend as a parent to have all the answers. I do believe parenting causes me to think more long-range in forming my opinions.

I find myself completely estranged from a woman who has chosen to subject her children to an inconsistent series of enrollments at multiple schools.

By accepting the nomination, she's placed her daughter in the scrutiny of the public spotlight at a difficult time. These decisions suggest a definite lack of judgment, as well as empathy for her pregnant child.

They are contrary to my family values and don't represent the character we need presiding over this powerful nation.

I'd like to see a woman vice president, but Sarah Palin isn't the woman for the job, the nation or the planet. I hope America's mothers agree. Rose Ann Witt Thousand Oaks