Sarah Palin and Her Choice
By: X. Gong
By now we all know that Sarah Palin has accepted John McCain’s pick as his vice presidential running mate. This is an extraordinary moment. As an ambitious professional woman and mother of two young children, I applaud her courage and bravery. She makes many women including myself proud.
After the initial excitement began to wind down, I felt a tiny bit of unease in my heart. My eyes caught the mention of Sarah’s lovely new born baby, Trig. Baby Trig was born with Down syndrome. Her choice of knowingly bringing Trig to life is truly noble and speaks louder of her values than any words. As a woman, I found myself often torn between the choice of climbing up the corporate ladder and keeping a balanced and happy family life. I must say, there is no success of any job in the world that could match the joy of having my two wonderful children.
Ms. Palin was reportedly back to work three days after little Trig was born. She is obviously a strong woman and she is much more capable than I could ever be. I also thought I had little doubt that, if elected, she could still be that responsible mother while working hard for the country.
Wait a minute! Really?
Source: http://www.citizensugar.com/1565605
Source: http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/trig4634_bg2%5B1%5D.jpg
How about that little innocent baby Trig that needs special care for the rest of his life? Is he happy that his mother made the choice to bring him to this wonderful world? But would he still be happy if he knew how little he would see his mommy since she would be spending most of her time on the campaign trail in the next two months? And if Ms. Palin and Senator McCain get elected, would little Trig understand the cause and the sacrifice of his mommy and support it?
Let’s take a vote. I say he won’t approve it. Why should he? Obviously his mother has more interest in power than his little life.
Rose
30 Aug 08 at 11:18 pm
He should be happy to see his mother succeed and bring more influence to better other children’s lives.
Stay home mom
31 Aug 08 at 12:02 am
Why is this anyone’s business? People should judge her by her ability to lead the country, not by how she manages her family. Would such a question be asked to a man given the same situation?
Anonymous
31 Aug 08 at 1:25 am
Can’t see how a mother can leave such a baby home. I don’t work, I do admire women who have the courage to choose something different, but I wouldn’t be able to do it.
Democrat
31 Aug 08 at 10:04 am
Had she not taken airplanes trips at end of pregnancy her baby mite be normal. Flying around pregnant not good idea, but she had to go to those fund razors,
wayne
31 Aug 08 at 8:41 pm
I am a mother of three and work at a supermarket to subsidize the household. I can’t say I love my job. But no job would take me away from a three day old baby. She is insane to do this. I would vote for Hillary any time, but not her.
Lisa
2 Sep 08 at 12:43 pm
Unfortunately Wayne, you clearly show your ignorance. Down syndrome is a genetic condition that occurs at the time of conception. It is not related to anything in the environment, activity during pregnancy or anything that the mother or father has done in their past. Her lovely son would have been born with Down syndrome because that is the way he was when his first cell was formed. By the way, what is normal?
Caroline
4 Sep 08 at 11:23 pm
What a mess. The campaign becomes a vanity fair. Now all teenagers in the country are going to feel cool about becoming pregnant at 17! How trend-setting! What a virtue for this guy to marry Bristol - daughter of the rising political star. He will be eligible for running something soon as well.
If this would happen to a poor family with no insurance, what choices do they have? Who is going to pay for the labor and medical bill for the baby?
LoL
4 Sep 08 at 11:59 pm
I hate to even let my daughters watch the TV these days. The Palin teenage daughter and her boyfriend, both parents-to-be, look just like rock stars, being interviewed and encouraged by a presidential nominee, probably pocketing a book deal or something like movie deals… Yuk. What a shame! If I had any respect for McCain, it is all gone now.
Carrie L.
5 Sep 08 at 1:53 pm
Carrie L. I suppose instead you encourage your daughters to watch Obama preach infanticide. Infanticide! That is what partial birth abortion is! Obama supports it. A noble woman, Sarah Palin, carries (pun intended) her baby to term knowing Trig is Down Syndrome. That you condemn.
What values do you and some other bloggers here have? This woman chose life over death! What will you teach your daughters? Sarah Palin has a family support network to help take care of Trig. Isn’t that what Women’s Lib is all about - career and family? Oh, I see, because Sarah Palin is a Republican, suddenly being a mother and leader is taboo. Come on!
Book and movie deals for the Palin kids? Isn’t that a bit presumptuous? Don’t bet on it, Carrie. Obama wrote two bios before middle age! That’s presumption but you don’t seem to mind.
Carries Baby
9 Sep 08 at 11:13 pm
Pro life is not pro labor. For a woman to leave a baby after three days for a career is not a conservative value. If this would be done by a liberal candidate, she would be sliced to pieces by the right wing media. The biggest irony is that the very party that champions ‘pro life’ is the very party that says to the mother “Bring the baby to life but after that, it is all your own business. Insurance, what insurance? Health care, what healthcare?…”
Assume Bristol would come from a family with no income, no job, no healthcare paid by Alaska government like Sarah Palin, who is going to pay for Bristol’s child care? Healthcare??
It is easy to say you are pro life. Pro life is not about bringing a life to the world, it is more about caring and providing for this life so that life is lived with dignity from the first day on. Humans are not animals. It is not the heartbeat that matters the most, it is our human dignity that differentiates us from animals.
If you are really pro life, you should vote for democrats and not the hypocratic McSame and Palin who have only interest in themselves but nobody else.
French American
9 Sep 08 at 11:37 pm
‘Carries Baby’ you call her noble? At whose cost is she noble? I thought you Republicans hate to let tax payers pay for other people’s misfortunes? I have heard so many times from the right wing, when unemployed black women are in such a situation with many babies, they are called ‘irresponsible’, living on welfare, taking advantage of the system, adding burden to the society…
I would not abandon a down syndrome baby, but I would not run for the most stressful job when this down syndrome baby is still an infant needing mother’s care, love.
French American
9 Sep 08 at 11:46 pm
French American, maybe you need to consider returning to the nanny state of France. There is NO right to health care in the US. Find in the Constitution such a mandate! If you think this the US is a cruel country for not indulging you in your vanities, why then are you here?
It is Sarah’s business - not yours - whether and when she feels she can go back to work after childbirth. Sarah has the votes of all sincere Americans who value life as not just a whimsical choice a mother makes like where to get her hair done.
If you can’t afford maintaining a Rolls Royce, don’t buy it! In the US, it IS your business to care for your child. If you can’t afford health insurance and health care, don’t have children! What do you think…it’s society’s responsibility to underwrite your so-called ‘right’ to bear children and have health care? Black women having “many babies” you call a “situation?” No! It’s a choice! And YES, an irresponsible one!
Sarah Palin will never expect society to bear the cost of raising her family. Bristol will also do the responsible thing with her baby - marry the child’s father and get a job…not go to the welfare bureau for a handout. You socialists - like Hillary (It Takes a Village to Raise a Child) and Obama - seem to think handouts are noble.
Your perverted concept of values excoriates conservatives for being self-interested, insisting on being responsible, while liberals are ‘responsible’ for expecting others to foot the bill. You got it bass ackwards!
Carries Baby
10 Sep 08 at 1:31 pm
Carries Baby,
You lie. All Republicans lie about what they want for themselves and what they want for others. It is a choice. Really? I thought you just said in your earlier post that it is a life that must be born. Examine your own words in your two postings. You defeated yourself.
Sarah Palin is the biggest joke of the country. You think her 17 year old will work in Burgerking to buy milk for her baby? You think her daughter could afford to fly to NYC to attend women’s conferences with her mom, if it were not paid by the tax money?
Jane
10 Sep 08 at 4:43 pm
Sorry Jane, the party that wants others to pay for the choices of irresponsible persons is the liar. The BIG LIE is the euphemism “Pro-Choice.” It used to be called “Pro-Abortion.” Does the child have a choice? It is, after all a human…or do you think it is a mass of cellular protoplasm?? You are the proponent of a cruel lie: the description of an abortion as just another choice…like what color shoes to wear.
The ‘choice’ of which I spoke, dear Jane, is not whether to have an abortion or not. It is whether to CONCEIVE a child or not. Responsible persons make their choice before conception…not after! Nice try, Jane. Your attempt at a slick rhetorical sleight-of-hand didn’t fly.
As to Sarah, “the biggest joke of the country,” I don’t see any Dems laughing. The joke’s on you!
Carries Baby
10 Sep 08 at 9:50 pm
Who is your ‘dear Jane’? You are turning in circles. Republicans lie not only about choice and life, they probably even lie about their own sex record.
Don’t cast stone from your glass house. You have McCain doing that and it should be enough.
Jane
11 Sep 08 at 12:12 am
Could you be intimating hypocrisy…the practice at which you and the left is most adroit?
Ad hominem attacks…the refuge of the rationally impotent having nothing of substance with which to respond.
I rest my case.
Carries Baby
11 Sep 08 at 8:15 am
Copy-pasted from another blog:
Mrs. Palin is a nice person. However, she lies, even more than McCain. And she is nastier. Apparently, all she has to do is represent working moms, and they love her. She has not put forth one idea to make their lot better, but what’s to know. So she just lies and smears and hides from the press. Currently, she is studying the list of ABC questions that Charlie will ask her. So she can prepare. If Palin becomes president, I personally will have to commit seppaku and leave this orb for another world. The lady is the figurative tur* in the punchbowl, and is full of god this god that. I am very religious, but also righteous. She is just an evil person. And I am a 58 year old formerly Republican grandma in Conshohocken, PA. God bless America, but don’t give us Palin.
Posted by: S Bag | September 11, 2008 3:34 PM
Jane
11 Sep 08 at 4:10 pm