Sarah Palin – Just Like “One of Us”?

September 3, 2008 | Posted by Steve

Here’s one of those things that makes you scratch your head and go, “Hmmm…”

Today I heard women interviewed about their attitudes toward Sarah Palin’s selection as the VP candidate for the Republican party.  One of them said, with obvious glee, “She’s just like one of us.  She’s got a pregnant teen and a Downs Syndrome boy.”  The fact that she decided to deliver her baby and her daughter is going to deliver hers is thrilling the Christian Right.  I agree.  I would have been disappointed if she had chosen the less-responsible alternative.

So why am I just slightly disturbed that she would be ready to be the Vice President of the US when she has a five month old with Downs Syndrome?  Forget the whole, disingenous, notion that a “working mom” can handle a child with Downs Syndrome.  Anyone who has had a Downs Syndrome child, or who knows someone who has a Downs Syndrome child knows that it is in itself a full-time job.  Depending upon the profoundness of the child’s disability it can leave a devestating impact on a family.

Raising the Downs Syndrome child is a labor of love.

The Vice Presidency is its own labor of love.

I am stunned that Sarah Palin believes she can do both jobs equally well.

It’s one thing to be pro-life and carry a child to term.

It’s entirely another to take the follow-on responsiblity seriously.

And one other note…

Who’s going to help her 17-year-old daughter cope with the trauma of her own teen pregnancy?  Dad?

Some things are best handled by a mom.

I don’t get this whole Sarah Palin mystique.  I don’t get why we Christians are so eager to get a pro-life candidate in the White House that we would switch off our brain pans when it comes to wrestling with the deeper issues of caring for the children we save.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments »