Can you believe it's only been a few days since John McCain announced Alaskan Governor, Sara Palin, as his choice for Vice President? The media buzz makes me feel like it's been decades. For the first two days after Palin's candidacy, the only bits of her biography that I knew for sure involved motherhood and her high school basketball career. I'm not sure what relevance these have to her political prowess, but that doesn't seem to matter in much of the coverage for this election. The fact that Sarah Palin had a child with Down Syndrome in April of this year is old news! Now we're on to the important matter of her oldest daughter's pregnancy, which will undoubtedly impact matters of international policy, oil prices, and healthcare reform.
The rest of the world might have moved on, but many in the disability community are still captivated by the fact Sarah Palin just might be "one of us!" Having a child with a disability can offer a window to our culture that even those outside the family can't fully understand. My own mother doesn't have a disability herself, but she's experienced discrimination, pain, determination, and cultural appreciation through me. Her empathy translates into her role as a powerful advocate in the school system. She's not a positive contributor to our community simply because she gave birth to me, but because of how she chose to raise me AND what she does for other people with disabilities.
[Photo caption: Sarah Palin smiling.]
I have no doubt that Sarah Palin is an excellent mother, but I'm not evaluating her parenting skills. I'm impressed by her reflection on discovering the diagnosis of her son. In an e-mail to friends and family the day of her son Trig's birth, Palin stated in , ""Many people will express sympathy, but you don't want or need that, because Trig will be a joy…Children are the most precious and promising ingredient in this mixed-up world…Trig is no different, except he has one extra chromosome." I'm hopeful about Palin's intolerance for pity. But this, my friends, sums up evidence that Palin's addition to the Republican ticket is a positive sign for the disability community.
The vast majority of Palin's publicized statements about Trig's birth focus not on people with disabilities, access, inclusion, education, or healthcare-but on her staunch stance on pro-life. Sarah Palin recalled her and her husband's reaction to Trig's diagnosis in an interview with the Associated Press, "We've both been very vocal about being pro-life. We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential." With well over 80% of fetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrome ending in abortion, Sarah Palin and her family did make a unique choice-and one that I support. However, this doesn't indicate any sort of allegiance to the disability community at large.
An advocate that I admire, Lawrence Carter-Long, said it best on a comment to Patricia E Baur's blog,
"There seems to be a division between the more conservative mothers of children born with Down syndrome who are lining up on Palin's side and those who would rather link disability to other social justice and progressive causes. Having a child with Down syndrome is not, perhaps, the only criteria one should meet before they are considered a pro-disability candidate."
I completely agree. To further speculate, Palin's status as a mother of a child with a disability could actually make her a 
negative choice for Vice President. It's my hope for Trig that she will become a competent and confident advocate for him, but many parents embrace a paternalistic attitude of expertise. I'm already wary of signs of exploitation in the repeated use of family pictures featuring only Sarah Palin, her husband, and her youngest son. Of course, that was before the announcement of the teenage pregnancy. I don't like the feeling that Trig's disability is being used-for either side of the abortion controversy. I'd rather hear Sarah Palin discuss her views on the quality of early intervention services available for her child than still patting herself on the back for choosing to have him.
[Photo caption: Sarah Palin and her husband pose with her newborn son, Trig.]
I hope that I'm wrong and that Sarah Palin has some hidden history, present, and future strategic plan on her policies for people with disabilities. I'm thankful her son, Trig, is one of us, but her role beyond enthusiastic young mother has yet to be determined.
What do you think?
To get you started...here is a comment on Palin from a reader of my blog on Obama's choice for VP:
SoonerBoomer said, " Now we know that McCain has chosen Palin for his VP and in Absolutely NO Way can Biden compare to a Mother of a Special Needs Child for Sensitivity to Disabilities!"
