Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know it is Thanksgiving and I should spend more time giving thanks for my beautiful family, my fantastic pets, my great job, and books. But I saw an item about Sarah Palin giving thanks for her son Trig, and it set me off just a bit. She can be so thankful, in part, because she has benefits and privileges she has worked to deny others in her same situation.
You can read her statement here. She talks about selflessness (ha!), but toward the end, she starts talking about here youngest son.
I know America's potential for goodness, thus greatness, because I see it every day through my son. Nothing makes me happier or prouder than to see America's good heart when someone smiles at my Trig... I am so thankful for their good heart. They represent the best in our country and their kindness shows the real hope we need today.
I am thankful that, as in so many areas of life, the bitter people who say bitter things about someone facing challenges are so outnumbered. There have been stinging criticisms, even from people still screaming that Trig should never have been born, but we know those critics may be the loudest and most malicious, but they're not the majority.
To me, when individuals reflect the greater societal acceptance of someone facing challenges, they show the best of humanity - even by offering a simple pat on Trig's head or a knowing smile shot our way. Conversely, when a society works to eliminate the "weakest links" (as some would callously consider the disabled) or "the unproductive" (as some would callously consider the very young and the very old), it eliminates the very best of itself. When a society seeks to destroy them, it also destroys any ability or need for sincere compassion, empathy, improvement, and even goodwill. And those are the very best qualities of humanity! Those are the characteristics of a country that understands and embraces true hope! America can be compassionate and strong enough as a nation to be entrusted with those who some see as an "inconvenience," but who are really our greatest blessings. Through Trig, I see firsthand that there is man's standard of perfection, and then there is God's. Man's standard is flawed, temporary, and shallow. God's standard lasts an eternity. At the end of the day, His is what matters.
She says that she believes it is important to protect the weak and the unproductive. But those are the very people that the current right wing hollers for us to abandon. Let the strong and the rich go out there and create jobs--it is not uncommon for right-wing pundits to refer to any of the rest as 'parasites.' They seek to dismantle the programs and policies that have been built to protect those people.
I wonder...does Palin feel thankful when Trig is denied for health insurance coverage? Down Syndrome is one of very many 'uninsurable conditions', sufferers of which are often left out in the cold in our current, cruel system.
But no worries! As a former governor, she has access to a government health plan--the kind of 'public option' that she and her ilk worked so hard to deny to other families who have children with disabilities.
Anyone who believes that we as a society should support families who have children with illnesses and disabilities should condemn our current system, which will often bankrupt these families, shutter their businesses, and make the parents of children with disabilities unemployable (believe me, as someone who works in my family's medium-sized business, we could never afford to hire someone who had a child with Down Syndrome).
Palin, as usual, is full of so many empty words, nice-sounding sentiments that she abandons when it comes to crafting actual policy to ensure that our society treats those with disabilities with compassion and humanity.