Blog Archives
An open letter to Sarah Palin wrt “special needs children”
I see that you are the mother of a baby that has Down’s Syndrome. I see that there are rumors that Trig Palin is your grandson, not your son, but that is not my issue with your making certain that everyone knows how brave you are to mother this child.
I speak from experience—not from motherhood myself, but from being the only sibling of a child that you so delicately refer to as “special needs”. My brother was not a tool with which to force open doors, to get desired people to like/admire/give things to my family; he was a beloved family member, a son and brother, who had the same rights as—and no more rights than—the other members of my family.
Dad didn’t tote him, or stories about his hospitalization, to work in order to earn a desired promotion or raise, or to avoid an undesirable task. Mom didn’t use him as a badge to protect herself from PTA duties, or to avoid any responsibilities to other family members or friends. He was special, far more special than your politically correct euphemism would ever express. But he was not a Golden Ticket; he was a respected human being.
I see from news archives that you’ve made certain that the press knew from the get-go that you had a baby with Down’s Syndrome, and aren’t you brave, aren’t you a bastion of the anti-abortion movement, aren’t you so special yourself? Please, I beg you, as Eric’s sister, as Mom and Dad’s daughter and only surviving child, and as a citizen of the same world as Trig, please stop waving him and his life in front of the media. I was more than dismayed to see you carrying him on the stage at the Republican Convention. That’s no place for any infant, no matter his health!
I did not fail to notice that you carefully placed his head on your shoulder, facing outward, then turned ever-so-casually toward the cameras, to make certain that every characteristic Down’s facial feature would be captured and broadcast around the world. He’s not a prop. He’s not an issue. He’s not a gold star on your chore chart. He’s an individual, completely separate from you and his other family members. He deserves to feel so. I pray that you realize this need, before too much damage is done.
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
Politics and crime: Money, sex and power
- The ex-CEO of American Airlines says that the government should stop pricing abuses by airline companies. Hear, hear. The fare schedule, such as it is, is obscene.
- In order to stem the tide of child pornography, ISPs Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable will be blocking access to Usenet. (Psst, y’all, newsgroups are accessible via Google Groups. Just in case you didn’t know.)
- John McCain is asking supporters to spam political blogs with his talking points…and few people have done so.
- Alex Kozinski, the chief judge in an obscenity trial, was found to have obscene materials on his personal website. His defense is that he didn’t know it was available to the public.
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
They said NO, don’t ask again.
Two recent bans of note, found via the BBC:
The Ministry of Agriculture says anyone caught with a hamster will be fined up to 30m dong ($1,900)—almost double the average annual wage in Vietnam.
The authorities say the creatures are a potential source of disease.
Officials have also expressed concern that the animals are imported from China and Thailand without proper licensing or controls.
…a combination of factors including growing incomes and the Chinese Year of the Rat have made the beady-eyed rodents highly desirable. They have been trading for $10 to $20 each and are reported to be a hit with the young population of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, spawning a whole sub-culture of hamster forums and hamster clubs.
2. Google Maps/Street-View banned from Pentagon:
The US defence department has banned the giant internet search engine Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of US military bases…
The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps.
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
