Sarah Palin: Leave My Kids Alone!

[Joanne98]

I've been thinking about whether or not I should write this diary, but the more I mulled over Palin's comment today about how health care reform would kill her special needs child, the angrier I got.

Rant follows.

grannyhelen's diary :: :: First, the nickel tour of my family: I am the mother of two special needs kids, ages 3 and 5. They are sweet, loving and considered to be "high functioning" but on the autism spectrum. My daughter loves animals, astronauts, babies and playing games on nickjr.com. My son loves puzzles, Wiggles, cars, trains and counting (he can already count to 10, something I am so proud of as a parent).

I have decided to stay at home to help them, while hubby works your regular, white-collar job.

Parents of special needs kids are very protective of them, almost to a literal fault - like the time I was at a neighbor's birthday party and ended up manning the pinata game so that I could make sure my kids didn't inadvertantly get wacked with a stick or start screaming because they didn't yet grasp the concept of taking turns. I'm sure every parent of a special needs kid has a story like mine, where they find themselves embarrassed, bossing someone else's event simply because they know their own kids and they're trying to make sure the kids can survive the experience without too many stares from other well-meaning but confused adults and older children.

So, in that spirit, I'm about ready to stick my big foot out there and call you out, Ms. Palin:

Leave My Kids Alone!

You see, Sarah, every time you use your special needs child as a political prop in your ongoing mission to convert the country to Palinism, you make it that much harder for all of the rest of us parents out here who are just trying to advocate for our kids, and who just want to "blend in" as much as possible.

Every time you make up some ridiculous conspiracy theory that a cause like health care reform - one which would do so much to help my kids and others like them, who need physical, developmental, speech and language and out-of-classroom, one-on-one assistance - you hurt my children's chances at getting the intervention they need.

So, just stop it.

Children - especially special needs children - should not be a part of the political bloodsport. Quit trying to use them as pawns in that game.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/7/763530/-Updated:-Sarah-Palin:-Leave-My-Kids-Alone!

[Frustratedlady]

1. Very good! I hope Sarah reads it.

If anyone is abusing her children, it is Sarah.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. F-lady, are you series? That would be hugh!

The idea that a moran like Sarah can read . . . . that's just stunning.

I agree, though she is abusing her kids. Worst of all, the kids don't recognize it for what it is. Only years from now will they have the ability to understand why they hate what is happening to them.

[Hepburn]

11. +1...n/t

[lisa58]

2. exactly....

[babylonsister]

3. "political prop" - that's exactly right. How can we miss any of them

if they won't go the hell away?

I want her out of my face, too.

[nolabear]

4. Well done, Mom.

We need more of you, the real moms who know what it's like in the trenches with special needs and limited means, to speak truth to power. I have a severely autistic nephew and know how all consuming that kind of care can be, and how much a real, unthreatened health care policy can mean to parents who worry endlessly what will happen when they themselves will be old and need help. Take care.

[Deja Q]

5. Then she can stop referencing hers at every frigging opportunity.

[ejpoeta]

6. good post... oh and...

as far as taking over games and stuff at events... I have done that also... because I want to ensure that it's fair for everyone and also no one gets hurt. LOL!

it is a shame that this woman uses her children as props... especially that poor baby... wonder what his life will be like with her using him like that. And she must not realize what is involved with raising a child with special needs because she has money... I know my sister's daughter gets all kinds of help and has braces on her legs etc... and thanks to the state she gets all kinds of therapy and whatever else she needs. she will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and there has been a lot of work to get her to that point.

Palin repeatedly says she wants her kids left out of it, yet she wants to put them out there as a shield, and then tell people not to talk about her kids or anything. I don't think that anyone should go after the kids or say anything about them in general.... but I also think that she is crazy if she thinks she can use them as a shield and then have no one mention them.

I scratch my head and wonder why people WANT this woman anywhere near controlling anything. I wouldn't let her near my kids much less being president. I just don't get it.

[PA Democrat]

7. Check out this video of a father who is as shameless as Palin.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/Town_Hall_Becomes_Town_Hell

Can anyone here imagine doing this to their child with a disability? What is so sad is that that young man with cerebral palsy is most likely on Medicaid, a government-run health care plan and the father is too stupid to see how he and his son are being used by insurance company lobbyists.

[shraby]

8. Sarah Palin is the gov. who cut funds for the Alaska Special

Olympics that Keith Olbermann brought to everyone's attention during the primaries. He donated $100. to the organization for every lie that Palin told in the campaign. If she's so worried, why did she do that to those kids?

[Raschel]

14. Didn't Palin deny services to rape victims?

[Blue_In_AK]

18. She didn't deny services,

but she allegedly charged rape victims for their rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla until the legislature forced her to stop.

[cascadiance]

10. Sounds like a call for a Pink Floyd "Another Brick in the Wall" video parody...

That or another variant of the "Leave Britney alone" video.

Could even weave in a "lipstick on a pig" moment editted in from Pink Floyd's "Pigs" album.

[AnnInLa]

12. The Dingoes Euthanized my baby!

Gawd...the summer of stupidity

[zbdent]

13. If she were in Texas, and couldn't pay the hospital, George W. Bush's

bill he signed into law (with the blessing of the National and Texas "Right to Life" groups) would kill her "special needs child" ... not some liberal ...

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. "Parents of special needs kids are very protective of them, almost to a literal fault "

Ouch.

Took my son to the county fair yesterday. He was excited to go on the rides, but he doesn't process language like the rest of us. I came about *this* close to decking the carney operating the ferris wheel because he didn't understand why my son wasn't responding appropriately to "show me your armband".

I worry sometimes what his life is like when I'm not there to be an interpreter.

[joeybee12]

16. K&R!

[Barack_America]

17. Another K&R. nt