What the World Needs More...

I am going to start this off by clearly stating that I am not a big Sarah Palin fan. That being said, on Friday she did say something that I can totally agree with. She said the following in her resignation statement: “I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently. Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we ALL could learn so much from someone like Trig — I know he needs me, but I need him even more… what a child can offer to set priorities RIGHT – that time is precious… the world needs more ‘Trigs’, not fewer.”

Do you want to get good and depressed? If not, something I wouldn’t recommend is surfing around on the internet and seeing what you find related to Sarah Palin’s son Trig. You can find some nice stuff, but then again you can find some pretty disturbing stuff. It is kind of hard to stomach when you, yourself, have a beautiful child who also has Down syndrome. It makes you realize how little some other people really value your child. In this disturbing category, you can find photos of Trig's face doctored to look hideous (and I'm not talking about the one where it is of a recognizable figure), jokes, and the r-word used repeatedly. No matter what you think of Sarah Palin politically, she most definitely doesn’t deserve to have her child treated this way. All of this just points out how far we have to go as a society in accepting those with cognitive disabilities. What does it say about these adults that they must pick on a little, innocent child that way? Only if you can stomach it, go and check out this story on Patricia Bauer’s blog. She shares about an insensitive comment made by Erik Sean Nelson. It is really a “gem.”

This is what I don’t get, why do these people care that we have a child with DS? It doesn’t really impact their day-to-day lives. They can still have their DS-free lives. Nobody is forcing this upon them. What is the big deal if we decide to keep our children, raise them, love them, and are active in our lives with them? If just seeing our children out in the world, in the media, or elsewhere troubles them so, maybe instead of writing this stuff, they need to really examine where these strong feelings are coming from and work it out for themselves.

-Karyn