UPDATE: Just wanted to let you know that I shared this with my mom, and she was really touched by everyone's sentiments. So thank you!
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Christopher Reeve. Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Michael J. Fox. These are probably the most famous of an army of champions for people living with special needs or debilitating illness. These are people who use or used their celebrity to stand up for a population of Americans that is severely under-represented.
My mother has been a special education teacher since before I was born. She has given children who lacked the confidence to raise their hand in class the courage to apply to go to (and in numerous cases, get accepted into) college. She has sat patiently beside children ranging from shy middle schoolers with Down Syndrome to the violently schizophrenic to help them understand everything from math to American History on their own terms. She is a champion of special needs children.
My 11-year-old cousin who has Autism and Asberger's can't speak, so when his classmates in his regular, public school made fun of him, my aunt came in and spoke to his class about how even though my cousin may sound and act different, he understands everyone around him, can "talk" to us through typing, and how he has the same feelings of happiness, sadness, and anger as everyone else. She also explained that he is one of many children with many kind of special needs. She is a champion of special needs children.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of JFK and RFK and mother of Maria Shriver, founded the Special Olympics and co-founded the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Her sister Rosemary, who had an IQ test as a child that indicated "mild mental retardation," underwent a lobotomy at the age of 23 that rendered her incoherent for the rest of her life. Eunice has dedicated her life to advocating on behalf of children and adults with special needs.
You know, people like my mom and my aunt and Eunice Kennedy Shriver never get up on a stage and brag about their efforts on behalf of people with special needs. When they stand on a stage, they don't talk about themselves; they talk about the people they've loved or met who've needed extra support and shared their stories. They don't put on a show or act like martyrs. They don't wear their advocacy as a badge or use it in the political arena to gain sympathy points from voters.
Sarah Palin has made me feel ill since the moment she stepped on the national stage. But to hear her describe herself (and to hear Senator McCain describe her) as some sort of special needs champion makes me furious.
For one, Senator McCain's inaccurate implication that Sarah Palin's infant son Trig had Autism (he has Down Syndrome, not Autism) in last night's debate is particularly distressing when Sarah Palin is being sued by the parents of an Autistic child in Alaska because the Governor refuses to provide 24-hour care for children with Autism.
If you know anyone who has a family member with Autism ranging from mild to severe, you recognize that there are some kinds of support that only a medical professional can provide. Love and compassion is a requirement when a family member has Autism; but in moments where a child has an uncontrollable reaction or falls into a pattern of destructive behavior, constant supervision is necessary and it's not always possible for a family to be with their loved one 24 hours a day and still work to pay the bills.
Sarah Palin checks her empathy as a mother of a special needs child at the door of this issue. Sure, she has a job where she can bring her special needs baby with her on every flight and hold him up in front of crowds and pass him off to one of her daughters or her husband when she's got work to do. Not every parent of a special needs child is so fortunate.
Second, Sarah Palin cut in half funding for the Alaska Special Olympics. How that move in any way, shape, or form is indicative of a champion of special needs, I don't see.
How does Sarah Palin support special needs? Well, a few days ago, she attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at a home for adults with special needs in Ohio. At the event:
Palin said how important it is to help those with special needs and to not look at those with disabilities as a burden, "Helping families who have loved ones with special needs, I hope that is the top of all of our lists, and I hope we all share a vision of an America where the special needs of our citizens are a priority and we don’t look at those who have special needs as a problem or a burden but we look at them as a promise and as opportunity to show America’s heart as we reach out and we assist and we do all that we can to let those with special needs know how much we do cherish them, how much we care."
She hopes we don't see them as "a problem" or "a burden"? Who said that? Is she implying that this is how Democrats, the party of stem cell research and enhancing special education in schools, view people with special needs?
Simply having a child with special needs does not make you a champion of special needs. You have to show that you are willing to fight for this cause. You have to make the decision to fund around the clock care for children with Autism and scrap the plans to build another hockey arena. You have to support legislation that enables stem cell research, even if it is in conflict with your religious views. You have to make the tough choices and calls and always act, without hesitation, in the best interest of people like your son. Maybe that means not dragging him out on a stage in front of a screaming crowd at 10 p.m. just so he can be there for your big RNC moment.
Sarah Palin is not a champion of special needs, and saying otherwise is a slap in the face of the countless people who actually have fought tirelessly on behalf of Americans with special needs.