Thursday, September 04, 2008

Sarah Palin's nomination speech was a triumph

Even her detractors had to admit that her dynamic, poised, often hard-hitting speech was a home run. She outlined her many accomplishments as governor of Alaska, comparing them to the absenteeism and indecisiveness of Obama whose lackluster record in the Senate is an easy target. She outlined the importance of sacrifice and leadership, two qualities understood by John McCain, who said, "I'd rather win a war than an election". I have to admit, I thought the surge was reckless, but he was right to support it. McCain remembers how Democratic President Kennedy got us into Vietnam, and then sent troops in only little by little, undermining our efforts. John McCain rescued the Iraq War from becoming another Vietnam.
When it came to her family, Sarah Palin said that they are typical, with ups and downs, joys and challenges, a glancing reference to the tabloid attacks from mainstream newspapers this week on her daughter Bristol's pregnancy, which is more attention than they deserve.
BUT, for me, a special needs mother, THIS was the takeaway line of the night:

"Last April, we were blessed in my family with a baby boy. Sometimes our greatest blessings are also our greatest challenges. (HUGE OVATION, everyone focused on adorable Trig sleeping in Daddy's arms) For Special Needs Parents: For years you have been working to make the world a more welcoming place for your children. I promise you, that if we win, you will have a friend, an advocate in the White House". (BIG OVATION)
Sarah had reached through the TV screen and grabbed my heart! I have been working so hard these two years, since I met Senator Sam Brownback, supporting the "Prenatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act" only to see it tossed into the mix for partisan bickering. Now, I know that if Sarah Palin is elected, legislation like this will be taken seriously, and maybe, just maybe, the scandalous persecution of unborn babies with conditions like Down syndrome, aborted at a rate of 90% will end.
For this position alone, Sarah Palin has earned my full support. What kind of superpower are we, the wealthiest nation on earth, who had no room for the special needs child?
You can always judge a society by how it treats its weakest members. Thanks to Sarah Palin, the USA may emerge from this grave violation of civil rights, and once again like in the 1960's, give human rights to an overlooked segment of our population.

8 comments:

Jean Heimann said...

Great post, Leticia! I have been so excited about Sarah's speech, I haven't been able to sleep. I have been checking my news reader, waiting for your post and your reaction. She is truly the answer to our prayers.

PTL! Thank you, Lord!

A Voice in the Crowd said...

With all the problems that the mudslinging and lies brought to Sarah Palin this week, no one has more problems this morning than Barack Obama and the Democratic Party after that speech. :)

Christina Dunigan said...

Yup.

One of the first things I said after McCain announced Palin as his running mate was "I bet the Brownback/Kennedy Bill gets fast-tracked this January!"

catholicandgop said...

When she said that you were the first person I thought of. She would be a wonderful advocate to have in the White House.

Matt Walker said...

I knew you would be excited when I heard that line last night. My wife is a speech pathologist who evaluates and treats special needs children from 0-3.

She absolutely loves Sarah Palin...and so do I. Isn't it nice to have a TRUE feminist running for office?

PASCENDI said...

Sara Palin’s acceptance speech was fabulous! She truly WOW’ed them.

BUT…

Not to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm over Palin… but I observe that the working mom has slowly become the icon of the “so called ‘Conservative woman’”.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m happy that McCain picked someone pro life (though I think I might still “write in” for Ron Paul). I think that the “wascally wepubwican ” neocons are slowly moving the goal posts to the left each and every news cycle, however.

I guess it’s just in my nature to be pining for “roll-back” and not mere “containment”. It seems to me that over the years, due to the ever dangling ‘pro-life’ carrot… many orthodox Catholics have slowly morphed into what we now call ‘conservative Catholics’. In this sense, ‘conservatism’ has replaced ‘orthodoxy’.

The Palin choice baptizes the working mom concept which necessitates (in most cases) offering your kids conscience up on the altar of public education… that monastery of pedagogic naturalism and breeding ground of freemasonic ideals.

Naturally I'm delighted to see such an eloquent and tough stance against the 'throw away' society which has come to look at children with disabilities as simply a burden to be disposed of. And I suppose that the only way to fight off the moronic idol worship of BHO is to fight fire with fire… in this case using a radical (and I mean that in a good sense) female to fight radical feminism/Marxism. The strategy might actually work too.

While this may seem like news to be elated over… I don’t really think it’s necessarily all great news.

I think that ‘conservative Catholics’ need to begin studying just what it IS that they wish to CONSERVE? The abortion issue is an EFFECT of something… not the root cause of something. The root cause is how we look at man and woman and marriage and family through the light of all eternity. We will not win this battle of culture wars until we are willing to rebuild the culture… and we are not going to do that with the working mom. Why? Because the bedrock of any culture is the family… and the heart of every family is a woman. If the heart is divided then the bedrock is weakened.

There are some strong and courageous Catholic women who I know who must work due to economic reasons. For we have built a culture on Long Island where in many cases, a single income is not enough. What we need to be working toward is promoting ideals which make it easier for mom to stay home when the children are young. Some of these working mom’s that I know could be a mighty force for change in the local Church if they did not have to hold down a job too.

We men must work to somehow re build a civilization which permits mom to be a full time mom.

Sara Palin’s nomination will certainly help McCain win the election. It will not help us win the so called ‘culture wars’… which begin in the home.

Leticia said...

Pascendi, with all due respect, one of the conservative Catholic moms in your circle of friends, who has been most vocal on this issue has a successful home publishing business. She is a true Proverbs 31 woman, blending both business and family, she just doesn't realize it!
Read my newest post which includes Pope John Paul's letter to women. I don't advocate subjecting children to public education until it's massively reformed, and working mothers at least have more options about whether to sendtheir children to private schools. I have hope that McCain, when he called education "the civil rights issue of our time" meant that he would support vouchers.
No woman should be forced by economic reasons to leave young children and work, but both the Vatican and the Bible praise the contributions of working women.
Should Sarah stay home with Trig? Under most circumstances, I would say "yes", but perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures. Men have made a hash of politics, now we need Mom Palin to come in and clean up the mess they left!
Todd looks like he's more than willing to pitch in to care for his son.

Anonymous said...

Evidently, so was her interview, but the press edited out many important responses. The story's over at Lex Communis. Here's UPI's take on what Gibson pulled:

http://www.upi.com/news/issueoftheday/2008/09/12/ABCs_Gibson_grilled_Palin_hard_but_it_may_backfire/UPI-81241221234472/