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Renee CK

writer, editor, tweetable http://twitter.com/chicskirt

I'm a fun girl who's on a quest to figure it all out. I'm cynical but living the dream- I'm not sure how that happened exactly. Follow along in my blog for fun, mayhem, and merriment. There's never a dull day! (Or, go download my book!)...

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I Thought it was Labor Day, Not Christmas

sarah palin's 17 year old daugher is 5 months pregnant.

I wrote a blog yesterday and waited to post it until today.  But now it seems completely appropriate. 

On the way back from dinner and swimming at my bff’s house, my husband gave me one of the best gifts he could give me- the news that Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of ultra-conservative Alaska governor and vice presidential candiate is 5 months pregnant.  I love my Obama and he’s saying that Palin’s family be left alone which I get if it was just a “what a slut” kind of thing, but here was my reflection from yesterday.

I hope that this month you’ll learn a lot about me as muse of the month.  I promise that I’ll either piss you off entirely or make you love me completely.  I’m all about that.  Whatever you do, do it with all your heart.  When you disagree with me, say so!  Speak up!  I thrive on the idea exchange and discussion.  But, please, always do it in the vein of standing up for what you believe in, not tearing down those who believe otherwise.  And if you can’t agree to disagree in the end, then please don’t waste our time or yours beginning the conversation.

One thing that is of significant importance to me right now is the presidential election. The thing that has me fired up is the nomination of Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate.

As I watched her accept the nomination, I saw beyond the inexperience, (guess that’s not going to be a debatable issue anymore, huh?) and all her extreme-right views to see what was right before me- her and her family. 

In the best majority of the clips I’ve seen of the Palin family since Friday, their oldest daughter, 17 year old Bristol, is holding the 4 month old Trig.  Big ol’ red flag for me.  The best interaction I’ve seen is between Sarah and her 7 year old, Piper, who it seems is too young for mama duty and too old to be carried around.  A Time article I found said that “when she [Sarah Palin] was mayor of Wasilla, she reportedly brought her infant daughter to the office regularly. The baby slept in a car seat under her desk while Palin worked.”  OMG!  This is a baby, not a puppy!  I’m sure that Bristol, Willow, (14) and Piper will go to school or be home schooled in D.C. with dad close behind as Mr. Dutiful.  But, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a nanny or two.  Maybe even a tax-payer provided one.  And you know the White House chauffeurs will be at the mini-hockey players’ disposal for practices, games, and trips to the mall.  I know another mother of 5 and she doesn’t have those luxuries.

Let’s take away the mother-of-five factor for a minute and look solely at the mother of a special needs child aspect.  I am the mother of a child with a disability.  I am thankful that my son’s disability is relatively mild.  I have a cousin with Down’s Syndrome as 4 month old Trig has, and she was much more affected than my son.  The world of special needs is a roller coaster in itself.  With Trig being so young, the family has years of intensive therapies, medical treatments, and heart wrenching choices to make.  It’s, at least, a ¾ time job. 

Here is where my feminist sisters are going to roast me like the Christmas lamb.  I won’t even sugar coat it.  I do not see how Sarah Palin can be the mother she needs to be and the vice president of the United States of America we need her to be.  Feminism gives you the choice to do it all, but logic tells you that you can’t be brokering peace agreements between Syria and Iran when you have an 11:30AM appointment with the developmental pediatrician who’s first opening was 3 ½ months out.  If you do go broker, your heart isn’t in it.  Flame me.  I’ve been there.  I was working full time this year.  My son’s disability flared without me at home for a “mere” 2 ½ hours after he got home from school.  I couldn’t stay focused on my job like I needed to be for fear that my phone would ring to call me back to the school.  It wasn’t fair to anyone.  My job didn’t have 100% of me, my family didn’t have 100% of me, and both suffered. 

A long time ago, my husband and I decided to give all of our effort to a few charitable organizations instead of a little to the many organizations that solicited us.  We reasoned that it was more effective to give our best to a few than few to the best.  I do not think mom’s being VP is worth the sacrifice to anyone in the Palin family.  Bristol and Willow will only be teenagers once.  They should not have to give their youth to helping with Piper and Trig.  Piper needs to have face time with mom to help her learn sight words and encourage reading skills. Sure, a Minnesota intern can do it for college credit, but it’s just not the same.  And Trig.  Trig is going to need his parents, both of them, united and available to him and his needs which will be many in these early developmental years.  He can not be stuffed under a desk, pulled out for feeding, and put back while mom meets with Maverick.

The idealistic me at 17 would be screaming at the me writing this post.  Why can’t a woman be a mom and vice president?  However, me at 35 has learned the hard way about logic.  Sure, you can be both, but you can’t be both well.  Both positions deserve someone who can do the job well. 

So forget the fact that under Ms. Palin’s views, you shouldn’t be allowed to have an abortion even if it’s your educated choice to do so.  Forget the fact that she’s been the leader of a state with a large portion of uninhabitable area for less than 2 years. (Or that she wants to go drillin’ in that area.)  And forget that the most international experience she’s had is keeping the peace between Russia and Canada…peace that is “notoriously” shaky.  (Oh, yeah, I love sarcasm as well.)  I believe that her family deserves a mom who is a mom to them in the right-wing definition of a mom- flying back on the sea plane from Anchorage in time to sit down to a dinner picked up on by dad on his way home from work. 

Bring it feminists.

And this is the kind of thing I’m talking about.  Sure, if kids are going to have sex, they’re going to find a way to do it.  However, when mom is a devout Christian with pro-life views, it would seem reasonable that she’d work office hours to make it less convienent for babies to be made.    If nothing else, she’s have those talks that “prevent” these kinds of things from happening.  I wonder if Bristol turned 18 between now and the election, would she vote for her mom?  There’s another thing you can learn about me.  I dislike absolutes.  To be so far right and say that we need to return to conservative family values then have a daughter who gets pregnant out of wedlock while mommy runs the state and daddy is a production operator. (A position which he had to take because of income...guess they’re suffering under W’s policies too!)

It sounds awful to say, but I love when things like this happen.  I love when people have certain ideas and then things in their life make them see it differently.  It’s why we loved All in the Family.  We loved to see Archie Bunker find the humanity in “the coloreds”, “the Hebs”, and many of the “thems” who made up his colorful world. 

I think the Palin family is a bit stuck now.  It’s not like they can say “sorry, maybe we shouldn’t have taken such a public role in a fragile time in our lives”.  Then again, if Barack keeps being a gentleman, she won’t have to worry about which to go to, her daughter’s labor or the inauguration. 

Enjoy!
Renee