In a recent post I tried to articulate the disconnect I was seeing
between GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and the community
of people with disabilities. Palin's youngest child, a 5-month old
boy, has Down syndrome. While I was hopeful that that would give her
identity with PwD and maybe even energize her to advocate for them in
her powerful position as Alaska governor and now vp candidate, I was
mostly just seeing her child linked with her strict pro-life stance.
Admittedly, the issue was deeper than I mined in my post, mostly
because I wasn't up to the eloquence needed to articulate the issue.
But novelist Ellen Crosby, in this column, nailed it.
A quote:
"How much better it would be if we could see past the
hyper-toxic subject of abortion in this election and let Sarah and Todd
Palin's decision spotlight a topic far from our national consciousness:
the
needs of Americans with disabilities. They are our country's most
underserved, neglected and marginalized minority."
I recommend reading the whole piece.
It's a little early to see how this will play out. Right now, it seems
like the media is letting the pendulum swing back to not talking about
any issue even remotely connected to the Palin family. And Plain
herself has only recently begun granting extensive issues where such
topics might be explored some more.
The key is that if Palin remains on the national scene because she wins
in November or is a candidate for higher office again, her identity
with the PwD community will be evolving, just as her understanding of
the challenges and the needs of a life with disabilities grows along
with her son. That's going to take time as is telling whether she will
be able to blossom into the national political advocate the community
really could use.
