An All American family that has endured relentless attacks with strength and resolve.
On this site and on many others in the past including Canada Free Press, Parcbench and Palin-Drone (the blog my brothers and I started immediately following Sarah Palin’s selection as the Republican VP nominee in 2008), I’ve posted extensively about her accomplishments and the many reasons I support her for president.
In light of the Daily Mail UK’s publication of an email she’d written to her family just prior to the birth of her youngest child Trig and John Ziegler’s self-serving post in The Daily Caller, I wanted to express my thoughts on Sarah Palin — the person — with whom I can so easily relate on various levels, in spite of the fact that I’ve never had the pleasure of actually meeting her.
Long before Palin coined the term “Mama Grizzly”, there was my own mother: a staunch conservative Republican raised by a father who’d escaped economy-and-dream-killing big government policies in Italy at the age of eight for a better life in the USA with his widowed mother and two brothers. My brilliant grandfather had gone on to excel in school, graduate from Temple University with a pharmacy degree and ultimately open up his own corner drugstore in their Philadelphia neighborhood.
“Pop” as he was affectionately known to my siblings and cousins (sadly I never knew him) raised my mother to believe in entrepreneurship, individual liberty, personal responsibility and freedom. In sharp contrast to most of his contemporaries, he despised FDR and his oppressive policies; he also admired and supported Senator Joseph McCarthy. To this day, my mom often recalls rushing home from school to watch the McCarthy trials with her father and laughingly recounts how she was just one of two kids in the neighborhood whose dad was a proud Republican who often sent her out door-to-door with campaign literature in an effort to educate the ill-informed.
As a result of her upbringing, my mom’s political activism continued throughout her married life, characterized by hosting events at our home for local and national candidates, handing out literature at polling locations, serving as committeewoman in our township and in general remaining an outspoken advocate of traditional American values.
With Mom at my brother Ralph's birthday party.
Like Sarah Palin, she also gave birth to five children, one of whom came into this world with Down syndrome — my older brother Ralph. In my mom’s case it might have been even more of a shock since Ralph was not the youngest, but in fact her second baby to whom she gave birth at the young age of 28. I shared Ralph’s story in an article entitled A Little Down’s Syndrome, which is truly the story of my parents’ courage, faith and optimism (after all, they went on to have three more children), noting that although at first shocked and angry, they came to view Ralph as a precious gift from God.
In their case, technology hadn’t advanced to the point where they’d known all along about my brother’s disability as Sarah Palin had about her son Trig. But as is the case with Sarah, being strong, pro-life believers in Christ my mom and dad would have made the same decision even if medical science had been just as advanced in 1959 as it was in 2008.
Posing with my brother Ralph on New Year's Eve.
Like Trig, Ralph has brought indescribable joy and much-needed perspective to our family. When he walks into a room he lights it up with his irresistible smile, outgoing personality and genuine love and interest in other people. My family and our friends interact with Ralph in the same loving way the Palin’s do with their special gift from God — and one of the many benefits of seeing Sarah Palin on the campaign trail was the awareness she brought to our culture about the sanctity of all life.
Up until that time, I didn’t know that 90% of unborn babies discovered to have Down syndrome were aborted. What a tragic symptom of our self-centered, coarsened culture, one that places a subjective value on human life based on arbitrary things like convenience and illusions like “perfection”, as if that’s possible for anyone here on earth. By fully embracing Trig, who was not the first- or second-born but their fifth and youngest child, the Palin’s — although simply acting on faith and dealing with the matter as a close family — also made a strong statement against our celebrity-obsessed, superficial society which cavalierly deems certain life forms as disposable using another arbitrary measurement it euphemistically calls “quality of life”.
Trig’s mere existence — his joyful disposition, his ever-present smile, his obvious joie de vivre — contradicts the so-called quality of life argument and puts to shame those who, in Sarah’s shoes, would have made a dramatically different “choice”. And not only did she choose to give birth to her son and thus “walk the walk” in terms of her pro-life beliefs, she soldiered on effectively in her roles as Alaska governor, as a mother of five, as a wife, as a daughter, and as a sibling.
In other words, Sarah Palin didn’t wring her hands and whine about this new challenge she’d been presented with; much like my own mother, she handled it compassionately and graciously while refusing to let the rest of life grind to a halt. Instead, Trig became an integral part of the family and a big part of the motivation behind his mother’s desire to make her state, and eventually the entire nation, a more prosperous and secure place for all Americans — and a more welcoming one for those with special needs.
And there’s more.
Watch live video from WAFS-TV on Justin.tv
Thanking Sarah Palin during a broadcast of The Liberty Belle Hour on WAFS.TV. My guest on that February 11, 2010 broadcast — which happened to be Sarah Palin’s birthday — was conservative talk show host Diane Student.
For her unwavering defense of conservatism and her remarkable courage under relentless fire during the 2008 campaign, I sent Sarah Palin a copy of my novel in which I’d written a brief note expressing my gratitude and admiration. I wanted her to know that there were so many like me out there, who held her in high regard and the “lamestream” media in contempt for the despicable way in which they’d treated her and her family — which was really just a convenient way for them to channel their contempt for everyday Americans who shared the Palin’s values and love of country.
Several weeks later, in February of 2009, I received a thank you note in the mail from the Office of the Governor, Juneau Alaska. When I opened the envelope, which revealed a card embossed with the seal of the state of Alaska, I was thrilled but not completely surprised, knowing how Sarah Palin was raised and the way in which she conducted her remarkable life. Still when I read the words and noted the familiar signature, Sarah’s genuine “servant’s heart” became even more apparent. She didn’t know me, and for all I knew she was probably bombarded constantly with well-meaning tokens of appreciation from Americans from coast-to-coast, yet she took the time to express a simple courtesy to a woman in faraway Florida — and no doubt, countless others just like me.
That’s the Sarah Palin I know.
And if she gets into the presidential race I will work as hard as I possibly can to see her sworn into office in January, 2013.
Great article! I love Sarah Palin. She is a beautiful and intelligent woman who can speak for herself which drives the liberals nuts. Aside from her public life, she seems happy and content in her traditional role as a wife and a mother. Sarah knows that it does not take a village to raise her children. I am praying that she will run for president. I would gladly work for her campaign!