Can you imagine
10/17/2008

Can you imagine...

Can you imagine what would happen if a female Democratic candidate for a national public office left a special needs child at home to fulfill her political ambitions?  The outroar from conservatives?  The cries of crimes against the institution of motherhood?   The woman would be tarred in effigy.

I haven't been one to villify McCain's vice presidential pick, Gov. Sarah Palin.  When people forward me hysterical reports of her abuse of power, her killing of wolves and moose, her banning of books and firing of librarians, etc., etc., I delete those emails. 

Not that I don't share their senders' concerns. 

I just believe that we have to focus on the positive: on our candidate.  On the solutions he/we think are preferable.

Still, privately, I am amazed at the silence of Dr. Laura--that outspoken champion of traditional family values--regarding Palin's choices following motherhood.  I know Dr. Laura had a lot to say when my sister, who was single, was pregnant through in vitro fertilization.  None of it was kind, either.  Yet Dr. Laura's silence on Sarah Palin's motherhood choices has been reverberatingly echoed by all the other righteous right-wing pundits--who shall go unnamed because we're tired of hearing about and from them anyway. 

Could it be, perhaps, that they've learned something?  Like compassion?  Or, at the very least, tolerance?

Democrats, of course, are not going to criticize Palin on the motherhood issue.  (Other issues yes; but personal lifestyle decisions, no.)  After all, it's a plank in the Democratic platform to respect Palin's right to make her personal lifestyle choices for herself.  That's the whole point of feminism:  women have the right to choose.  Motherhood is not destiny.  Who are we to say that Palin's husband, older children, or her hired caregiver cannot provide far more adequate care than Palin herself could give?  But holy frijole, Batman, a liberal woman better not go and do likewise.

And, while I'm on the subject:  how is that Republicans are completely comfortable--indeed, invigorated--by Sarah Palin's loud and vociferous preaching of her brand of conservativism...but found Hillary's style intolerable?  Could it be that it's not really a style issue, at all, but a content issue?  Republicans just don't like what Hillary says, so they villify HER. 

All of which leads me to place even more hope in the Democratic candidate--hope that probably no one individual can sustain.  But he's a start, and we need his leadership.

So you go, Obama.  Take the Presidency and teach us how to disagree on issues, but continue to respect one another.  I shudder to think how the right is going to crucify you over the next four years, but maybe, in the end, you'll outlast them and return us all to a more civilized way.

(P.S.  Thanks to Edward Munch for unknowingly lending me his image The Scream.)