TheNew York Times
Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, left, with four of their children — Piper, Willow and Bristol, holding Trig — and Cindy and Meghan McCain on Friday in Ohio.
Here's my thoughts on 17-year-old Bristol. First, check out this photo on top...it's worth a gazillion words. Cynthia McCain with her ruling elite, pain-killer addicted glare ("how dare you Alaskan trash ruin our run to the big White House"), daughter Meghan can't help but stare at the pregnant Bristol ("Wow. We have words for a girl like you...s---.")
Why doesn't Daddy Palin ever hold 4-mos.-old Trig? Mamma Palin always hands Trig to Bristol. She even made a big deal about saying Bristol was babysitting Trig in the bus. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?em
Why? Maybe those Internet rumors had some truth and the pregnancy announcement was just a way to throw them off? Or is it a bizarre, macho thing that Todd Palin never holds Trig. Or are they just training Bristol for the life of holding babies. Any which way -- bizarro -- and I get a little whiff of Handmaid's Tale when I look at these photos.
But I have lots of contradictory thoughts about poor Bristol. First off -- the hypocrisy of these religious far-right wingers, like Brisol's parents and their supporters. Here they preach and pass policies to fund "Abstinence Only" sex education programs, when obviously it doesn't work! I can understand the glee some might feel because of the blatant hypocrisy is exposed with this story.
On the other hand, they have been forced to say "this stuff happens" and we are going to love our daughter...so in other words -- this happens -- too much -- but it happens. The far-right has totally demonized sex -- in general -- and premarital sex in particular. But now they are forced to admit it happens.
On Black radio, etc., the talk is why do Black families get called pathological when it happens to a Black teen, but with Bristol it's normal and she deserves support. Don't all teen moms deserve support? Including affordable health care and day care and continuing their education? And shouldn't the biggest support be comprehensive sex education and including access to birth control?
More contradictory thoughts: the corporate media is spending way too much time on Bristol. It makes me sick because I envision all these middle-aged men getting all worked up about a teenage sexual encounter. So it's all titilating to them and disgusts me. Leave that 17-year-old girl ALONE!!!
I've known plenty of teens who have gone ahead and had a baby instead of choosing to terminate the pregnancy. But this is the most infuriating thing of all. Abortion has been so demonized that the discussion about the consequences of having a baby when you are a teen versus terminating a pregnancy is not even in the discourse. Movies like Juno make it seem so easy to have a baby, give it up for adoption and then go back to your carefree teen life. WRONG!
My mother told me if I EVER got pregnant as a teen, she would yank me off to an abortion clinic so fast it would make my head spin. That was how SHE felt about teenage moms. And she saw a lot of that growing up in rural Illinois. "Babies having babies," she said, "ruins your life. You won't have a life anymore."
