My first reaction to the choice of Sarah Palin was that she is no Hillary Clinton. I give her credit for her drive and determination, her willingness to take on special interests and her sheer guts in challenging the Republican establishment of her state. But less than two years as governor? And before that, mayor of a city of about 7,000? Would any man with such a thin resume have made it to the top of John McCain's list? Dan Quayle in a skirt, one of my wittier and nastier friends e-mailed me … and he's a conservative.
Of course, many of the same things could have been said (and were) about Geraldine Ferraro when, with my help and support, she was tapped for VP in 1984. Republicans criticize Barack Obama every day for lack of experience. I understand that those of us who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. My biggest problem with Gov. Palin is not inexperience, but ideology.
When she was running for lieutenant governor, she told one anti-choice group she is as pro-life as you can be. What that means is that she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest. I'm a rape victim. Frankly, being a rape victim stinks. It's an injury that, no matter how many years pass or how far away you move or how big a lemonade stand you build in an effort to turn your pain into reform,
never quite goes away. I know that. I live with that. But I can't even imagine — and don't want to try — what it would be like to have to carry to term a pregnancy that resulted from rape or incest. I can't even conceive of that added pain, that awful choice at the end — what seems to me the sheer cruelty of not allowing a woman to control her destiny at least in those situations.
I respect Palin for choosing to continue a pregnancy when she and her husband reportedly knew there might be problems. I respect her for embracing her pregnant daughter, for offering the support a 17-year-old desperately needs if she and her teenage boyfriend are to become, in an instant, someone's parents, rather than someone's children. What I find much more difficult to respect is her willingness to impose her choices on others, to tell me what I should do in her situation, or what my daughter should do.
In my book, respect should be mutual.
But what is just as troubling to me as Palin's willingness to impose her choices on others is the stupid and mean-spirited commentary from some of my liberal friends, attacking her for the choices she's made, attacking her diligence in securing prenatal care in her latest pregnancy, suggesting that the child was really her grandchild and not her son.
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