Taking Off the Gloves
September 9, 2008
Sarah Palin Scares Me
All of us have been looking for an advocate in the White House for 30 years. For three decades I’ve said there is bipartisan neglect of special education because it is a field controlled by lawyers and lobbyists. I’ve had my encounters with Joe Biden. I’ve had cases from Alaska. It seems undisputed that Democrats are owned by the lawyer lobby and Republicans owned by big business. So when I saw McCain’s pick for VP I was very interested, especially when she announced that her fifth child had Down Syndrome and that she would be an advocate for the disabled in the White House. I listened to her speech as though it was her opening statement in a hearing. Her delivery was terrific. But I’ve been through enough hearings to know that charm does not replace substance. Given what the Republicans have done with special education over the last eight years, I needed to hear more than she gave.
The Palin speech was a very personal one for me. In 1968 I had my first child. At the moment of birth everyone in the delivery room knew something was wrong. After five days and many tests I took her home. I had to work four jobs to support the family. I had no extended family and whatever was to be done I had to do. I lived in a tiny studio apartment in New York City with my first husband. When I took Melody out in her carriage for a walk each day, most of the mothers turned away. There was almost nobody to talk to and there was never more than two hours sleep at a time. There was no money to pay a baby sitter and often no money for food. At times I thought I would die because there was no light, not a glimmer, at the end of what seemed to be an endless tunnel. Looking back, there is no question that those years of struggle and pain forged everything that came later. Advocacy is about more than having a disabled child. It is what you do with your life and the decisions you make after that baby is born.
I’ve just come back from Burbank, where our son was on America’s Got Talent. The diversity of our country must be seen and experienced in order to actually “get it”. The primary language I heard spoken was one from the Philippines. Skin color went from ebony to golden brown to olive. Ethnicities shown in eating customs and live theater and religion were more than I could count. Languages from Europe, Africa and South America overshadowed English. The few whites I saw were tourists at the Universal Studio Park. While we waited at the airport to come home, a man and his wife across from us read the paperback “Faith and Physics”. He was underlining and using a yellow highlighter. “Tell me about your book”, I said. He replied, “It’s really interesting. Physics proves that there are no answers so that we have to rely on faith.” He was a minister preparing his Sunday sermon. Since I’m in New York City several times a week, none of this was new. What was different was that the tiny Bob Hope airport and the empty streets we walked in Burbank and Universal City provided enough space between people and things to see them better. To govern means that government imposes laws but not beliefs. To advocate means that the advocate establishes facts first and then reaches a conclusion. I did not hear that from Sarah, nor did I hear any tolerance of differences. The essence of advocacy, however, is handling differences in people, their beliefs and their life styles. The Inclusion movement has well-intended parents who passionately believe in the right of their child to be included in a regular classroom. It is their right to believe that. But the law does not always agree and it is the law that counts. Not the advocate.
Sarah Palin scares me because she is the embodiment of the Inclusion movement. That says that I’m right and everybody else is wrong. It says that every disabled child belongs in general education so that society recognizes their right to exist. It turns parent against parent because of political and religious beliefs and the individual needs of their children. It is not enough to say one is an advocate for the disabled. It is not enough to have a beautiful family, a handsome husband, live in an idyllic setting, and have a Down Syndrome baby. What if a single 14 year-old girl who was homeless had that baby? What if a lesbian couple had that baby? What if an atheist Mom had that baby? The Palin experience does not translate into the spectrum of parents who have disabled children. And none of this examines her actual record as Governor and her polices and budget for Alaska’s handicapped children in special education.
What I continue to hope for is that one of the presidential candidates will finally recognize special education as an issue that has not been fulfilled in 30 years. That means acknowledging failure and the waste of countless billions of dollars to states and school districts. This is not the failure of teachers or of administrators. It is broad-based governmental failure to enforce the laws of special education. If there is no punishment, there will be crime. Sarah does not understand that and next time we’ll talk about Joe. As you consider the range of needs of our country in this upcoming election, and about Sarah and Joe, Barack and John, think about the Supreme Court judges each party will appoint. Beyond any other single issue I think that is the most compelling. Has Sarah ever been in the U.S. Supreme Court? I have and watched the difference between Republican appointments and those made by Democrats. Each of us is electing that Court in this election. The difference between a pit bull and a hockey Mom is not lipstick. It’s the size of the brain and how each uses it.