A federal judge presiding over a case involving an autistic boy took a shot at former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for bringing her Down syndrome child on stage after a debate last year.U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald made the remarks during a settlement conference with lawyers involved in a lawsuit against a luxury building in Manhattan. The parents of an 11-year-old boy are fighting a 25-pound limit on dogs, saying a big dog is medically necessary to help their son cope with Asperger's syndrome.
"That kid was used as a prop," the judge said. "And that to me as a parent blew my mind."
Regardless of where you are on the "babygate" issue, what has been almost universally agreed upon is that Sarah Palin callously used Trig to deflect criticism, to manipulate crowds at her rallies, and to create a maternal image that has seduced thousands of simple minded supporters.
The fact that this child was constantly exposed to hot bright lights, jet engine levels of noise pollution, and being passed around among family and staffers like a bag of potatoes, has incensed numerous mothers all across this country.
This has caused a schism to develop between those who believe that Sarah Palin is the very image of the doting mother, and those who find her interactions with little Trig and other members of her family to be verging on the very definition of child abuse.
I find myself firmly ensconced in that second camp.
I have discovered boat loads of facts to criticise Governor Palin on in these last several months, but her treatment of this poor child has been the most egregious. I am in total agreement with Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on this issue.
What do you think?
Agree with everything that's said here and I too am apalled by Palin's treatment of her child.
ReplyDeletePalin will use anyone including her family to get ahead in politics. She has proven time and again that she is a shallow, callous human being that is out for all she can get for herself no matter who it hurts. I so wish she would just sit down, shut up and govern Alaska and leave the rest of the country alone. We in the lower 48 don't want her.
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence! In my latest post on "palingates" I call into question Palin's credentials as a champion of children with special needs. I called it "Toxic Governor".
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the judge! Too bad the judge doesn't have the authority to do something about Palin's lack of mothering skills.
ReplyDeleteI agree, she uses her kids as "props," not just Trig. It's just worse with him because he's an infant.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, she wrecked her maternal persona when she threw Bristol under the bus last fall. She could have proven that she was Trig's mom without bringing Bristol into it at all, and that poor girl could have had the privacy she deserves.
I can't get past the picture you posted Gryphen. Look at her face! She looks like the baby stinks or something!!!
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you!
ReplyDeleteJust wish that SOME judge would take up a suit for the benefit of the little prop, aka Trig!
Thank you Judge Buchwald! As the mother of two adult disabled children, I was just appalled at Governor Palin's positioning herself as some kind of expert and spokesperson for disability issues - at the time Trig was only a few months old. I was also concerned about the environments that child was constantly exposed to on the campaign trail as the way he was passed around like a hot potato. Not good, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteeven as we watched the convention my knickers were in a twist. i looked at my watch, added the hours and SCREAMED, "IT'S PAST THAT CHILD'S BEDTIME, FOR GOD'S SAKE! WHY ISN'T HE AT THE HOTEL??"
ReplyDeleteeh-hem. as you can see, i too am in the second camp and while I am sure that i will NEVER be awarded "mother of the year", i know that my kids' basic needs for structure and routine are consistently at the forefront of my agenda.
i'm reluctant to say much because i know there are a number of people who will accuse me of being a partisan, anti-feminist woman. and that's not the case. mothers are, as they should be, free to parent outside of and/or well within traditional norms these days. and i'm the last to cast a stone. believe me! so see me as i am - one of those idiot mothers who let their well dressed kids drag along the bottom the grocery cart, looking like they haven't showered in days. and yet, every time i see a picture of this little boy being schlepped around like a $10 handbag, late at night, no shoes, there is a part of my heart that clenches with profound sadness and grief.
even if he were a typical, developmentally normal child, i'd still feel the same way. because these little guys are just little guys for a moment, a flash, a blink. and because he is special, his needs are only going to grow as he gets older. all the more reason to soak him up now, to store up for the journey ahead.
okay. stepping off my soap box and over to my smallish girl in need of a hug. even if she doesn't think so....
Special needs children need a consistent secure environment.
ReplyDeleteThey also need therapy to maximize their potential.
I'm wondering if her son received that.
But honestly, She is not big on education. Her daughter dropped out of school. Many pregnant girls go to school and graduate, knowing education is a way out and up to support your child.
She kept her youngest daughter out of school and on the campaign trail and it didn't seem like she got much home schooling on the road. She admitted in an interview in her home how hard it was to go back to school.
The Obama girls were rarely seen and attended school.
I would NEVER have accepted a VP nomination with a special needs child under the age of 1.
Or with a pregnant daughter.
My family comes first.
And in a perverse way, having a young, unwed pregnant daughter going round the country made the situation more acceptable that any Hollywood actress.
And she a good Republican!!!!!
What do you expect? If Sarah was in fact pregnant with Trig, then the child abuse started when he was in the womb...she flew on an airplane late into her third trimester, and did not seek medical attention when she was having contractions and leaking amniotic fluid in Texas. She then proceeds to get back on an airplane to fly home, not informing the ariline of her condition, thus endangering her life, her unborn child's life and everyone else on the flight. As a mother I just don't see how that is humanly possible.
ReplyDeleteThen, three days after said premature birth, she exposes Trig to all sorts of germs by bringing him into her office.
But to top it all off, to "prove" she is Trig's mother, she throws Bristol, her own underage 17 year old daughter under the bus by exposing her pregnancy which is conveniently "five months" along. Then drags her pregnant teenage daughter and infant who have very compromised immune systems on the campaign trail exposing them to the masses of germs and infections they could easily pick up.
Oh yeah...let's not forget trotting out Willow and Piper in her Flyers jersey to drop the puck at the hockey game with the most notoriously rowdy and demeaning crowd in sports to deflect their ridicule.
She is certainly the mother of the year, isn't she?
SP is only interested in her political career. She will use anyone, anything to advance her power/wealth/glory. You can already see what kind of person she is by her behavior. She's intersted only in her. Alaska? Who cares?
ReplyDeleteWoot! Today - Todd Palin was found guilty today of contempt of the Alaskan State Senate.
ReplyDeleteWonder if they go do anything else about this.
I agree.. but I don't think it was just Trigg, yes for him it was the worst since he was the smallest, but it was all the kids. She drug them around the country, on the stage, kept them out of school, up to all hours, no kind of regular home life for 2 and a half months.. that is not good for children.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that someone would convince the main stream media and the public of this. We were around a Downs Syndrome child for many years as she was being raised. She had many medical complications, but was lovingly nurtured and would never had been handled in this manner. I also wish more attention had been paid to the other children being allowed to be out of school for so long. I don't believe they were home schooled at all.
ReplyDeleteThat little kid was trotted out for stumps and rallies, all over the country! Sick.
ReplyDeletePalin also endangered his life by not getting medical attention when her water broke.
Palin is some whack job.
Sarah Palin-Tonya Harding 2012!
Of course Palin used her kids as props- when it suited her. During the campaign she dragged them all around, used Trigg to show she was compassionate while deliberately subjecting Bristol to public humiliation.
ReplyDeleteNow she has done a complete reversal, and says the media and public have no right to know anything about her family and kids.
No one has seen Tripp and/or Bristol. Are they captives in the Heath house? Whatever the reason for their seclusion, it is very odd given the very public use of the kids, exposure of the pregnancy to the world, and so on.
She recently told the east coast media that Bristol was named after Bristol, Connecticut (home of ESPN), while telling everyone here and media as well that she was named after Bristol Bay.
Very odd indeed.
Yes, I agree that SP used Trig's special needs for her own personal political gain. As for the older children, what about truancy laws?
ReplyDeleteProps, absolutely.
Jen - if you're worried about Trig's bedtime, that's a bit overzelous, don't you think. Certainly, with the Governor of Alaska as Trig's mother, I'd expect Trig to have a non-standard sleeping schedule. Her career doesn't exactly allow for putting Trig to bed at 6:30 every night if she wants to see her son.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, as a conservative republican, I believe that Gov. Palin clearly doesn't have the judgement necessary to be a major leader for the country. Reading the accounts of how she boarded a plane when 8 months preggers to give a speech in Dallas, then flys home to Anchorage (not exactly a short flight) to deliver is nuts, and she clearly didn't put the child first. Any parent making a decision that truly endangers her child's life is disgraceful. Holding Gov. Palin up as an ideal "mom of the year" type, is even more disgraceful. Your career should never endanger your children.
Lady Rose...Where did you find that information? That is great...but will they do anything to him? Probably not...as usual.
ReplyDeleteJen, I agree with you about Trig up on stage at what, 1 a.m. or something? And that was after travelling and changing time zones. I don't think it is overzealous at all to be worried about Trig being up hours and hours past his bedtime AND exposed to very high decibel noise and bright lights. He seemed either drugged, or else shell- shocked by the experience. There was really NO need for him to be on stage at 1 am.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the VF article, Governor Palin often came home at noon. The research teams studied her schedule book and it often had large areas of blank space on it. Legislators were upset when during the session she was MIA.
Nobody says a mother who works can't adjust their child's schedule a bit to accommodate getting to see them after work. But that might be more along the line of 8 pm and at home, rather than up well after midnight in a loud crowd.
I worked shift work in health care for years, and none of my friends who were mothers got their small children up at 12:30 in the morning when they got home from work. Often in these families, the father was working days and put the kids to bed, and mom got to see the kids in the morning.
Maybe I sound angry. Well yes I am. The photo of Palin with this article is one of the few where I have even seen her hold him in a tender position toward her body. But her face tells a different story. She looks like she can't wait to pass him off to Bristol. My husband, unprompted, described her look in this photo as "calculating".
There are SO many pictures where Palin is holding Trig totally like a sack of potatoes. Sometimes facing out, looking like he could be dropped at any minute. She has held him in positions that weren't far off from the famous "blanket" photo of Michael Jackson dangling his baby. So many photos where Palin is carelessly holding Trig while looking far more interested in her Blackberries.
In one video, I think it might have been at the RNC but maybe it was at a later campaign rally, she took Trig from one of the daughters, strode around with him like a quarterback carrying a football, and handed him off to the daughter again. You would have thought it was a doll, or alternately a sack of potatoes she was carrying. Some kind of inanimate, non human object. Her use of him as a prop has been just disgusting.
And yes, she does it with her other kids. She threw Bristol under the bus in front of the nation. Piper seems to be her favorite prop, and must have missed a lot of school even before the campaign, as she seemed to be dragged along to all those photo op bill signings that Palin liked to do. You would expect that when McCain first introduced Palin that we would see the family once or twice. But Piper never left the trail, it seemed. It's been documented that Palin knew full well that she would face boos from the crowd at that infamous hockey game use of Piper as human shield, and she did it anyway.
For those who say that Palin was just being a normal mother to constantly overexpose her kids in public life, I would observe that I can't think of any other female politician whose children I could pick out of a crowd. I also don't know what Carly Fiorina's or any other well known high corporate executive woman's kids look like either, or for that matter if they even have kids.
Okay, end of rant. But Gryphen, thanks for giving an opportunity to get this off my chest.