“She was the one who “utilized” the child for PR purposes”

Yeah, I forgot… she was supposed to hide Trig under a rock in Alaska…

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Let me tell you that you haven’t lived ’til you’ve tried Tommys ‘Vomit Punch’, so put a little ‘Tommy’ in your July Fourth festivities and get some today!

Palin did not say that she was resigning because of jokes. She said that when she asked her children what they thought about her resigning they all thought it was a good idea. She said that she thought that her children liked the idea because they were upset about jokes that had been made about Trig. That would be a completely natural response for children to have. (Note: although she said that she consulted her children, she did not say that she would not have resigned if her children had been against it.)

Palin’s comment that the world would be better if there were more people like Trig was both the expression of a feeling that many parents of special needs children talk about, and a reference to her strong anti-abortion beliefs. (I thought that it might be a hint as to where she is going to direct her energies in the future.) Palin’s comments about Trig struck me as the most sincere and deeply felt part of her speech and therefore the least likely to form a good foundation for humorous comment.

Erik Nelson should apply this simple test to himself. If when he is hanging out with his friends he uses the words “retard” and “gay” as insults, then he is a jerk. He should work on becoming a non-jerk and start by no longer using those words as insults.

Erik Nelson should also learn a little more about what it is like to live with a disability. This does not mean that he has to watch weepy Lifetime movies or read soppy memoirs. There is a lot more out there than he thinks. He could watch the movie Murderball, he could read Chrisopher Reeve’s memoir, he could even start out with The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time. There is a lot of non-sentimental, non-self-pitying realistic stuff out there.

I would also suggest that Erik spend a couple of hours seriously contemplating the scary and extremely uncomfortable truth that at any moment any one of us who is a person without any disabilities could become a person with a disability, including a mental disability. I may sound like I am preaching but I am a bit sensitive on this topic. On Christmas Day 2004 a healthy 30 year-old in-law of my sister’s became a quadriplegic as a result of a skiing accident. In August 2005 a friend of mine suffered a severe traumatic brain injury when she was hit by a truck as she was crossing the street. The person she was (her personality) no longer exists and she will require institutional care for the rest of her life. Creating humor about disabilities when you have an audience of people who are filled with all different kinds of emotional landmines (like the ones I have) is extremely difficult.

I will admit, though, that the idea of feeding children lead paint chips at school is so patently absurd that I find it funny.

Whether you agree or disagree with Palin’s politics, one can understand why she may have chosen to resign given these types of constant swipes made at the expense of her children. I can’t imagine hating another politician to the point of losing all sense of what’s wrong and right. And yes, it is hatred that fuels making fun of her children—especially at the expense of her most vulnerable, mentally disabled toddler. Just how low can people go? Some people seem to get a perverse pleasure sticking the knife deeply into Palin by attacking her children. It’s truly sickening.