NEW PARIS, Pennsylvania: Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was swiftly working the rope line at an apple orchard in southwestern Pennsylvania when she met a supporter who brought her to an abrupt stop.
Amber Brown, 23, held a poster that read, "I have Down syndrome and I'm voting for you. I'm a fighter too!"
Seeing Brown, Palin wrapped her in a tight hug.
"I love that poster," Palin said. "You're a fighter and you're beautiful."
Then Palin hugged her again. Before climbing back on her campaign bus, she circled back to Brown and hugged her a third time...
Ignoring her teleprompter, Palin gazed to her left. "I've got to make a comment about this poster," she said. "'I'm extra-special just like Trig."'
"Now what she's saying there," Palin said, "that extra chromosome that our blessed bundles of joy were born with. It's like a bumper sticker that was mailed to me from a Down syndrome group in Arizona. You know how we have bumper stickers on the back of our vehicles saying, you know, My kid's a better soccer player than your kid, and, My kid's on the honor roll and your kid isn't, well this bumper sticker says, 'We win - my kid has more chromosomes than your kid.' "
Afterward, Anita Kearns of Louisville, Kentucky, who had watched the speech with her children - Josh, 27, who has Down syndrome, and Katie, 19 - was beaming. "She stands for everything that matters right now," Kearns said. "Free enterprise, the American way, working for your family."
But most important, Kearns said, "I love that she's an advocate for special needs. It hasn't been since the Kennedys that we've heard a politician talk about it, and they talked about it in a very different way. And that was so long ago."
Yep. There was a time when 90 percent of these children weren't consigned to the dumpster. Sarah Palin is just plumb good. Which is why her opponents despise her so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment