Living Freely's
recent post brought to mind how surprisingly the issues of adoption and special needs children have emerged on the political scene this presidential election.
Whatever your political inclinations, it's wonderful that the American public is hearing these concerns on a national platform. I can't remember another recent election (and I follow politics fairly closely) where candidates have actually voiced concern for special needs children and for adoption-related issues.
VP candidate Sarah Palin's speech last night at the Republican National Convention marks the latest occasion. Palin, whose youngest child (5-month-old Trig) was born with Down Syndrome, spoke openly in
her keynote address about the concern our country should extend to its most precious citizenry:
"In April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical. That's how it is with us. Our family has the same ups and downs as any other ... the same challenges and the same joys.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge. And children with special needs inspire a special love. To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."
Wow! I was so impressed by this, and I hope that people of all political persuasions were moved, as well. Not because of any party affiliations but because it is refreshing and necessary for either (and hopefully, both!) of our political parties to recognize in our perfection-obsessed culture that
all human beings have dignity and worth. In a country where
91-93% of all fetuses with Down Syndrome are electively terminated, we need more high-profile advocates for the "not-as-perfect" among us, raising public understanding of the unique value of all human beings.
Here's an excerpt from that transcript:
Warren: This one is dear to my heart. Most people don’t know that there are 148 million orphans in the world. One hundred forty-eight million kids growing up without mommies and dads. They don’t need to be in an orphanage, they need to be in families, but a lot of families can’t afford to take these kids in.
Would you be willing to consider and even commit to doing some kind of an emergency plan for orphans like President Bush did with AIDS, almost a President’s emergency plan for orphans to deal with this issue?
Obama: I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a — I think it’s a great idea.
I think it’s something that we should sit down and figure out — working between non-governmental organizations, international institutions, the U.S. government — and try to figure out: what can we do?
I think that part of our plan, though, has to be: how do we prevent more orphans in the first place? And that means that we’re helping to build the public health infrastructure around the world; that we are, you know, building on the great work that you and, by the way, this President, has done when it comes to AIDS funding around the world.
I think, you know, I’m often a critic of President Bush, but I think the PEPFAR program has saved lives and has done very good work and he deserves enormous credit for that.
Warren: Most people don’t know that there are 148 million orphans in the world growing up without parents. What should we do about this and would you be willing to consider or even commit to something similar to the President’s emergency plan for AIDS which, he said, AIDS is an emergency at PEPFAR. Could we do a PEPFAR for the emergency plan for 148 million orphans? Most of these, they don’t need to grow up in orphanages, they need to be in families and many of those families could take them in if they had some kind of assistance.
McCain: Well I think we have to make adoption a lot easier in this country. That’s why so many people go to other countries to ... be able to adopt children.
My great hero and role model, Teddy Roosevelt, was the first modern American President to talk about adoption and how important it was.
And I promise you this is my last story: 17 years ago Cindy was in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She went to Mother Teresa’s orphanage. The nuns brought her two little babies that were not going to live. Cindy came home; I met her at the airplane. She showed me this 5-week old baby and said: "meet your new daughter". She’s 17 and our life is blessed. And that’s what adoption is all about.
I would've liked to hear more specifics from both candidates--actual, concrete ideas would've been nice!--but at least the issue has been introduced to the public discourse. Let's hope it stays there.
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