Why Bristol Palin matters
Sep. 2nd, 2008 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsBristol Palin is a 17-year-old woman, apparently pregnant, apparently about to undergo a shotgun wedding with an equally young man, whose mother was recently nominated to be the Republican candidate for the vice presidency of the United States.
I avoided all weekend talking about the pregnancy stories that were circulating around the Internet. My own family has had its share of personal difficulties like this, some of it my own doing, and many families have weird, sad little stories like this one. The stories as they stood until Sunday were scurrilous and circumstantial. It didn't seem worth commenting on.
Here's why it's worth attention today, though: Sarah Palin, as a city councilwoman, as a mayor, and as a governor, fought to de-fund comprehensive sex education in the school districts over which she had authority. Palin thought that if there was to be sex education in schools, it should be abstinence only, but her strongest words were that such issues should be taught by parents in the home.
It may just have been coincidence: some girls are going to become pregnant at 17 no matter how hard the family and the school system try to teach them not to. Bristol may be one of those.
Yet it is striking how Sarah Palin seems to have failed her daughter: failed her as a parent, and as the head of government. Abstinence-only sex education doesn't work and yet Sarah Palin apparently believed in that for her schools and silence for her home.
When we look at John McCain, do we want to elect to the highest office in the land a man whose first major administration-affecting decision is a snap judgement to hire a woman who's own record of decision making is mediocre at best.
I avoided all weekend talking about the pregnancy stories that were circulating around the Internet. My own family has had its share of personal difficulties like this, some of it my own doing, and many families have weird, sad little stories like this one. The stories as they stood until Sunday were scurrilous and circumstantial. It didn't seem worth commenting on.
Here's why it's worth attention today, though: Sarah Palin, as a city councilwoman, as a mayor, and as a governor, fought to de-fund comprehensive sex education in the school districts over which she had authority. Palin thought that if there was to be sex education in schools, it should be abstinence only, but her strongest words were that such issues should be taught by parents in the home.
It may just have been coincidence: some girls are going to become pregnant at 17 no matter how hard the family and the school system try to teach them not to. Bristol may be one of those.
Yet it is striking how Sarah Palin seems to have failed her daughter: failed her as a parent, and as the head of government. Abstinence-only sex education doesn't work and yet Sarah Palin apparently believed in that for her schools and silence for her home.
When we look at John McCain, do we want to elect to the highest office in the land a man whose first major administration-affecting decision is a snap judgement to hire a woman who's own record of decision making is mediocre at best.
