Letters to the Editor
Leeandra Nolting
Published Letters: 434 Editor's Choice: 18
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Oh, for God's sake...
[Read the article: Palin, pregnancy and the presidency]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. On Palin being a terrible woman for running for VP shortly after having a apecial-needs baby and therefore "taking time away from her family": If we're supposed to be good little liberals and expect fathers to change their share of diapers, shouldn't MEN also be castigated for running for office when they have small children at home?
2. On Palin being a proponent of "abstinence-only" education and having a 17-year-old unmarried, pregnant daughter: all kids do things their parents don't approve of. Even the kids of politicians. That doesn't make the parents hypocrites.
And we don't know that comprehensive sex ed. would have "saved" Bristol Palin. For all we know, she was using birth control that failed, or knew all about it but chose not to use it.
Five kids, the baby with Down's Syndrome and the oldest a pregnant teenager with an upcoming shotgun wedding? THOSE are the skeletons Palin has in her closet? I don't know where the rest of you are from, but in big, big sections of the country, those things aren't really considered that scandalous. They're just considered a part of life.
Stick to the issues, not Palin's children.
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@MoCrash...
[Read the article: Palin, pregnancy and the presidency]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I grew up around the kind of people that you're talking about. In reality, I don't think Bristol Palin's pregnancy or Trig Palin's age/handicap is going to do much real damage to the McCain campaign. Social conservatives are not going to switch to voting for Obama because McCain's running mate's daughter is knocked up.
And yeah, a lot of them think that women should be home tending the children--but Michelle Obama worked while her daughters were very small, too. So that's not going to make them jump on the Obama bandwagon.
The fact is that Sarah Palin's family life closely resembles the family lives of a lot of ordinary people, whether they publically admit it or not.
And I seem to remember a certain DEMOCRAT politician with a trailer-trash background and an interesting, complicated extended family...he still got the support of the type of people who DON'T play hockey and hunt moose...
This whole thing is a whole lotta sound and fury signifying nothing.
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are we voting for Palin's husband? are we voting for Palin's daughter?
[Read the article: Today in Palin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]NO.
Whether or not Todd Palin is an an alcoholic is none of our damn business. He is a grown man, responsible for his own actions--unless Sarah Palin poured liquor down his gullet and handed him the keys, SHE IS NOT TO BLAME FOR HIS D.U.I.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy is also none of our damn business. It does not reflect upon Sarah Palin's fitness for the office of V.P., and it does not really even reflect on her success or failure as a mother.
Let's assume that Sarah Palin taught her daughter to remain a virgin until marriage, but at some point, like all parents, she would have had to let her daughter make her own mistakes. Let's review again, shall we? How many times do you have to have sex to get pregnant? ONCE. How many times do you have to neglect to use birth control or for birth control to fail in order to get pregnant? ONCE. For all we know, for all that is our business to know, that's what happened here.
Bristol Palin is 17 years old. Her boyfriend Levi Johnston is 18. Whatever those two were doing in the backseat of the snowmobile on the way home from the hockey game is probably not a lot different than what most of us were doing when we were that age and we were stupid, stupid horny teenagers. The difference is that Bristol and Levi got caught. If we're holding Sarah Palin responsible for her teenage daughter having sex with her teenage boyfriend, should we also hold OUR mothers responsible for the stupid, stupid things we did when we were seventeen?
Sarah Palin's record on drilling, on the Bridge to Nowhere, on the firing of the state trooper, on sex education: all fair game. Her husband and her children: not fair game.
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can we look up the meaning of "hypocritical"?
[Read the article: Sarah Palin's choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because I was under the impression that it meant saying one thing and doing another. I don't get the impression that Sarah Palin wants abortion to be an option for ANYONE, herself and her daughter included.
If Sarah Palin had aborted Trig, but then wanted to make abortion illegal for others in the same situation, that would be hypocritical. If Sarah Palin had gotten DS testing for Trig, but then wanted to make that testing illegal for others, that would be hypocritical.
She took the prenatal test and found that Trig had Down's Syndrome. Legally, at the current time, she had a choice to terminate the pregnancy--and she chose to continue it. Not hypocritical.
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@micro ms
[Read the article: Sarah Palin's choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Re-read the first paragraph of my letter. I pointed out that Gov. Palin OPPOSES the fact that she DID legally have a choice over whether or not to abort Trig. She would like for abortion to be illegal--for herself and her daughter included.
Under the law of the land, Sarah Palin had a choice over whether or not to have an abortion and there wasn't a damn thing the authorities could have done about it. She chose not to have an abortion. Given her pro-life beliefs, this was probably an easy choice to make--but that doesn't make it any less of a choice.
Under the law of the land, I can shave my hair into a mohawk and dye it pink and there isn't a damn thing the authorities can do about it. I chose not to do so. Given my personal sense of fashion and aesthetics, it's a completely easy choice for me to make--but that doesn't make it any less of a choice.