Give Bristol Palin a break.
As a teenager, she fell for a guy, had unprotected sex which resulted in a pregnancy, decided to keep the baby and try for marriage with said guy.
I’ve seen more understanding in the media for murderers and girlfriend beaters.
Here are some of the headlines I've seen about the break up:
Bristol Palin splits with ‘white trash’ Levi Johnston (Boston Herald)
OMG! Bristol and Levi are dunzo! (Christian Science Monitor - yeah I know)
Bristol Palin, fiance Levi Johnston split. Surprised? (LA Times)
Bristol Palin and Her Baby Daddy Break Up (E Online)
Bristol Palin Dumps Sex on Skates! (New York Magazine)
Put yourself in her shoes. Her mom, out of left field, ran for vice president while she, a pregnant teen, was shoved into the international spotlight wearing maternity clothes and then shoved back to the family compound to avoid embarrassing the campaign.
Governor Sarah Palin, sadly, used her own daughter to promote her flawed so called family values agenda. The abstinence only education that Governor Palin touts is totally ridiculous, but it’s unfair that Bristol Palin will be lampooned for the governor’s inadequacies both as a reasonable thinker and as a mother.
You can choose your Vice President, but you can’t choose your mother.
And hopefully Bristol will be a better mother to her son and empower him with sex education so that he will have his first child when he is ready.
Showing posts with label palin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label palin. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Palin Pregnancy a Problem
I am concerned about Levi Johnston and his pregnant girlfriend, Bristol.
And although Senator Obama has not attacked Governor Palin on this issue, because as he said the issue is personal and his own mother was 18 when she had him; I think she should be criticized.
And not with the hateful rhetoric that emerges from a google search Levi Johnson or Bristol Palin: red neck, knocked up. This is criticism based on the reality of their situation.
I don’t blame them (entirely) for the unwed pregnancy. On the other hand at most Governor Palin is to blame for her daughter’s situation and at the least she is a willing bystander to this disaster. How can we expect her to lead the country (as she is heartbeats away from the presidency) when the future of her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend is smashing into a melting polar iceberg?
You don’t have to be a governor of a huge state to understand statistics. And if Governor Palin doesn’t hold weight in her own family, how can she possibly influence world leaders or even the U.S. Senate?
What prompted this post was in a recent interview with the Associated Press, Levi Johnston said that will no be returning to high school to complete his degree: “Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.”
According to U.S. census data from the last decade, a high school drop out can expect to make about $23,000 a year; a high school graduate: $30,000; a college graduate: about $52,000. The numbers are slightly dated, but the ratios have likely not changed. If anything, with the most recent economic crisis, worse times could be coming. Why would Governor Palin not insist that her daughter’s boyfriend finish high school? It’s almost laughable to hear her talk about school reform when underachievement is a marker of her own family.
Another decision, also misguided according to statistics, is their decision to get married. The AP reported: “While Johnston provided few details about next summer's wedding, the planning has started.”
I wonder if Governor Palin told her daughter and son-in-law-to-be that 70 percent of teen mothers are no longer in their first marriages by the age of 40, according to the National Campaign, an organization that discourages teen pregnancy.
Even if they defy the odds and stay married, according to The National Campaign, the Levy child is likely to suffer. The study shows that children of teenagers have lower cognitive abilities, lower academic achievement, are more likely to have behavior problems and be jailed.
And what if Bristol Palin (and Ms. Spears) serves as a role model to young girls who do not come from affluence? What if this abstinence only evolving to pregnant teens becomes the norm? It’s a possibility given there was a 3 percent increase in teen pregnancy in 2006.
According to the National Campaign the cost to the mother and to society is great. Teenager mothers cost U.S. taxpayers 9 billion dollars when you figure in welfare for child and mother, lost taxable income, and other elements.
I thought Republicans wanted smaller government and to discourage a welfare state?
Look, I hope Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston stay married for 75 years. I hope that their child grows up to be healthy and happy. However, the statistics don't lie. They are a symbol of the problem with Governor Palin and the Christian Conservatives that Senator McCain hoped she would bring to the table to unify the Republican Party. Teaching your children, teaching our children, abstinence only education leads to sociological and economic disaster for both the teenagers having children and their babies. If your religious or moral beliefs teach that sex before marriage is wrong, that’s fine, teach that it is wrong, but as my mother, who married at age 20 said to me (totally unnecessarily by the way) before I went to camp when I was 16, “I don’t want you to have sex. I think sex before marriage is wrong. But if you are going to have sex, use a condom.”
How can you argue with the legitimacy of that advice? And if you do, how can we trust you to be Vice President?
Sources:
The report from the National Campaign
Rise in teen pregnancy rates
Education and salary data
Interview with Levi Johnston
And although Senator Obama has not attacked Governor Palin on this issue, because as he said the issue is personal and his own mother was 18 when she had him; I think she should be criticized.
And not with the hateful rhetoric that emerges from a google search Levi Johnson or Bristol Palin: red neck, knocked up. This is criticism based on the reality of their situation.
I don’t blame them (entirely) for the unwed pregnancy. On the other hand at most Governor Palin is to blame for her daughter’s situation and at the least she is a willing bystander to this disaster. How can we expect her to lead the country (as she is heartbeats away from the presidency) when the future of her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend is smashing into a melting polar iceberg?
You don’t have to be a governor of a huge state to understand statistics. And if Governor Palin doesn’t hold weight in her own family, how can she possibly influence world leaders or even the U.S. Senate?
What prompted this post was in a recent interview with the Associated Press, Levi Johnston said that will no be returning to high school to complete his degree: “Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.”
According to U.S. census data from the last decade, a high school drop out can expect to make about $23,000 a year; a high school graduate: $30,000; a college graduate: about $52,000. The numbers are slightly dated, but the ratios have likely not changed. If anything, with the most recent economic crisis, worse times could be coming. Why would Governor Palin not insist that her daughter’s boyfriend finish high school? It’s almost laughable to hear her talk about school reform when underachievement is a marker of her own family.
Another decision, also misguided according to statistics, is their decision to get married. The AP reported: “While Johnston provided few details about next summer's wedding, the planning has started.”
I wonder if Governor Palin told her daughter and son-in-law-to-be that 70 percent of teen mothers are no longer in their first marriages by the age of 40, according to the National Campaign, an organization that discourages teen pregnancy.
Even if they defy the odds and stay married, according to The National Campaign, the Levy child is likely to suffer. The study shows that children of teenagers have lower cognitive abilities, lower academic achievement, are more likely to have behavior problems and be jailed.
And what if Bristol Palin (and Ms. Spears) serves as a role model to young girls who do not come from affluence? What if this abstinence only evolving to pregnant teens becomes the norm? It’s a possibility given there was a 3 percent increase in teen pregnancy in 2006.
According to the National Campaign the cost to the mother and to society is great. Teenager mothers cost U.S. taxpayers 9 billion dollars when you figure in welfare for child and mother, lost taxable income, and other elements.
I thought Republicans wanted smaller government and to discourage a welfare state?
Look, I hope Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston stay married for 75 years. I hope that their child grows up to be healthy and happy. However, the statistics don't lie. They are a symbol of the problem with Governor Palin and the Christian Conservatives that Senator McCain hoped she would bring to the table to unify the Republican Party. Teaching your children, teaching our children, abstinence only education leads to sociological and economic disaster for both the teenagers having children and their babies. If your religious or moral beliefs teach that sex before marriage is wrong, that’s fine, teach that it is wrong, but as my mother, who married at age 20 said to me (totally unnecessarily by the way) before I went to camp when I was 16, “I don’t want you to have sex. I think sex before marriage is wrong. But if you are going to have sex, use a condom.”
How can you argue with the legitimacy of that advice? And if you do, how can we trust you to be Vice President?
Sources:
The report from the National Campaign
Rise in teen pregnancy rates
Education and salary data
Interview with Levi Johnston
Friday, October 10, 2008
Problematic Palin
When John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, I, like many around the world, googled her and read the brimming news coverage featuring scattered details about her biography. I admit that even though she is a Republican, I couldn’t help but give kudos to John McCain for making such a “maverick” move. [How ridiculous is it that choosing a woman is seen as unusual given women make up more than half of the population, but regardless it was bold given that only one other woman has ever been nominated.]
And then her speech! I found myself enjoying her jabs at Barack Obama. Yeah, small town people are an awesome part of America Yeah, she probably does know a thing or two being governor so it’s fine that she is a heart beat away from the presidency. Yeah, come to think of it, pit bulls are like hockey moms.
But Sarah Palin, with all her charisma and rhetoric prowess is most definitely dangerous. And I believe that Americans will see beyond the superficiality and recognize that the prospect of a McCain-Palin presidency will not lead to a safer America, but a more perilous one. Their legacy could include unsafe abortions, an increase in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, continued environmental damage, a retraction of basic freedoms, a continuance of the health care crisis, and more failed foreign policy degrading the United States’ reputation as a world leader.
McCain, no matter how independent minded he was at some point, has recently switched his stance on a woman’s right to choose. He has always been “Pro Life” but until recently he was opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade. If he is elected president, and pressured to appoint conservative judges, there is a real possibility that women’s lives will be in danger if forced to perform unsafe abortions.
You would think that the “Pro Life” crew would want women not to have unplanned pregnancies in the first place. Sarah Palin supports abstinence only sex education. Again, this is dangerous for our young people. Putting aside teen pregnancy, an abstinence only curriculum does not provide young people with the information that they need to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Besides STDs, expect more kids to develop asthma due to Republican disregard of environmental protections. Watch wildlife and sea creatures die if Republicans expand drilling.
Freedom will suffer from a terminal illness as the Patriot Act is renewed under a Republican presidency.
Horrible diseases will continue to kill as progress is stunted without federal funds for stem cell research.
And those who contract those diseases will not be able to afford health care because the Republicans are not committed to providing affordable health insurance to all Americans, just as they are not committed to improving public education (with vouchers reducing fund for schools).
With joblessness rising, the sub prime mortgage mess, instability in Georgia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, the security of our country both domestically and abroad cannot be left to a senator who has compromised his values to appease the Republican Right and a governor who has the hubris to think that God supports her policies.
While both Palin and McCain are likable and even worth admiring, if elected their policies will make America a worse place four years from now.
And then her speech! I found myself enjoying her jabs at Barack Obama. Yeah, small town people are an awesome part of America Yeah, she probably does know a thing or two being governor so it’s fine that she is a heart beat away from the presidency. Yeah, come to think of it, pit bulls are like hockey moms.
But Sarah Palin, with all her charisma and rhetoric prowess is most definitely dangerous. And I believe that Americans will see beyond the superficiality and recognize that the prospect of a McCain-Palin presidency will not lead to a safer America, but a more perilous one. Their legacy could include unsafe abortions, an increase in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, continued environmental damage, a retraction of basic freedoms, a continuance of the health care crisis, and more failed foreign policy degrading the United States’ reputation as a world leader.
McCain, no matter how independent minded he was at some point, has recently switched his stance on a woman’s right to choose. He has always been “Pro Life” but until recently he was opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade. If he is elected president, and pressured to appoint conservative judges, there is a real possibility that women’s lives will be in danger if forced to perform unsafe abortions.
You would think that the “Pro Life” crew would want women not to have unplanned pregnancies in the first place. Sarah Palin supports abstinence only sex education. Again, this is dangerous for our young people. Putting aside teen pregnancy, an abstinence only curriculum does not provide young people with the information that they need to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Besides STDs, expect more kids to develop asthma due to Republican disregard of environmental protections. Watch wildlife and sea creatures die if Republicans expand drilling.
Freedom will suffer from a terminal illness as the Patriot Act is renewed under a Republican presidency.
Horrible diseases will continue to kill as progress is stunted without federal funds for stem cell research.
And those who contract those diseases will not be able to afford health care because the Republicans are not committed to providing affordable health insurance to all Americans, just as they are not committed to improving public education (with vouchers reducing fund for schools).
With joblessness rising, the sub prime mortgage mess, instability in Georgia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, the security of our country both domestically and abroad cannot be left to a senator who has compromised his values to appease the Republican Right and a governor who has the hubris to think that God supports her policies.
While both Palin and McCain are likable and even worth admiring, if elected their policies will make America a worse place four years from now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)