In Her Arms - With Video
I could count on one hand the number of times over my years of listening to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show that I actually ‘teared-up’ … and still had a thumb leftover to signal “well-done” or “absolutely” …
But after today’s broadcast I gotta move over to the other hand now.
With ALL due respect to Rush Limbaugh and his site and radio show, I just have to share this with all of you, especially Knottie (fellow DS parent).
I heard on Limbaugh’s program last week a caller explain the base of the hatred and vitriol the left is showing to this woman … and it made perfect sense. As I have told you before, Sarah Palin’s NOT being viewed worth of the feminist support lies in her “choice” to keep her “imperfect” baby once she found out his genetic condition. She would NOT judge him … only love him. I agree with Rush’s caller who pointed out that having Baby Trig in the White House meant a Down Syndrome child, who the feminists and left believe should be aborted, would be a blinding light against one of their strongest reasonings FOR “choice”, AKA, abortion. And Rich Lowry echoes the same in his op-ed below.
And there you have it. Sarah Palin is not a woman worthy of feminist recognition because she chose not to partake of their ultimate sacrament … abortion … for herself or her pregnant teenaged daughter.
The thing about us DS parents is every time we meet a parent with a DS child younger (especially a baby) than our own we ALWAYS provide them with the information that guess what … he/she is just a baby … and my kid is just a kid … in addition to answering any questions they have. And we get the same transference of information and assuredness from parents whose DS children are older than ours.
I’m sure this family let Gov. Palin know that she and Trig were going to grow together just fine. After all, she’s just a mommy, and Trig’s “just a baby/kid” …
Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin
(rushlimbaugh.com)
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: “We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.” So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that –
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them –
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, “Wow, that’s awesome,” because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that’s really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, “Hey, can you come with us?” I was like, “Do we have a choice?”
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn’t have worried. It’s not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they’re all standing there. We’re in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, “May I hold your daughter?” and our daughter Chloe, who’s five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I’d love to send you maybe when I’m done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who’s nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That’s right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we’ll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re doing the Lord’s work.
CALLER: Well, we’re very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they’re angels.
RUSH: That’s the thing. There’s always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here’s the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That’s what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I’m going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT
WHAT TRIG CAN TEACH AMERICA
by Rich Lowry - (NYPost)
PERHAPS nothing Sarah Palin said in her boffo address at the Republican Convention had as much resonance as her statement that “sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.”
That truism was redeemed from mere Hallmark-card sentimentality because everyone knew that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant and that Palin herself gave birth to a boy, Trig, with Down syndrome in April. The joys in the Palin household lately have been particularly leavened with challenges.
Palin’s choice to give birth to Trig after she learned of his condition 13 weeks into her pregnancy endeared her to pro-lifers and contributed to the frenzied excitement among social conservatives about her selection. The national stage she’s now been given means her choice could have much wider significance and constitute an enormous symbolic leap ahead for children with Down syndrome and their parents.
As many as an estimated nine out of 10 children with Down syndrome are aborted in the womb, sought out by increasingly sophisticated prenatal tests and eliminated as too flawed, too burdensome, too different to live. This is the ugly eugenic underbelly of American life, even as we congratulate ourselves on our tolerance and diversity.
Parents of children with Down syndrome routinely encounter a “how could you?” disapproval. Former Washington Post reporter Patricia E. Bauer writes that strangers consider her daughter with Down syndrome as falling “into the category of avoidable human suffering. At best, a tragic mistake. At worst, a living embodiment of the pro-life movement. Less than human. A drain on society. That someone I love is regarded that way is unspeakably painful to me.”
Here comes Trig, who - via his mother, especially if she wins - will have a high-profile platform to expose the rest of us to his personhood and dignity. Palin always describes him, aptly, as “a perfectly beautiful baby boy.” After her speech, she held him on stage as she was joined by the rest of her family. Given how dated assumptions are about Down syndrome, he could do us much good growing up in the Naval Observatory.
It used to be that children with Down syndrome were institutionalized at birth. Without the love, care and education that any child needs, they lived stunted lives. Now, a generation of people with Down syndrome has been raised by families that love them. Advances in medical care and education mean they live full lives. Their capabilities differ - as is the case with everyone - but they graduate from high school, hold jobs and live on their own.
When Palin got the news about Trig, she was devastated and scared. She kept it to herself, until her husband got back from a business trip. They didn’t tell anyone else, including their other children. “Not knowing in my own heart if I was going to be ready to embrace a child with special needs,” she told People magazine, “I couldn’t talk about it.” It wasn’t until he was born that she says her fears washed away.
No one should trivialize the challenges Trig and the Palins will face. About 40 percent of children with Down syndrome are born with a heart defect. There will be the cruelty - intentional or not - of other children and the frustrations of struggling with tasks that come so much easier to others. And yet there will be the joy, as unalloyed and precious as any of us experience.
Palin said in an interview shortly after Trig was born: “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection. I keep thinking in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?” That is the subversive promise of children like Trig, undermining all our superficial assumptions about what’s truly important.
The Palins will have a humbling, heartbreaking and inspiring lesson in life’s priorities from Trig. Here’s hoping it’s one that, one way or the other, the rest of us share.
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I was listening to Rush L. when the guy called. A way cool story. Need to put a TV ad about it. I like the look on Cindy M.’s face, first pic.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pmChills.. That confirms what I have thought and felt. These are people who embrace life and want to provide hope not only to those in their lives directly but to this nation.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pmI also heard the call - dittos Knottie
September 9th, 2008 at 7:59 pmMyself, I’m just shocked at the new media trashing of a nude pic of Palin (top), and that her belly button is in the back. She must be Satan!
(I have been known to kid)
September 9th, 2008 at 8:00 pmI listened to that program today. Damn near brought tears to my eyes. And I generally only get misty thinking about my son and his fellow Marines protecting our way of life.
Godspeed to the Palin family !!!
September 9th, 2008 at 8:00 pmthats not Kurt from this site is it? (I know its a dumb question and the pictures are still very heart-warming if its not =) )
September 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pmGAHHHHH I’m so pissed I missed this!
My damn radio station had an “energency alert” right when this guy called in and started telling his story. Glad I could read about it here.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:05 pmNo, this is another Kurt from Pa.
OUR Kurt, while sweet and loving, is a young man in Ohio in need of getting hitched and having kids …
Love ya, Kurt
September 9th, 2008 at 8:06 pmI heard this on Rush, also - I must say this video is wonderful - Beautiful families, ALL!
September 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pmdrill,
i know. that will happen but im still playing the field at the moment. just know that im working on it
haha
thats a great story. and i take comfort in knowing the McCains and Palins are genuine caring people. i hardly think Obama would have given this family the opportunity to come visit with him. not to politicize this story but i just think it was probably more of an honor for the McCains and Palins.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:35 pmdrill,
i know. that will happen but im still playing the field at the moment. just know that im working on it
———————————————————-
I demand an invite, little bro!
September 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pmdrillanwr (Will Carry Palin’s Lipstick)
you can count on it.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:45 pmVery cool
September 9th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Awwwwww……… 
September 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pmAs a parent of an Autistic child, I am equally impressed and proud of this story.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:23 pmWonderful story. As a person with a special needs Aunt I hope Trig will teach the country a lesson on “perfection”.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:34 pmI’m sitting here and as I read the transcript I feel myself getting all emotional. I believe that these are the people we need running the country now and I say a little prayer everyday that and hope that God answers it.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:48 pmNeat.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:53 pmWhat a nice story, and how sad that parents who choose to have their downs syndrome kids are insulted. Are the people doning the insulting eugenecists, who only want perfect kids? I thought that ended with hitler
September 10th, 2008 at 2:21 amEvery single life is of value because it is pure Love.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:48 amI heard it also, and I’m still teared up reading about it again. Prayers go up every day that these people will lead our nation, God bless them!
September 10th, 2008 at 5:32 amHeart warming and it brought tears to my eyes. These are the people who should be leading America next. I think they best represent the majority of Americans and how we feel about life.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:45 amI am touched by this too. It’s scandalous that the left considers DS people sub-human. They think they should all be killed before given a chance of birth.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:54 amThat was the most intense moment on the show, that I have heard in a longtime. And your article hits the nail on the head.
I have only one small objection/observation.
As a cradle Catholic with a few decades under my belt and a lifetime of the Baltimore Cathechism and CCC in my head I
quote from Lesson 23:
304. What is a sacrament?
A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace
I would have have been more excited to see your reference
to their allegiance to abortion as more of a pagan ritual or perhaps one of the following from Roget:
…ceremony, ceremonial, ordinance, observance, function, duty; form, formulary; incantation (spell) [See Spell]; service, ministry, ministration
You made your point though and this is no time to be thin skinned.
God Bless McCain Palin and Grant us Victory
The Ultimate WMD……..
The Rosary—Weapon of Marian Devotion
September 10th, 2008 at 6:14 amMy respect for the McCains and Palins just keeps growing.
September 10th, 2008 at 6:18 amOld Sailor
+1!
September 10th, 2008 at 7:21 amThere were no news media when this occurred … that is what makes the gesture so genuine. If the family that this event occurred to did not call Rush, nobody, but those involved, would have known.
Wow.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:48 amHaving been a Dollardite for sometime now, I have come to appreciate many of the regulars. My heart goes out to the parents of DS children.
My heart and soul go to the families that have lost their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and children in the GWOT. I cannot fathom your loss, other than imagining losing by beautiful son. That alone tears my heart, and allows me a slight inkling of your losses. But I admit it is nowhere near the real loos you feel, and I do not attempt to demean your feelings or losses. My prayers for you daily, and nightly (Knottie).
My son turns seven this coming September 15th. He came into this world two weeks early, and struggled for too long just to breath on his own. That alone keeps me thanking God for his blessing, and requires that I check on him every night before retiring just to listen to him breathe.
We were given a perfectly normal son, he is active, and wonderful. When my wife was carrying, the doctor did the test, we were not going to, he stated he was required to do so. we did not want the results, we just wanted our baby, however the Lord gave he or she to us. When we found out the test was actually wrong over 80% of the time and gave false positive results for DS babies, we REALLY did not care about the test.
In my hometown, a local businessman and his wife had a DS son, Davey. The parents were urged to give the child up, to put him in an institution, as was done so often then. They refused to do sa, and raised their son along with his younger sister, (not DS)and Davey went trhough school, Quadco, and worked for over 25 years in one of the local McDonalds joints. Davey retired about 2 years ago, is still fine, living in a group home at around age 55. Sorry, I am not sure of his age. He is healthy, he was one of the first DS employees of any major company, and was acknowledged as THE BEST trainer of new employees. Davey has been an active member of the community for decades, paying taxes and helping support himself.
How many liberals and democrats cannot say the same of themselves? How many demand more support from the taxpayers, like Davey? How many demand, demand and demand, yet never give? The same people that feel DS children should be aborted? Davey was proud of his JOB, and passed that pride, in himself and in a job well done, on to so many others, yet we have people who feel a life such as his is not worthy of life itself?
Maggie and others here who have DS children and personally know the love of such a blessing can teach the rest of the world so much. Sarah Palin will be the voice to help spread that lesson to the world.
You can tell from the picture, Cindy McCain is emotionally touched looking at Governor Palin with Kurt’s daughter. I was able to hear his story on Rush’s program, and I was touched as so many were. I was touched again seeing the pictures. Cindy McCain has done much for the less advantaged of the world than the entire membership of the Obama campaign, Governor Palin, combining her message with Cindy’s will do even more for our country and the world, it it unbelievable the possibilities.
Obama/Biden would do just the opposite. Maggie linked the story yesterday regarding the world wide poll the says the world wants Obama to be POTUS. They polled 22,000+. They state the sountries polled in. What I saw was a list of many countries where Islam is either a leading religion, ot the religion, so why are we surprised those would wish Barry to be in charge? These are the people that would wish us to become subservient to the rest of the world, to give all the riches of our country to those who would rather not earn what they get. Sorry, I get the feeling Senator McCain, Governer Palin, Cindy McCain and party were not raised that way, nor do they seem to act that way. Neither was I, and I am so behind them.
Bash posted an item from me some weeks ago, and many of you thanked me then for the time I spent in uniform. That humbles me, I feel I really do not deserve your thanks. I feel numerous things about my service, first and foremost, pride in having made it through Marine basic training when so many thought I did not have what it takes. I guess I showed them. anyway, I felt it was my duty, to my family and my country, to serve.
I feel humbled in that I have not done what so many of our youth have done, and that was to voluntarily join the military during time of war. Yeah, I was young back then, and felt that if I were to die, that was the way it was meant to be. I had no one else dependent upon me (family that is), and kept it that way, so I could give all I needed to my fellow Marines, and my country should it be required, so I was not distracted by family concerns. a lot of peopel have heard the phrase “If the Marines wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one”, well I sort of agreed with that then, and to an extent, now as well.
back on point. The people who really deserve thanks are those who have served in time of need, who answer the call regardless of risk, and their family members who support them. People like my uncle, who served over 20 years in the Air Force, and was called away so many times, who went to the Falklands, to Kuwait, to too many place, and gave my aunt her grey hair. Like my older brother, who I love dearly, that gave over 24 years to the Air Force. I rarely speak with him, but I have more respect and admiration for him than he will likely ever know.
People like Governer Palin, who do what is right in having a wonderful baby in Trig. Like Senator McCain, who gave more to this country than 99.099% of the rest of us ever will. Cindy McCain, Ollie North, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Pat Dollard, the list goes on and on.
We have such a bright future with the Senator and Governor taking over the reins, all it takes is keeping the faith, showing and giving our support, and facing down the slanderers like the Kos people, and other bloggers.
To use another great man’s phrase, “the truth shall set you free”. That truth is the Republicans have the greatest people, we have the best at heart, and can and will do the greatest good for all. I cannot wait for the final results on November 5th, we just need to keep the word out, and get everyone to vote. The worst that can happen is complacency, too many folks thinking their vote wouldn’t make a difference, and the socialists in the democrat party winning.
Stand up for America, stand up for John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the future of our great country!
September 10th, 2008 at 8:00 amThis is a great story and as someone said earlier there was no news media around . These are the people we need to have making decisions. I am more and more impressed every day. This is a great article and comments. By the way I love my brother in laws and yes they can be aggravating and yes one is Down Syndrome who works a job, pays taxes and owns his own home and has two other needs adults in his home. My DS brother in law has a work ethic better than most!!!
September 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm“To use another great man’s phrase, “the truth shall set you free”. That truth is the Republicans have the greatest people, we have the best at heart, and can and will do the greatest good for all. ”
And you sir, are a wonderful example of a best heart. So many of the Dollard folk are….I’m always inspired when I come here.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm