When I read that Sarah Palin had told a mother of a deaf son to "have faith that your—that your elected officials will demand that for
you, so the bureaucracy is—is enabling you to get those things, well,
taken care of..." my birthing pains came back.
The kind without the epidural. Y'know, when you get carte blanche to punch people in the face and scream out four-letter-words as loud as you can, and everyone just ignores you because of what you're doing at the moment.
As much as I'm embarrassed to admit I'm nurturing a girlcrush (as opposed to, of course, my WOMANcrush on Rachel Maddow) on someone just because I like the way she wears jeans and subtly flips off McCain, she never fails to takes me to new levels of incredulity.
But then again... Trig isn't even one year old yet. And it's not like Sarah and Todd are lacking for support or connections when it comes to caring for their son with Down Syndrome or making decisions on his behalf at some point down the road.
A childless friend asked me recently if there wasn't even a little, teeny, itty bitty part of me that wished Leah was hearing.
I answered, quite honestly, "No."
And then I thought about it again and added, "Well, not until she got to school age, anyway. Then I had to learn to deal with all the bullshit out there."
Even though I know the names of all the laws I need to invoke whenever someone tries to deny Leah something stupid, though I know via first-hand experience and via education each and every single one of my rights under law and under human courtesy, and even though I have all the officials in my municipality on speed dial right after the various advocates I know I can call on to go to bat for me, it's still tough.
After just over five years of fighting the system, the ONE THING I WILL NEVER DO is "have faith" that the government is helping me take care of my family.
I know enough now to fall on my knees and thank the Universe for providing those few people in the system who truly want to and can help me, and to constantly seek out support to give me support to be Leah's built-in defense system. Yes, I know I just used "support" twice in the same sentence, and I'm cranky enough that I just don't care.
There's no doubt in my mind that Sarah Palin has good intentions when she says "as the advocate in the White House, [a competent system is] what I will ensure." But you'll excuse me when I'll take that with a gigantic shaker of salt.
Have faith in the bureaucracy, my ass.