WHAT TRIG CAN TEACH AMERICA - New York Post

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Not sure if this has been posted before.  Thought it was worth the read.

- Mom to Trevor, na (MDS) & Bryson

Subject: WHAT TRIG CAN TEACH AMERICA - New York Post

I thought this was a cool story.

WHAT TRIG CAN TEACH AMERICA:

PERHAPS nothing 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 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.