Special Needs Moms for McCain-Palin
August 29, 2008 – 2:39 pm by kimschI started a group over at Culture11.
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Tags: Bill Bennett, Culture11, David Kuo, Election 2008, Joe Carter, McCain, Palin, Special needs, Steve Forbes
[...] at Musing Minds is starting a Special-Needs Moms for McCain/Palin [...]
Before you blindly back Palin because she has a special needs child, check out the McCain website:
No discussion of special needs kids or adults (other than a bland comment that he’ll keep investigating the causes of autism).
No mandates for private insurers to cover the special needs population. Rather, creating government run plans of last resort like state minimum auto insurance - and zero guarantee of the quality of coverage.
Encouraging companies to drop group health coverage (which helps reduce the cost of covering special needs people) by taxing benefits.
Vouchers for “school choice”, but no requirement for private schools to take kids with special needs. Also no funding for schools to make up for the budget loss from such departures, even if the local public school winds up with all the special needs kids in town.
No change to NCLB that would stop states from “excusing” special needs kids from mandatory testing and test prepping to improve their test averages, then denying them diplomas - required to get decent jobs, go to college, etc. - based on the failure to pass the test.
Sarah Palin may become an advocate for special needs families some day. But she and McCain aren’t there yet.
Finally, if all that matters to you are family connections, then know that David Axelrod (Obama’s chief strategist) has a kid with autism and his wife is a big advocate for special needs care in Illinois.
I am not “blindly backing” Sarah Palin because she is a special needs mom.
That she is a special needs mom just adds to what I like about her.
Just because the McCain website doesn’t have a whole lot about special needs kids also doesn’t mean that the issue is non-important.
Sarah Palin’s been on the ticket for a week. There is plenty of time to work on it.
Also, not everything has to be supplied by the government.
No, not everything needs to be supplied by the government, but sometimes there are areas where it can provide support (low income families, supplemental programs in schools).
So, it’s interesting that Palin cut special needs support funding by more than 60 percent a couple of years ago, and now talks about how in a new government position she will support families with special needs kids.
Sarah Palin and the Alaska legislature have actually raised special ed funding in Alaska.
Per Education Week Magazine:
Please understand a couple of things. I didn’t say the McCain website lacks a lot of information about special needs - there is NO discussion about the special needs community as a whole. The McCain website is the campaign’s primary means of distributing its platform directly to voters. All the major proposals are there, albeit without the sort of factual analysis one would hope for - and the words “special needs” can’t be found. In other words, they don’t think the issue merits discussion, much less any sort of advocacy.
Also, please don’t put words in my mouth (or message). I never said I wanted everything provided to me by the government, and if you had a clue what I (like every parent of a child with special needs I know) have had to do and give up, you wouldn’t even suggest that I would want it. However, what I don’t want is a government whose policies (like McCain’s health insurance plan) are designed, whether through intent or neglect, to make my life and my family’s lives more difficult just because my son is disabled. Anyone whose had to fight for insurance coverage for basic OT, PT and speech therapy, gone toe to toe with school administrators over IEPs, had to deal with condescension and exclusion from everyday events because how your child behaves (or can’t behave) knows that its hard enough to get by right now - I don’t need to suddenly be forced to try and find individual private insurance, too.
What I do want is every opportunity for my child that McCain is busy promising to everyone else, but his policies don’t allow for it. I actually tried to put my son in private school at one point, because a Montessori curriculum seemed to work better with his intellect. The only one that would take him wanted us to pay the full cost of a one on one aide. That doubled the cost, making it more than a year at public college($20,000). I love my son dearly, but I just couldn’t afford that - and a voucher for a few grand wouldn’t have made up the difference. So barring a lot more fiscal generosity (or irresponsible spending, to use the normal Republican term for it) my kid is going to go to public school, and I’d like it to be at least as good as the ones I went to. That can’t happen if the funding suddenly gets slashed because everyone who can get out bolts for private school.
I also want to send him to college - he is that bright, and so far he’s passed every NCLB test he’s been given. But schools keep putting pressure on us not to test him, to put him on a segregated track and never let him graduate. I have nightmares about what happens to my son if he doesn’t pass “the big one” in a few years because he can’t relate thematic elements in literary pieces (its an autism thing) and therefore can’t become an engineer, or scientist, or anything else he wants and can do. I can and will keep fighting that reality, but I’d much rather not have to - and if NCLB is revised, maybe I won’t have to.
Finally, like all parents I want to leave my son a better country to live in than I had. He will probably always be dependent on me, his mom or an aide to some degree, and he may have to take Medicaid payments to provide for his basic needs. If he does have to take that sort of assistance, I don’t want him to have to live in a state run facility where he has zero choice about what he does. The Supreme Court said it shouldn’t be like that, that all people deserve to live as they chose within reason, but it has yet to become a reality in many states. This is largely owing to financial issues and some entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo. McCain’s refusal to even implement the law of the land in a way that would give people with special needs the basic dignity you and I take as our due as Americans tells me all I need to know about his willingness to advocate for people like my son.
Andrew,
I am the parent of a special needs child. She won’t be going to college however.
My daughter will be 18 in November. She has a developmental delay, moderate hearing impairment, epilepsy, and lupus.
She can dress herself (and puts the clothes on correctly most of the time), go to the bathroom herself, feed herself. She needs help when she has her period and to shower and brush her teeth.
She loves Barney, Dora, Blue’s Clues, and the live action Transformers movie.
She calls the movie Ice Age - Elephant. Ice Age 2 is Elephant/Water.
She recognizes some words written down, her name, her brothers’ names - but she doesn’t read.
She doesn’t speak very well as a result of her hearing impairment, but she was kicked out of deaf school for talking too much and not signing enough.
Her father had good insurance that covered weekly speech, occupational, and physical therapies. Then he lost that job and she lost the therapies. Insurance only wants to cover temporary needs for those therapies. She has a chronic need.
So, I understand.
But again, just because there’s nothing on the site doesn’t mean there’s nothing being done or worked on. Maybe with Sarah Palin on the ticket, special needs kids will get more attention. Not everything can be covered on a campaign website. I’m sure Obama hasn’t covered everything either.
I also think that, as with insurance’s denials of therapies for chronic illnesses/syndromes/etc… socialized medicine would also deny it. After all, if a child won’t be cured by the therapies, why waste the resources?
Then there are those that think that if we knew our children wouldn’t be “perfect” then perhaps we shouldn’t have brought them to term. So many children with Down Syndrome are never even given the chance at life.
Trig Paxon Van Palin will probably function at a higher level than my daughter ever will, as will your son, by your comments.
I’m sorry that you felt I put words in your mouth or message. I certainly didn’t mean to do so. I was reacting to your comment that my ONLY reason to support Sarah Palin was that she’s Trig’s mother.
I am not for a moment going to tell you how to vote, and I’d like to think that McCain could become more reasonable on things like healthcare - although I doubt it.
However, if the concerns of your child and her place in society are of deep concern to you (and I guess they are), I would ask that you at least do yourself a favor and look at Obama’s site at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/disabilities
He has a four part plan on disabilities generally (with both an overview and specific plan document) and a plan on autism in particular(also with a detailed plan document). His health care reform includes a Federal mandate of coverage without pre-existing conditions. He wants to get the emphasis on testing and teaching to the test out of NCLB while still requiring accountability for schools. There is something you won’t see on the site by name, but only in the documents - he is a co-sponsor of the Community Choice Act, which McCain has made very clear he opposes.
Why does Obama have so much information on this issue on his site? Partly because it was a key part of the Democratic nomination process. Partly its just because his site has a lot more detail than McCain’s. But at least in part, I like to think its the fact that his chief strategist - the guy he probably deals with the most in his circle of advisors - is the father of a special needs child and the wife of an advocate for such kids.
Thank you Andrew for your clear comments. I listened to Palin’s speech last night and was angered by the way she spoke to special needs parents when McCain has clearly not included our needs in his platform. I hope more discussions like this continue.
McCain and Palin both seem to have such a strong affinity to guns and war. Don’t forget all the special needs children this results in! As a republican, I just don’t get how this party became so mean and angry sounding (this year’s convention). They constantly try to leverage peoples’ fears to get their vote. I just can’t see how people think of all this as Christian.
Obama may have a whole page on disability rights, which, as a person with Cerebral Palsy, I admire. But what Obama doesn’t tell you is he supports the right of parents to terminate people like me if they decide they don’t want a special-needs baby. I find it insulting that the same people who say they are touched by people with special-needs are now saying they should have a right to not have a baby based solely on the fact that it is different. Believe what you want, but Obama’s silence on all the critics regarding disabilities and “choice” speaks VOLUMES. And by the way, the Rehab Act of 1973, IDEA and the ADA (Bob Dole’s signature legislation) were all written and signed into law by Republicans. So who’s really looking out for me?
Thank you Michael. A couple years ago I wrote about the Groeningen Protocol in The Netherlands. Where they wanted to “mercy kill” children under two with severe disabilities. I could see where that might go and socialized medicine scares me for that reason too. My daughter won’t be a “productive” member of society. I can see her needs being marginalized because other, more productive people could use those same resources. You see some of this in Canada and Britain today. People who have to wait for needed treatment so long that they die before they can get it. Or the person with other health issues being pushed aside for someone with only the one health issue…
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Merchandise that says:
Moms of Children with Special Needs
MCCain * Palin
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As a concerned parent of a special needs child, I would love to know how Gov. Palin is going to represent and be a voice for the special needs community when she cut the budget for special ed in Alaska by 62% not a voice I want to help my kids
Audrey, please see my comment above. Sarah Palin did not cut special needs funding. She raised it. There was also an issue (I can’t remember exactly where I read it) about a program that had been funded under special education, but was removed from special ed and funded separately - on its own. That might be where you are getting the :cut spending by 62%: meme.
The program wasn’t cut at all, just funded separately and it looked like Special funding had been cut, when it hadn’t.
Palin actually did not cut special needs funding.
Check factcheck.org for the truth.
I have been searching for days to find their written plan for special education and cant find anything other than they do not plan on funding the IDEA act more than the 17% currently under. I did find Obamas plan however http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/DisabilityPlanFactSheet.pdf
Does anyone know where to find mccain’s
When my oldest son was diagnosed with Autism, it was a heartbreaking and life-changing event… I knew at that moment our lives would be forever different…
My husband and I suddenly became a team in ways that I had not known other couples to be..
Being a parent of a child with special needs, we learned that early intervention is the key to any child’s success… the MORE you can do before the age of 5 to help that child on the path to a more “typical” life… the better their chances of success…
We knew the importance of our involvement in this early intervention… and we both did as much as possible to be a “team” during that critical first 5 years…
Every appointment with specialists: my husband was there…
Every meeting with the school district: my husband was there…
Evaluations… IEP meetings… nights awake until 2 a.m. (due to my son’s sleep disorder)… Potty training starting at age 2… no wait 3… and then FINALLY at 4…
Research… alternative diets…
My husband was in it 100%.
Every milestone (many that others take for granted)… my husband was able to share in… because family, not career, suddenly became our main focus.
Now, let me just say that a lot of parents share (almost) equally in the responsibilities of raising their children… but when a special needs child is thrown into the mix, the responsibilities become magnified exponentially…
We both did whatever we could to help out in getting us through those crucial first five years…
Each of my 3 boys has had developmental delays… and often times people say things like: “I don’t know how you do it” or “It takes a special person to raise a special needs child”… I disagree… I didn’t have my oldest son because I was special (although I do believe he has changed me for the better)…
We’re not gifted as parents because God chose to give them to us… We’re not doing anything different than anyone else would do… You do what you have to do… it’s not a choice…
That being said… the first diagnosis DID change the way we did things… the choices we made…
We waited longer to have a second child (our oldest was in the terrible 2’s from 18 months to age 5)… We even debated having more children at all because the stress and challenges during those first 5 years numbered so many…
Our lives are forever changed…
That being said… I wouldn’t ask for it to be any different… he is amazing and we are blessed to have him…
With all this in mind… let’s just say that I have a small glimpse into what lies ahead for the Palin family…
I understand a small bit of what they face with the diagnosis of Down Syndrome with their infant son Trig…
Their joys will mirror some of our joys… and their challenges will mirror some of what we have faced…
The following lists just a few of their possible challenges (from American Family Physician website):
AFP - August 15, 2000
TABLE 2
Incidence of Some Associated Medical Complications in Persons with Down Syndrome
Disorder Incidence (%)
Mental retardation >95
Growth retardation >95
Early Alzheimer’s disease Affects 75% by age 60
Congenital heart defects (atrioventricular canal defect, ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, tetralogy of Fallot) 40
Hearing loss (related to otitis media with effusion or sensorineural) 40 to 75
Ophthalmic disorders (congenital cataracts, glaucoma, strabismus) 60
Epilepsy 5 to 10
Gastrointestinal malformations (duodenal atresia, Hirschsprung disease) 5
Hypothyroidism 5
Along with the challenges developmentally that baby Trig will face… he also more than likely will have multiple health issues… possibly with his heart… his sight… his ears… none of which we as parents have had to cope with…
These are challenges I am unfamiliar with… and I imagine compound the Palin families responsibilities WAY beyond ours…
My problem…
During the those first 5 crucial developmental years…
Being that her son faces a host of physical and developmental challenges…
at a time when MOST parents would scale back their life to focus on the needs of that special child… make themselves MORE available so they could be there… as much as possible…
at doctor appointments… school meetings… therapy sessions…
Sarah Palin is signing up to take on the second most important job in the nation…
She is signing up to INCREASE her career responsibility… and making it very likely that she will be LESS available to baby Trig…
At a time when most parent’s stop and think of how they can realign their life to focus primarily on their child’s developmental and health needs… making sure they are there every step along the way…
She is saying “thanks, but no thanks…”
She’d rather be (vice) President…
And, that to me indicates a lack of judgment…
That to me indicates some very skewed priorities…
and that… to me… is not someone that I want helping make desicions on what is best for our country…
because… to me…
She isn’t making a smart decision about what is best for her son…
How can she be trusted to help make decisions about what is best for the rest of us??
Please be informed about all the issues, who has stood up for people with disabilities, and what they have actually done. A very thorough analysis can be found at http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/09/15/paul-longmore-open-lette/
Please take the time to read this, and pass it to everyone you know who knows, who loves, who cares for people with special needs.
Dear Kimsch,
Hi. We welcome you to join us at MORE MOMS FOR MCCAIN here:
http://moremomsformccain.blogspot.com/
I think you will find TONS of support for your viewpoint and your family (we moms tend to have lots of common sense
). Some who visit MORE MOMS FOR MCCAIN have special needs children. Some do not. However, we are all moms who want the best for our country, and we’re all voting for McCain/Palin. 
God bless-
A Mom for McCains last blog post..More Moms for McCain Offer Thoughts on the Debate–
I am so disappointed in the Sarah Palin supporters..
Is America really this stupid? I am a special needs individual (EBD), but don’t need to vote for Sarah P. because she has a special needs child. Are you supporters really this blind. I am a 19 year old white female; if Barack was a white man with the same credentials you would support him. Take a look at the campaign as a whole and not race. Also, I no longer have respect for McCain, he has truly showed his true colors. I am a register voter, but I will not be looking at race but this economy and will be voting for Barrack. Wake Up! You need to do the same!
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH AMY!! IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE THAT CHOOSE TO IGNORE THE THINGS THAT PALIN AND MCCAIN SAY. I PRAY TO GOD THAT PEOPLE WAKE UP AND LISTEN TO THE THINGS THAT THEY SAY. I WOULD BE SO EMBARASSED TO SAY THAT MY PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC PEOPLE IN THE NEWS!!!PLEASE VOTE FOR OBAMA!!!!
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH AMY!! IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE THAT CHOOSE TO IGNORE THE THINGS THAT PALIN AND MCAIN SAY. I PRAY TO GOD THAT PEOPLE WAKE UP AND LISTEN TO THE THINGS THAT THEY SAY. I WOULD BE SO EMBARASSED TO SAY THAT MY PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC PEOPLE IN THE NEWS!!!PLEASE VOTE FOR OBAMA!!!!
Joy really has some insight into Sarah that I think many people (especially mothers) are just not seeing. God has given her this special child to care for. And it should be her main priority at this point in life. Sarah said she didn’t blink an eye when asked to be VP; which is a decision which should take considerable thought and deliberation. Will she “blink an eye” about getting the US embroiled in another war? I get the impression she’s in this with her own agenda or crusade, and will leave many casualties in her wake. We already have suffered from the previous crusade that was waged this past 8 years. She’s of the same mold.
I have a Down Syndrome child. Those who don’t, just looking at a list of possible medical conditions is not really a good way to measure what a child with DS will have. I’m part of an association of 500 families and I can tell you when we all get together, the ways in which this extra chromosone affects each of our children is very different. So far, for my child, she only had feeding issues as a baby. Not able to latch initially, (later had no problem) because of weak muscle tone. Yet that weak tone issue hasn’t stopped her from meeting every development milestone on the same timetable as a typical child. In fact, the last time she was evaluated, she was actually ahead in language development and cognitive responses. She has complete downs too, not a partial case. She is a beautiful, amazing child and actually the EASIEST and BEST baby of all three of my children. Not fussy at all. Very happy. Good sleeper. Every time I see Trig, no matter the environment, he’s not crying. Just like my little Emily-Kate. They are just such good babies. Such an amazing blessing from God. I am soooo saddened and angered when I read comments like I just did last night on a blog at CNN from a heartless woman who said “Sarah Palin probably would have aborted if she had been part of the middle class, because then just like us, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the medical care of one of those children.” Would that person destroy one of her kids if they got paralyzed during their lifetime because she couldn’t afford the healthcare? I am by no means part of the upper financial class, in fact those of you with special needs children know that SSI is available for children with disabilities for families who financially qualify and we do. But you know my heart was especially pulled to the pro-life campaign when Emily Kate was born. Over 90% are aborted. I really believe this is because of fear of the unknown. I pray that somehow moms just receiving this news in their 20 week ultrasound could talk to parents who actually have these children and find out the incredible joy they really are. In that respect, I feel Sarah Palin has already done the special needs community some good. Can you imagine what it would be saying if we found out that this 44 year old Govenor had aborted her baby when she found out she had DS? I think somehow, even if she is never VP, she has encouraged moms who are finding out for the first time that their children will have a special need, that this will not be the end of the world and maybe the beginning of a beautiful journey. She has been 100% positive about this. That certainly is a plus in our camp. The opposite would have spurred more of the same lack of knowledge and heartless attitudes like that woman I mentioned. If nothing else, I hope someday the abortion rates will be much lower as DS children and adults continue to make a beautiful impact in our world.
I’ve read thru this discussion board and thought I’d chime in.
As a parent of a child on the autistic spectrum - and a member of my city’s special education advisory committee, I am intrigued by Sarah Palin and the commitment she is making to special education and special needs funding.
I’m a lifelong Democrat and have never supported a Republican candidate. But I may have to this time.
With the way the polls are looking, Obama will not need my vote on November 4th. So I am going to go to the polls and vote on behalf of my son.
Sarah Palin, I have your back. And I hope you will have mine if somehow you and John McCain pull the ultimate miracle and find yourself in the Oval Office on January 20th. Don’t forget what you’ve promised. I’m counting on you to deliver!
I listened to Sarah Palin’s special needs policy speech this morning. There were three main points. First, she talked about choice, so that all special needs kids could go to whatever private or public school the parents wanted. She didn’t really explain how that would work or how that would be paid for.
Second, she said that a McCain adminstration would fully fund IDEA. She didn’t say how exactly that would be funded but suggested, as she has before, that there didn’t need to be new funds, only a repriortization of the federal funds already in play. Looking at the McCain website, the education section (which mentions IDEA as one of many programs) says that there are plenty of ed programs, making a point about how much money is already being spent. There is no suggestion that new money should be put in these areas; would new funding come from the current funding for other ed programs?
She also mentioned funding for NIH for cures, but never followed up on that. I can’t find anything that McCain has ever said about funding NIH, Obama says he will double funding over the next ten years.
I didn’t find Palin convincing but she was better than I expected until she changed topic and started saying how Obama’s tax plan was going to be horrible for special needs families and implied that special needs truts would be targeted by Obama’s plan. I can’t find anything that indicates that this is true.
I suggest anyone interested go to johnmccain.com and barackobama.com and read their issue sessions on healthcare and education. There is a lot there.