Palin's Empty promises to desperate families

Empty promises to desperate families
by Rep. Sara Gelser, guest column
Tuesday September 23, 2008, 1:14 AM

Rep. Sara Gelser, D-CorvallisFor the past 11 years, I have worked on the front lines of the disability rights movement as a private citizen and a state legislator. Every week, I talk with families who struggle with the health care, economic and educational challenges that disabilities bring into their lives. These families face unimaginable choices as they seek to meet their kids' needs, including being forced to divorce, turn down raises and promotions, artificially impoverish themselves or place their kids in foster care just to gain access to essential medical services.

Parenting a child with a disability isn't an 18-year proposition. It is a lifelong commitment. In Oregon, we have 80-year-old parents still lifting their severely disabled adult children into bathtubs. We have parents who have not had a full night's sleep in years because they are ineligible for in home support or respite care. Mothers and fathers worry whether their adult children will be among the one in five that suffer abuse and neglect at the hands of their paid caregivers, even to the point of death.

Eighty percent of the infant girls born with a disability today will be raped or sexually abused in their lifetimes -- half of them 10 times or more. Most will be denied access to necessary medical services repeatedly in their lifetime.

People with disabilities and their families long for powerful advocates because of these gut-wrenching challenges. This is why Sarah Palin, with her stated commitment to "special needs families" has been a compelling and divisive figure in disability circles. Sadly, Palin's promises are in stark contrast to her record as governor and the stated positions of her presidential running mate, Sen. John McCain.

more:http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/09/empty_promises_to_desperate_fa.html

She practically walks on water for some of them for keeping a down syndrome baby.

And this shows she did not give a damn about those other parents in Alaska who did.

she's a fraud