As you all are well aware, the sitcom
Family Guy recently took a swipe at Sarah Palin and her son Trig. (Read more about it
here.) It sickens me that a show would go the lengths it did to make fun of Sarah and her son. As I mentioned in the post above, NO child should be made fun of or belittled. Many may be unaware of the actress who is the voice behind the Down Syndrome character. The actress's name is Andrea Friedman, and like her character, she too has Down Syndrome. While I don't at all agree with Andrea's choice to play a role that mocked Sarah and Trig, this is not what bothers me; instead, it is a letter she has chosen to distribute to the
New York Times.
I guarantee that had Sarah member a member of the left, she and her son would NOT have been mocked in this manner. A great example of one such individual is David Axelrod who, like Sarah, has a (grown) child with special needs. Now, before the left becomes unhinged and cries out, "Well, David Axelrod never parades his daughter around" I will tell them that, during the election,
Parade Magazine did a piece on Axelrod and his daughter. David Axelrod's daughter has been treated with respect and dignity, which should ALWAYS be the case, but where are the people to speak out when little Trig is attacked? Where is the fairness, justice and respect for him? After learning of Andrea's letter, liberal media outlets like the
Daily Kos,
Huffington Post and
Gawker reporting the letter's (see below) contents.
Andrea's Letter:
My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down Syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line "I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska" was very funny. I think the word is "sarcasm".
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.This letter should upset you as much as it does me. I usually do not spend my time on trivial issues, but when I learned of what was present in it, I became outraged at just how mean spirited some people could be. How dare Andrea say that Sarah's treats little Trig like a prop and carries him around like a loaf of bread? As someone with Down Syndrome herself, Andrea should know firsthand of the challenges Trig has ahead of him. Didn't it occur to her that little Trig will one day be old enough to learn that someone else in the special needs community called him a prop and equated him to a piece of food? While I commend Andrea for overcoming challenges to become a successful actress, I am disgusted that she would use her platform as an actress and advocate belittling the Palins this way. Sarah is a great mother who loves her family with all her heart. I look up to her so much for the way she includes her family in so many aspects of her life. She is not ashamed of her children; instead, she is very proud of each and every one of them. You can see it in the way she talks about them. You can see it in the way interacts with them. You can see in the way her children have turned out. She and Todd are excellent parents who have taught their kids what matters: God, family and country. I always say that if I turn out to be half the wife and mother Sarah is, I'd be a happy woman!
It is so clear that Andrea has a liberal bias. What I think Andrea fails to understand is that, although she does not see the harm the role she played has caused, not everyone thinks the same way she does as one reader commented over on
Gawker. Andrea is a strong woman who has a successful career, so why does she feel the need to attack a woman as gracious and generous as Sarah? A woman who CHOSE to give life to her child. Although Sarah and her family are well-known individuals, they are still considered private citizens. I hate to break it to Andrea, but Trig is not the prop, she is. I say this because just as others individuals like Levi Johnston are being used by the media to tear apart Sarah and her family and to push their liberal agenda forward, so too is Andrea. She may not realize it now, but she will, and it is only a matter of time before the liberal media who swallowed her up spits her out. We can only pray that Andrea realizes this before it happens.
THERE IS ANOTHER ISSUE I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS: I want to commend Fox News Channels Greta Van Susteren for her tireless advocacy for women in politics. It is no secret that Greta is a great woman herself who believes women should be given the same opportunities and treated with the same fairness as their male counterparts. Today on her
Greta Wire Blog, Greta blogged about the absurdity of liberal
Washington Post Columnist Sally Quinn:
In July, Sally Quinn, columnist in the Washington Post, defended David Letterman for his comments about Governor Sarah Palin and her daughter. In doing so, she criticized Governor Palin. My "favorite" of her criticisms ? It is in bold blue text below. Read below and then you decide who is putting family first - the mother defending her child from the comments of a talk show host who coincidentally cheats on his wife? or the wife who conveniently schedules a wedding so that her husband can't attend the wedding of a grandchild from a former marriage...and then writes a column to sugar coat it when it hits the gossip circuit in DC.
We report, you decide.
Here are Sally Quinn's comments about Gov Palin...followed by a link to her explanation.
".....Well, clearly, [Governor Sarah Palin] has not put her family first … And these children have, it seems publicly, to have been exploited by her in a, I think, really unfortunate way … She brings them all to the convention, including Trig, the baby. She brings the pregnant daughter with the boyfriend who clearly didn’t want to be there. She then travels around with the children, using them as sort of photo ops … she brings the children up when she needs them to shore up her own image....." [MS/NBC]Click
here to visit Greta Wire and read the rest of Greta's post, including Greta's reaction to Quinn's vile comments; it is a definite MUST READ! Greta is reporting on an issue that so many in the liberal msm are unwilling to do. Just as I and many others have called out the terrible, malicious actions of the sitcom
Family Guy, Greta is taking a stand and calling it like she sees it!!! Thank you, Greta, for being a fair, objective journalist AND champion for women!!! As a woman, I thank you!!!
(I want to thank Karen Allen for the beautiful image of Sarah and Trig with the verse above. Click here to visit Conservative Girl with a Voice and become a follower. Click here to follow me on Twitter.)