Sexism, Elitism and Political Opportunism Not Just for the Media

Let's take a look at some of the letters to the editor from today's edition of the Chicago Tribune. Here is one from Bill Benjamin of the North Shore suburb of Evanston.

This is in response to columnist John Kass' "Politics don't get dirtier than smearing pregnant girl" (News, Sept. 2). Kass only partially gets it in his column. It's rare when both Kass and Barack Obama agree, but they do regarding a candidate's children and the belief that offspring should be completely off limits. But Sarah Palin herself is entirely fair game. The Republican Party has failed governing for eight painful years, all the while rubbing family values and their self-righteousness in the faces of the rest of us. Now that it has been revealed that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is
pregnant, the GOP is unmasked and shown to be patently hypocritical and duplicitous. It's absolutely repugnant, and the stench is sure to last well beyond Nov. 4.

Craig Grabow of Valparaiso, Indiana (still in the circulation area of the Chicago Tribune)

The reasonable thing for Sarah Palin to have done would have been to decline John
McCain's offer to join his ticket as the vice presidential candidate for the following reasons:

• She is the mother of a recent newborn son who was born with the additional challenge of Down syndrome.• She has three other children under the age of 18.

• The second oldest child, her 17-year-old unmarried daughter, is five months pregnant.

• She has limited life experience outside the state of Alaska to make her qualified to serve as vice president of the United States as this point in time.Instead, she accepted McCain's offer and placed herself and her family into the center of a historic political battle between two polar opposite candidates for control of the country's most powerful political office for the next four years.Both she and McCain should be ashamed of putting political ambition ahead of rational human decision-making, and a realization of what is truly best for her family, its circumstances and the United States of America. She is simply the wrong vice presidential candidate at the wrong time if you consider her entire life and the responsibilities she has already taken upon herself.

Mary Fitzgerald of Arlington Heights, Illinois (a Northwest Suburb)

Who is going to take care of the 4-month-old while Sarah Palin travels the country campaigning? The 17-year-old? For the experience?

John A. Scanlon of Chicago.

The Republicans say Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter getting pregnant, out of wedlock, is a private family matter that is no one's business and should not be discussed. Where were all these right-to-privacy people when they could not get enough of President Bill Clinton's private life?

Angela Baronello (Antioch Northwest Suburb)

Of all the intelligent, highly educated women in the Republican Party, Sarah
Palin is John McCain's pick—a woman with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. This is an insult to the women who supported Hillary Clinton. We want the best and brightest women to rise to the top and lead the way. We don't want a consolation prize from a man who obviously doesn't get it.

Peter Felitti (Chicago)

While I agree that the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter is a private matter, I do find that it is revealing about Palin in one way: It shows the level of her ambitions. Knowing that her daughter was pregnant, knowing that this news would get out before the election, knowing that when it became common knowledge the news media would pick it up and report on it, knowing that this would mean that her teenage daughter would have her pregnancy become a national story, rather than decide to shield her daughter from that, Palin decided instead to try to further her political career. Says a little bit about what is most important to her.

Linda Beckstrom of Chicago

Much is being said about 17-year-old Bristol Palin's pregnancy—some of it mean and ugly, some of it sympathetic and accepting. But, to my mind, one thing remains clear. A teenage pregnancy is never a great situation for any of the people involved. It is a strain on the young parents, their parents and all of those who will have to step up and support the new family's struggle to grow up together. Seventeen is too young for anyone in this complicated, complex world to be a parent. The best thing that could come out of this unfortunate situation is that, as a society, we collectively admit to ourselves and to our children that abstinence-only simply does not work to prevent teen pregnancy. If we can admit after the fact that teens are having sex, even those from the most conservative, tightly knit families, then why can't we admit this before our kids turn up pregnant while they're still in high school and give them the birth control education and access they so obviously need?

John Kass wrote about Sarah Palin's daughter as being off limits from attack. I couldn't agree more. However, that's not to say that this story itself is off limits. It is relevant for two reasons. Sarah Palin—like much of the GOP—is adamantly opposed to sex education in schools that includes instruction on the availability and use of birth control. Instead they preach abstinence-only programs. That such a program won't even work for the child of a smart, successful woman shows how misguided that position is in today's world. The second reason the story is relevant has to do with judgment. It's nice to say that family is off limits, but Palin had to know that the fringe elements on both sides—largely inhabiting the Internet—will not observe such niceties, and that her daughter was sure to be thrust into the spotlight in a negative manner at an incredibly sensitive and delicate time. How dare she do this to her child? If family values are so important to Palin, she should have proved it by putting her family's privacy above political ambition.

Tim Howe (Waucanda far North)

John Kass wrote about Sarah Palin's daughter as being off limits from attack. I couldn't agree more. However, that's not to say that this story itself is off limits. It is relevant for two reasons. Sarah Palin—like much of the GOP—is adamantly opposed to sex education in schools that includes instruction on the availability and use of birth control. Instead they preach abstinence-only programs. That such a program won't even work for the child of a smart, successful woman shows how misguided that position is in today's world. The second reason the story is relevant has to do with judgment. It's nice to say that family is off limits, but Palin had to know that the fringe elements on both sides—largely inhabiting the Internet—will not observe such niceties, and that her daughter was sure to be thrust into the spotlight in a negative manner at an incredibly sensitive and delicate time. How dare she do this to her child? If family values are so important to Palin, she should have proved it by putting her family's privacy above political ambition.

Keith Kleehammer (Downers Grove West Suburbs)

The revelation of the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter does make one curious about Palin's ambition. What would possess someone, knowing that her teenage daughter was facing an unplanned pregnancy, to accept an offer to run for national office? Perhaps the family is not embarrassed by the failure of placing its belief in abstinence education in place of sex education, but if it were my daughter, I would have put her needs and feelings first and politely declined John McCain's offer.

Now, if the tenor, sexism, elitism, and political opportunism of these letters is not shocking, what is really shocking is this. This is the entirety of the letters to the editor in today's print edition. If you are unaware of the blatant media bias and read these letters, you would think all readers see Sarah Palin as abandoning her family for a selfish and ambitious quest. Furthermore, it is a quest that she is wholly unqualified for.

So, let's take them one at a time. John Scanlon draws a moral equivalency between a 17 year old that made decisions in privacy and was never herself a public figure to the President having sex with an intern in the Oval Office on the government's dime.

Bill Benjamin says that since Bristol Palin is pregnant this means that the GOP is hypocritical, repugnant, and with a stench to last beyond the election, though he seems to forget to explain how he arrives at this decision.

Craig Grabow thinks that Sarah Palin is a bad mother because she dared to accept the VP while she has a small child and a grandchild on the way.

Linda Beckstrom believes that Bristol's pregnancy proves that abstinence doesn't work even though she doesn't know Bristol, the circumstances of her pregnancy, or provides any statistics to back her position.

Mary Fitzgerald wonders who will take care of the kids while Sarah Palin runs for VP.

Angela Baronella seems that it is an insult to women that they would ever vote for anyone that graduated from the measely University of Idaho, 22 years ago.

Peter Felitti thinks that Sarah Palin is a bad mother because she knew this pregnancy would become common knowledge and didn't care because her personal ambition was more important than her family. Tim Howe concurs with righteous indignation, "how dare she do this to her daughter?" Keith Kleehammer finishes the pile on in questioning her devotion to her family.

If you are reading the Tribune, without enough sophistication to understand certain media biases, you would think that sexism, elitism, and political opportunism is representative of the Chicagoland area. More shameful than the letters themselves is the perception that a lack of balance to these letters create.

EPILOGUE:

To be fair to the Tribune, the actual editorials, all three, took the exact opposite tone. While the editorials create a counterbalance to the letters, in many ways, they create an even more twisted perception of the folks in the Chicagoland area because the perception is that the population at large is entirely unmoved by any counter argument. In my opinion, the Chicago Tribune has done a disservice in the perception they create for the folks of the city it serves.