On the car ride home today, my husband made a comment out of the blue, stating "Sara Palin is an idiot. She knew she was gonna have a disabled kid, but chose to have it anyway." I was kinda offended and I replied, "Everyone's view on life and abortion is different and you need to accept and respect that". He was quiet for a minute and then said, "People praise her like she's a hero." When I made no comment he reflected for a few minutes longer in silence and then said, "Well, I guess she is... I mean, she has pretty much taken on a really difficult and challenging life raising a disabled child."
We drove on further and I grew a bit annoyed. I wasn't sure if it was because of the dark residential streets in Rockland county, the rain, the fog or if it was my husband's thoughtless comments. I felt bad for children born with disabilities and illnesses but I was more frustrated that my husband was being so practical about it. It kinda reminded me of Ebenezar Scrooge asking the two gentlemen who came to his door for a charitable donation to the orphans and homeless "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
He carried on bringing up several friends who also knew when they were pregnant that they would have disabled children. He went as far as calling these women who chose to have these babies "almost cruel". I quickly got irritated and told him "You don't know that these children are suffering and miserable. They may be disabled, but they still laugh and play and are happy to be alive - you can't decide for them that they are going to be too miserable to live".
It continued to rain heavily and flashes of lightning kept illuminating the sky. There were tree branches to avoid on the road everywhere and my windshield kept on fogging up. This made me more anxious. I hate that there are disabled and sick children, and being a mother, I've grown a million times more sensitive to the plight of these little darlings. Driving in the night rain, on a foggy branch-scattered road, listening to my husband pass judgement on whether or not its practical to let certain children live, heightened my anxiety tenfold.
I then started thinking about Michael Campo, our son's godfather and his film "The Human Experience". The film documents two brothers who embark on a journey meeting homeless people in New York City, disabled children in Peru and lepers and AIDS victims in Africa. Despite their sufferings and hardships, these men, women and children still have hope and happiness in their lives. When I saw that my husband had made no reply to my previous statement, perhaps because he thought he had hurt my feelings, I said, "I have a new outlook on this whole "practical reasoning" in terms of abortion after watching Mike's movie." My husband immediately replied, "Oh yeah! That's true, that's true. I completely forgot. Yeah, these kids can still be happy and have fun."
I smiled. My husband can be so forgetful at times.
For more information on "The Human Experience" by Grassroots Films, please visit www.grassrootsfilms.com.