America by Heart, by Sarah Palin: on Families & Children
Dan Quayle:
2010: 18 years after Murphy Brown, "Dan Quayle Was Right"
In 1992, 38 million Americans watched as a fictional television journalist named Murphy Brown, finding herself over 40, divorced, and pregnant, decided to have the child alone. Without the baby's father. On prime-time television. Vice-President Dan
Quayle expressed his opinion by saying, "It doesn't help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown--a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman--mocking the importance of fathers y bearing a child alone and
calling it just another 'lifestyle choice.'"The Murphy Brown debacle effectively ended Quayle's hope of succeeding George H. W. Bush as president. But from the perspective of 18 years later, his defense of families with fathers looks prophetic. And in
fact it was only a few years later that The Atlantic Monthly published a controversial cover story titled "Dan Quayle Was Right." What we've learned since--and what Hollywood is still having trouble accepting--is that families matter & fathers do matter.
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p.116-117
Nov 23, 2010
Pat Moynihan:
1960s: impact on blacks from rise in out-of-wedlock birth
The problems that would ensue when the American family began to break down could have been foreseen, and were foreseen by some discerning critics--some of whom were liberals. 45 years ago, Moynihan issued a famous report warning of the impact on
African Americans from the rise of out-of-wedlock births. For daring to declare that "the richest inheritance any child can have is a stable, loving, disciplined family life," Moynihan was savaged by liberals and accused of racism and blaming the victim.
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p.115-116
Nov 23, 2010
Sarah Palin:
Mistake to assume teen daughter was a "good girl"
When my 17-year-old daughter dropped the bomb on Todd and me with her announcements that her adolescence had been prematurely halted and, in most unfortunate circumstances, she was going to have a baby, our little world stopped spinning momentarily.
Bristol was a "good girl," and this wasn't supposed to happen. Preoccupied with the enormous job of being governor of the nation's largest state, I assumed that Bristol was making only wise decisions while staying with my sister in Anchorage.
I kick myself to this day for my selfish assumption. I made a mistake.I helped deliver [my grandson] Tripp. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, but at the same time I knew it all should have been happening ten years from then.
A contradiction? Perhaps. But Tripp is a dream; he's the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p. 95-96
Nov 23, 2010
Sarah Palin:
Founding Fathers took strong families for granted
It sounds strange to us today, given how preoccupied we can be with the problems the family faces, that the men who laid the foundation of our republic said so little about the institution of the family. The founders took it for granted that strong
families instilled in children the habits and disciplines necessary for those children to govern themselves in adulthood.What the founders focused their energy on, then, wasn't a government that sought to control or shape families, but a government
that could capitalize on the virtues of trust and self-restraint that families create--a government that could respect and honor good citizens by allowing them to liver and prosper in freedom. The Constitution's relationship to the family, then, was
meant to be reciprocal: to depend upon the virtues of family life to make its system of government work, while protecting the freedom of families to create self-governing citizens.
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p.111-112
Nov 23, 2010
Sarah Palin:
On Down baby: God won't give me something I can't handle
I never planned on being the mother of a son with special needs. I thought, "God will never give me something I can't handle." And when I found out that my baby would be born with Down syndrome, I thought immediately, "Hey God, remember you promised you
wouldn't give me something I couldn't handle? Well, I don't think I can handle this." This wasn't part of my life's plan, and I was scared. I didn't know if my heart was ready. I didn't know if I was patient & nurturing enough.
But when Trig was born
I understood that God DID know what he was doing! What at first seemed like an overwhelming challenge has turned into our greatest blessing. All the time, it seems that God was whispering in my ear and saying, "Are you going to trust me? Are you going to
walk the walk or just talk the talk?" But when they laid Trig in my arms & he just kind of melted into my chest, he seemed to say to me, "See, Mom, God knows what he's doing. He gave me to you, and you to me, and this is going to be a wonderful journey."
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p.153-154
Nov 23, 2010
Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018