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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 13, 2008

Let's Get Busy

The Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin, is being hailed or excoriated depending on your personal beliefs, for allowing her teenage child to get a pass on getting pregnant. For political fodder, the issue twists to one of parenting style as leadership litmus.

In reality, this is an issue of real harm to the nation having nothing to do with one person's governing capacity: Teen pregnancy is on the rise again, after a decade-long decline. Why that is can be debated until the cows-with-child come home, but one thing is clear: We baby boomers are in charge of pretty much everything right now, so we influence this.

We thought welfare reform would continue to mitigate the problem of teen pregnancy. We were wrong.

Is Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy in itself a leadership problem or indication of moral ineptitude? I believe not. However, as a symbol of a nation, the mightiest on the planet, once again sinking to infant mortality rates seen in the Third World, it is clearly something of which we cannot be proud or allow to continue. Very few of the pregnant teens in our country have the money and support of the Palin family.

Boomers, we are needed again on this issue. Not to influence a presidential election, but to make sure infant mortality goes back where it belongs; on the decline and to eventual extinction. This is something we as a society have the remedies to, so let's get to it.

TERRI BENINCASA

Oldsmar

Make Abortion Rarer

When a young teenage girl becomes pregnant, most people don't shake the finger at the parents. After all, teens will be teens and at some point they're going to have sex, right? But in the case of Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, all fingers point to Sarah.

Being anti-abortion is a personal choice, and I while I am on the other side of that issue, I'll respect her personal choice. But when you choose to not support contraception and condoms, that's something I cannot support. If she would have educated her daughter on birth control and condoms, maybe the media wouldn't be giving them so many problems.

Unplanned pregnancies will always happen; it's what you do to prevent them that counts. The fewer unplanned pregnancies, the fewer abortions, which would make for a much happier world.

CHRISTINE SORRELL

Mango

Chickens Coming Home

If you are one of the many people who are getting their knickers twisted about the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter, this letter is for you.

The fact of the pregnancy itself is not the issue and really is a family affair. However, when her mother is the chief executive of Alaska and is against sex education in the schools that promotes birth control, that is the issue.

Sometimes one's chickens do come home to roost.

MARILYN B. SIGNER

Lakeland

Pregnancies Glamorized

Regarding the teenage daughter of Governor Palin, what message is being sent to our teenagers? It seems to me that teenage pregnancy is being glamorized by the news coverage of Palin's daughter and, recently, Jamie Spears.

I am afraid that teenagers are getting the impression that pregnancy is OK. It may be for Palin's child and Spears, but for the average family it is not OK. Both the Spears and Palin families can provide monetary support while their daughter finishes school. Both families can provide good health care for the mother and child, both during and after the pregnancy. Both families can provide child care for the baby while the mother attends school. These pregnancies are inconvenient, but will not interrupt the families' lifestyles or place another financial burden on the family. So, let's get real here.

Most American families are not wealthy, so teenage mothers drop out of school to work to help support their baby. With limited education, they probably will never get a great job and with so many uninsured families, the burden of health care falls on the government or there is not health care available.

Palin says she is interested in women's issues. Is not teenage pregnancy a woman's issue? Ignoring it, glamorizing it or glossing over it is not the way to deal with it.

PATRICIA SANTANA

Riverview

She Missed Her Lesson

I had no idea that shotgun weddings are totally acceptable. It was great surprise to me and others of the moral majority that this is a common occurrence, especially for the potential vice president of the United States.

I now know that Sarah Palin and her family were practicing safe gun control, not safe sex practices. Maybe Sarah and Bristol were absent on the day of the lecture. Sarah professes abstinence and Bristol didn't hear her, so like most teens and unlike her mother, Bristol never had a choice.

MARGE BERCH

Brandon

Family Values?

I just don't get it. The political party that proclaims "family values" and the importance of the children within families, chose to ignore the awful pressure and ridicule that has been, and will continue to be focused on the pregnant 17-year-old child of Sarah Palin. Perhaps the Republican Party, John McCain, and Sarah Palin hope to attract the votes of some single-issue voters but instead the true politicians they are come through loud and clear. Go after the votes, present this child before a huge crowd; no shame about offering up a pregnant child, who looks so sad and confused each time she is seen, to the news hungry media and television aficionados. This blatantly shows the true colors of the McCain/Palin "family values" team.

The handling of this situation gives rise to the question of how much thought would be given to matters that impact families, you and me, and our country.

JOAN LUND

Tampa

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