Palin “Family Guy” Upset - Political or Personal?

I know most everyone has heard about the Family Guy depiction of a Down Syndrome girl as Sarah Palin’s daughter. Sarah and her oldest daughter took offense to the depiction and felt it was in poor taste. I think it was an opportunity missed by the former Governor.

In my opinion, the Palin family has a right to be upset with the personal nature of the comparison. I believe that children of public figures should be off limits to the political games played by all parts of the media machine. If we can’t have a level of decency around our children’s privacy then we just degrade into a bunch of name calling school yard bullies. I believe we need to strive to be smarter and classier as a culture.

On the other hand, I think Sarah Palin missed a great opportunity to define the public perception of special needs children, while separating it from some political agenda. The representation of this girl with Down Syndrome as socially functional, well mannered, and attractive; was in my opinion an opportunity for former Gov. Palin to denounce some of the stigmas that many people still have around this birth syndrome. Instead, the Palin’s chose to focus on the personal nature of the representation. This was one of those opportunities to turn lemons into lemonade, but it seems that Palin’s handlers aren’t doing their job helping her spin the media’s schoolyard shenanigans into useful fodder to promote an agenda that benefits us all.