Down Syndrome in 2011

Girl with Down syndrome named prom queen at Missouri school

 

Students at Fair Oak High School in Missouri elected a 19-year-old fellow student as their prom queen.  Two other girls who were in the running for queen convinced other students to instead vote for Maisie Garoutte:

Maisie has been at the school since kindergarten, and is extremely popular among the students in her year, many of whom who have known her since she was five.

Mrs O’Dell (Maisie’s teacher and mentor) said: ‘‘They all know her really well, they all help her when she needs it. The vote was pretty much unanimous’ 

Describing her as ‘the sweetest person’, Mrs O’Dell said Maisie has won the hearts of everyone at school as the morning greeter, high-fiving the students as they walk in the door. She also volunteers at the school, rolling the teachers’ cutlery every morning and delivering the mail to staff."

A couple months ago our family was having lunch at a restaurant and a family with a Down syndrome daughter sat at a table near us.  I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had seen a DS child.   This is probably because in our "enlightened" society, we kill 92% of these children before they take their first breath.  Little girls like Maisie are not given the opportunity to bless the lives of others because they're considered a burden - an inconvenience. 


Pornographer Larry Flynt, in a disturbing rant about Sarah Palin [warning: pornographic content alert] puts into words the implications of the deeds done in the sterile abortion clinics:

"Sarah Palin is the dumbest thing. ... She did a disservice to every woman in America. She knew from the first month of pregnancy that kid was going to be Down's Syndrome. It's brain dead. A virtual vegetable. She carries it to all these different political events against abortion, she did it just because she didn't want to say she'd had an abortion. How long is it going to live? Another 12, 15 years? Doesn't even know it's in this world. So what kind of compassionate conservative is she? I don't think anybody will want her near the White House."

Somehow, Flynt misses the irony of his own physical condition. The Independent's Johann Hari describes him as, "lolling almost lifelessly in a chair. His head is barely able to look up at mine, and his hand is barely able to reach up to shake mine. He speaks in a very slow, strangulated gargle."

Let's see...if I had the choice to spend a day with that pervert Larry Flynt or this precious boy....

No contest. 

 Props to the kids in Missouri who see value in their friend Maisie and sent a message to the vile and cynical Larry Flynt's of the world.