Like Bristol Palin, I was the oldest daughter in a family of five children, and it took a lot to get my mother's attention even though she was a stay-at-home mom. I can only imagine how hard it has been for Bristol as well as her siblings to get any quality one-on-one time with their mother, the governor of Alaska and now McCain's V.P. pick. I'm not saying that mothers shouldn't work or have high-powered careers. I'm saying that in so doing they risk not having enough time with their children, especially when they choose to have so many. Ditto for fathers.

So now that Bristol has the attention she was probably craving, and more, what can we the voters learn from this? Forget Bristol's pregnancy. This is not an uncommon occurrence. It happens, a lot. (Which is telling about our society since birth control has been easily available since the 1960's.) No, teenage pregnancy is not the issue. The issue is responsibility, or the lack thereof.

I'm speaking specifically to Sarah Palin, a mother of four who in her forties got pregnant again, knowing full well the risks of motherhood at that age as well as the time, energy, and money it takes to raise children in today's world. Perhaps thinking is different in Alaska where the population is still relatively low and the state pays oil dividends to its citizens. But that doesn't change the fact that each child born in the United States leaves a much larger carbon footprint than children born in third world countries.

There may be enough moose meat to go around the Palin family dinner table, but what about the children who are already born who don't have enough to eat - the children going hungry in the United States, supposedly the richest nation on earth? Why does anyone choose to have five children of their own in this day and age? I am told that religion still tells people to populate the earth in order to spread itself. Catholics do it. Mormons do it. And now Evangelicals do it? This to me is no different than white people saying, and I've heard this with my own ears, that we need to have more babies so we don't become a minority in the United States.

How about we take care of the babies already born - no matter their color, religion, or country? That to me would truly be pro-life and more responsible than Mr. and Mrs. Sarah Palin.