Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter

The tone of this column is along these lines: "Ha-ha, I told you that single motherhood wasn't only a black problem. Sarah Palin's single daughter's pregnancy proves it. So, all you racists stop talking about it being a black problem."

Well, Mr. King, it is a black problem. Indeed, it is a problem for all society, but most particularly for black families. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that unmarried women account for 68 percent of black births, compared with 42 percent for Hispanics and 23 percent of white, non Hispanics.

Sadly, out-of-wedlock births are increasing for all races, and this is a major problem because it means that increasing numbers of children are being raised in what were once called "broken homes." This, research demonstrates, leads to a multitude of serious societal problems, including more crime, more poverty and higher school drop-out rates.

One would think that someone who is concerned about the higher rates of these problems in the black community would focus on this rather than the pregnancy of a child of a vice presidential candidate, as if that proves a general rule.

Imagine for one sweet minute an Illiinois Gov. Palin

By Dennis Byrne

Chicago Daily Oberver

If the McCain/Palin ticket loses in November—perish the thought—maybe we could talk her into moving to Illinois from Alaska to run for governor here.

Sarah Palin is everything Illinois needs in a governor, but never had, at least for as long as I can remember. Besides setting Alaska’s finances in order, she demonstrated her seriousness about ethics reform by siccing investigations on her fellow Republicans. “She doesn’t care for the Republican Party [in Alaska] and the old guard doesn’t care for her,” said her former Washington D.C. representative, Larry Persily.

Read more in the Chicago Daily Observer