Palin-drama: Is Teen Marriage Best for the Coming Child?
Say what you will about Sarah and Bristol and Twig. I'm feeling sorry for Levi.
There are no scarier words for a 17-year-old boy than "I'm late."
Except perhaps, "I'm late, and my mother is governor of Alaska and commander of the National Guard and running for vice president and thinks we should get married."
Or, "I'm late, and my mother knows her way around a shotgun."
Or, "I'm late, and you may want to talk to my ex-uncle, the state trooper, about how the Palin clan handles family disputes."
I hope that Levi and Bristol are deeply in love and spiritual soul mates, and that their high school romance will endure for 60 or 70 years. I hope that there's a sweet Knocked Up ending to their tale.
But let's be real. Life ain't Hollywood. The odds are not good.
Has anyone in St. Paul even raised the suggestion that it is not in the best interest of Levi and Bristol, at 17, to be forced into marriage with the whole world watching?
Or that their son or daughter might have a better life if raised by adoptive parents, or by a single mom in the vice-presidential mansion in Washington?
Or is that the sticking point? I guess you can't go barnstorming the country on Air Force Two, railing against sex ed and promoting abstinence, with an unwed teenage mother at home.
Certainly John McCain—the self-professed conqueror of Brazilian fashion models and Florida strippers in his lusty days of youth—should know better.
Hey, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were raised by single moms, and look how they turned out. (All right, all right. I acknowledge room for debate about Bill.)
Perhaps this is a positive development. Perhaps this happening, in the best of families, will make Americans pause. Perhaps we'll be more understanding, and less willing to condemn, when we hear the next story of a Bristol and Levi, a Tasha and Alice, or an Adam and Steve, succumbing to the demands of their genetic imperatives.
But somehow I doubt it. I hear the ghosts of our Puritan forebears, deep in their tombs, cackling with malicious delight.
Tags: abortion | presidential election 2008 | marriage | teens | Sarah Palin
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (48) | Print
Reader Comments
Palinoma
First of all, I was a McCain Supporter ... until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. My reservations about Sarah Palin have nothing to do with the fact that she has young kids. I admire the fact that she is doing her bit to go forth and multiply .. and populate Alaska :-). My real problem with Sarah Palin is that she is a hypocrite. On the one hand, she appeals to Christian conservatives with her "family values" pitch but on the other.. she seems to be running a marathon to break most of the 10 commandments over and over and over again. She has admitted to smoking dope, she had her first child 8 months after she got married - you do the math, she has used the powers of her political office to settle personal scores with members of her extended family, she is using state funds to pay someone who is essentially her family lawyer to represent her in court, she wants to defile Alaskan wilderness with by allowing her friends in the oil lobby to drill oil wells there (showing her total lack of regard for God's will for us to protect and preserve tha habitat that He has blessed us with), and she lies through her teeth when it comes to throwing unfounded accusations against her opponents - republicans and democrats alike. Some of my friends from church think that she sets a very bad role model for young women - by engaging in premarital sex herself and celebrating her young daughter's choice to do the same; and by choosing to bring a child with Down Syndrome into this world by choosing to have unprotected sex while in in her 40's when she ought to know better!
Palinoma
First of all, I was a McCain Supporter ... until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. My reservations about Sarah Palin have nothing to do with the fact that she has young kids. I admire the fact that she is doing her bit to "go forth and multiply" and populate Alaska :-). My real problem with Sarah Palin is that she is a hypocrite. On the one hand, she appeals to Christian conservatives with her "family values" pitch but on the other.. she seems to be running a marathon to break most of the 10 commandments over and over and over again. She has admitted to smoking dope, she had her first child 8 months after she got married - you do the math, she has used the powers of her political office to settle personal scores with members of her extended family, she is using state funds to pay someone who is essentially her family lawyer to represent her in court, she wants to defile Alaskan wilderness with by allowing her friends in the oil lobby to drill oil wells there (showing her total lack of regard for God's will for us to protect and preserve tha habitat that He has blessed us with), and she lies through her teeth when it comes to throwing unfounded accusations against her opponents - republicans and democrats alike. Some of my friends from church think she sets a very bad role model for young women - by having engaged in premarital sex herself (which is not something my pastor would approve of) and celebrating her young daughter's choice to do the same; and by choosing to bring a child with Down Syndrome into this world by choosing to have unprotected sex while in in her 40's when she ought to know better!
Bristol
I would say that Bristol was raised by 2 people with good values so why wouldn't she choose life for her child? I don't think she was forced to marry her boyfriend or keep her child.When you have a strong pro-life background you wouldn't even think of an abortion.Do you realize that almost 500,000,000 abortions have been performed since Roe vs Wade decision? That's a whole generation. It's not everyones"s answer.
advertisement
