"But surely, when it comes to combating teen pregnancy, the Palin family has done enough damage already. What worse message could you send to teenage girls than the one they delivered at the Republican convention: If your handsome but somewhat thuglike boyfriend gets you with child, he will clean up nicely, propose marriage, and show up at an important family event wearing a suit and holding your hand. At which point you will get a standing ovation."
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist,
Gail Collins
Or how about if you screw up, you take responsibility for your mistake?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that the left must batter the young lady for making a mistake?
Why did the left continually bash Bush over drinking problems from his younger days? What matters is did he accept responsibility and seek to correct himself.
Why hasn’t the left shown the same scorn for Obama and his cocaine use? As with Bush, what matters is did he accept responsibility and seek to correct himself. I personally believe that he made a mistake and did indeed correct it.
So why is it that the left with their claims of being caring and tolerant must put so much effort in putting a teenage girl through the ringer? If the left truly were tolerant and caring they would have left it at “she made a mistake, and we hope she does well in the future.”
Don_cos - The point of what Collins is saying here is precisely about "taking responsibility." It's not a question about battering this young woman for making a mistake. Rather it's parading the mistake in front of America as if it's cause for celebration and a standing ovation. What is at issue is precisely the conflicting message that this sends to young woman about responsibility as it relates to teen pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree in the least. If Governor Palin had not brought it to light, the left would have. And they would have played it as a huge scandal. She did the right thing by being open about it.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as the crowd’s reaction goes, there is nothing wrong with giving a positive reaction for someone who does stand up and accept the consequences of their actions. The only mixed message comes from people like Gail Collins who try to turn it into something it isn’t.
"And as far as the crowd’s reaction goes, there is nothing wrong with giving a positive reaction for someone who does stand up and accept the consequences of their actions."
ReplyDeleteWell, if you would, please inform me what those consequences are? Lucrative speaking engagements? Interviews with Greta van Susteren? Fawning accolades from half the country? A kind of superstardom? That's the mixed message, Don_cos.
If the consequences of teenage pregnancy for Bristol Palin encompass such a glamorous and almost fairytale like outcome, with so much fawning attention given to her precisely because of her pregnancy and single teenage motherhood, what's to stop young female admirers of Bristol from embracing that which is seemingly the source of this focus and attention?
What does it say about the GOP that a pregnant, unwed, teenage girl was cavorting about the GOP convention with her lover without so much as a hint of disapprobation? Where is that old-fashioned sense of embarrassment and disappointment at an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and the insistence of an immediate wedding to right the wrong? This kind of thing used to shame families, no matter how close and loving and supportive they were. Now it seems to glamorize families and elicit proud standing ovations.
It seems to me that Bristol Palin has become the poster-child of being rewarded and praised for her status as an unwed teenage mother only because she "admitted" to a mistake. Again, tell me what it seems the consequences have been for Bristol; and then tell me how such consequences serve to dissuade teenage pregnancy?
You might not think of this as conveying a mixed message, but it does. Bristol should be concentrating on her private life and her baby, not agreeing to exclusive interviews with Greta van Susteren on national television.