exploiting children

This observation, by Donald Craig Mitchell, from the AlaskaDispatch raises a lot of serious moral questions. He went to the Palin rally in Anchorage, and noticed Bristol and Levi sitting in the bleachers.

Once I noticed them, I kept my eye on Bristol and Levi. What I learned provoked an odd empathy for the awful pickle Wasilla High School's hockey stick wielding homeboy now finds himself in.

Bristol and Levi sat shoulder-to-shoulder. But not once did they look at each other, speak to each other, or in any way acknowledge each other's physical presence. Not once. For an entire hour. Instead, Bristol stared straight ahead and Levi had the glazed look of a trapped feral animal.

Then when Sarah wound up her autograph signing and the people sitting in front of him on the bleacher began climbing down, Levi stood up and, without looking at or speaking to his betrothed, turned in the opposite direction and walked away.

What I took away from that is that the People Magazine spin about how excited the happy couple is about their upcoming nuptials and Levi's "Bristol" finger tattoo is the Karl Rovian nonsense that anyone who thinks about it for a scintilla of a second intuitively knows that it is. If McCain-Palin lose, my easy bet is that there will be no nuptials. But if they win, the hand Levi dealt himself by having had the poor luck to knock up the daughter of the Vice President of the United States (at the time who could have known?) will have to be played out.

What does this say about Palin? Levi and Bristol certainly made a mistake and they should not be condemned for that. But does Sarah have the right to force these 2 kids to compound that mistake merely because it will make things easier for Sarah as she runs for VP? Are you, as a parent, serving the needs of your daughter by forcing a boy who doesn't want her to be with her? What kind of person would set aside what's best for their child, merely to furthur their own ambitions?

But see, the right wing would accept 2 kids making a mistake and doing the 'right' thing by getting married. But the right wing would condemn a mother trotting around with a pregnant 17-year-old and no father in sight.

I feel sorry for Levi. And Bristol.