I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The announcement that Bristol Palin, the unmarried daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Plain, is pregnant, injects a welcome dose of reality into the so-far unreal discussion of Republican "family values" in the 2008 presidential campaign. While the Alasksa governor’s place on the ticket has been hailed by conservatives, her daughter’s pregnancy brings home a fact that conservatives are loath to admit. Lectures about "family values" don’t much impress the parents of teenagers who struggle in their own ways to help their children make the transition to adulthood.
The challenges facing the Palin family are a matter of public record. Bristol Palin has gotten two traffic tickets in the past 15 months, according to Alaska court records. She was stopped for speeding in June 2007 and ticketed for failure to exercise "due caution" in February 2008. So the girl is careless behind the wheel. She has engaged in premarital sex and gotten pregnant. Those aren’t mortal sins, nor are they necessarily an indictment of Palin’s parenting. But when it comes to advocating values for other families, Bristol’s troubles ought to inspire a bit of humility in her mother and her running mate, John McCain.
For one thing, Bristol Palin’s bump is living proof that abstinence education doesn’t work, even among the families most invested in its success. One legitimate public policy question now facing Palin is: should teenagers be taught about birth control, in addition to abstinence?
The daughter’s pregnancy also bring home the reality of her mother’s total opposition to abortion under any circumstances. Sarah Palin says she wants criminalize the decision of any other young woman who, in Bristol’s situation, chose to terminate her pregnancy. Another question for Palin: If a teenage girl made a different choice than Bristol, should she go to jail? If so, for how long?
