In response to unsourced conspiracy theories, the Palin's released a statement that:
Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.
Mark Okeson was Bristol's assistant principal at Wasilla High School before she transferred to Anchorage High School mid-year. He had this to say about the situation:
"I'm sorry to hear this, but I have every confidence they have the abilities and the confidences to handle this," he said."Just like children should not pay for the sins of the parents, the parents should not pay for the transgressions of the children."
This blogger has nothing but prayers to offer for Bristol, her family, and her unborn child. Remarks about Mr. Okeson careless thoughts are below the fold.
Mr. Okeson may relate to a time in this country when government thought it knew best about who could have children. From the opinion of Oliver Wendall Holmes in Buck v. Bell:
Carrie Buck is a feeble-minded white woman who was committed to the [the Virginia asylum]. She is the daughter of a feeble- minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child.
An Act of Virginia approved March 20, 1924 (Laws 1924, c. 394) recites that the health of the patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives...
Carrie didn't want to be sterilized and somehow mounted a challenge to the Virginia law. Justice Holmes upheld the law, and allowed Carrie's sterilization:
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
Perhaps the idea of an ideal person to carry a child goes back as far as Plato's Republic:
A woman, I said, at twenty years of age may begin to bear children to the State, and continue to bear them until forty; a man may begin at five-and-twenty, when he has passed the point at which the pulse of life beats quickest, and continue to beget children until he be fifty-five.Certainly, he said, both in men and women those years are the prime of physical as well as of intellectual vigor.
I modern America we recognize that there is a fundamental right in procreation. The idea that anyone could be sterilized at the state's whim was short lived.
[Jack T. Skinner] was convicted in 1926 of the crime of stealing chickens and was sentenced to the Oklahoma State Reformatory. In 1929 he was convicted of the crime of robbery with fire arms and was sentenced to the reformatory. In 1934 he was convicted again of robbery with firearms and was sentenced to the penitentiary. He was confined there in 1935 when [Oklahoma passed a law which allowed the Attorney General to steralize thrice convicted criminals such as Skinner]. In 1936 the Attorney General instituted proceedings against [Skinner]. [Skinner] in his answer challenged the Act as unconstitutional by reason of the Fourteenth Amendment. A jury trial was had [and a] judgment directing that the operation of vasectomy be performed on petitioner was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma by a five to four decision.
Justice William O. Douglas saw things a little differently than Holmes:
[T]he instant legislation runs afoul of the equal protection clause.... We are dealing here with legislation which involves one of the basic civil rights of man. Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race. The power to sterilize, if exercised, may have subtle, farreaching and devastating effects.
As Justice Douglas notes, procreation is one of the basic civil rights of man. Accordingly, with consent for intercourse as a given, there is no wrong way to have a child. Mr. Okeson, however well intentioned, is fundamentally incorrect. There is nothing wrong or bad about anyone having a child at any time. Human life is precious, dignified, and cannot be compromised by an out-dated inclination about the appropriate time for another to bear a child.
Further, his idea, that the Palins would have to somehow "pay for the transgressions" of Bristol, is offensive. While Bristol and Levi chose to have intercourse, God chose them to have a child. Mr. Okeson's pompous remark appears to aver that he knew their family planning better than God.
At a time when the Palins need the support of their community the assistant principal's comments are counter-productive. For someone who appears to know them well he has two options either he can either assist them or leave them alone as Barrack Obama put it:
Let me be as clear as possible. I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.