I Heart Values

I don't want you all to think that I'm not all for true love, redemption, hearth and home--although, actually, I'm not really. But I am all for it for other people. Especially for the loveable specimens of young persons from the cultural wasteland of the rural big-box American midwest like Crystal (her real name!) and Matthew.

Crystal is fourteen; she had a baby last week. Matthew is 22 (Crystal is not his first "young" partner--in fact, his mamma says that he's always played with younger kids because his peers never accepted him); he's Crystal's baby's daddy. And as of a few weeks ago, after a quick jaunt to Kansas from their little Nebraska hometown, Crystal and Matthew are man and wife. They went to Kansas because it's that rare state where kids under 17 can get married legally. That's What's the Matter With Kansas.

It sounds like a cliche episode of South Park, but it's from today's New York Times. Now the D.A. in Nebraskee is all gettin' meddlesome, and he wants to prosecute Matthew for statury rape. But whyyyyy? The two lovebirds have found peace and love in the basement of Matthew's mamma's house. Crystal is in 8th grade--but whatever, they've been together since she was 12 years old, darn it, so they know they got a real thing here. Oh, and a baby.

I really don't see what's so glamorous about single life in the city. Maybe that D.A. ought to come here to New Yawk, and prosecute some of the bad men here, the ones who wouldn't know true love even if it came to them in the form of a Kansas tween who wrote them anniversary notes in pink ballpoint pen.

Thank goodness for real family values somewhere.