Let me try to respond as an old man who grew up in a different time, and a historian.
First, my mother, as all mothers of that time taught me to stand when a lady enters the room, remove my hat before speaking to a lady, and always to treat a lady properly. Young ladies were taught to accept and expect that treatment with quiet dignity.
Girls were taught that their first responsibilty was to their husband and children to maintain a good home for them. While boys were taught that their first responsibilty was to their wife and children, to work to provide funds for that good home for his family.
My father and parish priest taught me to be responsible for my actions, including marrying a girl if you got her pregnant or go to work and support the child if the girl refused to marry. That was my times.
In historical times pregnancy has been treated far differently. Ever wonder why there is so many names in the phone book that begin with “fitz”. It is because that’s the Gaelic word for illegitimate child of John, Gerald, Hugh, etc. Then there was practiced in Scotland a term called hand fasting. Where a couple had the man’s right arm and the lady’s left arm tied together in a hand fasting ceremony. They lived together for a year. If they produced a child, then the marriage was performed by replacing the tying of her left arm with a ring on the third finger of her left hand. The couple could also break the hand fast with simple consent from both at any time during that first year. In our South a lady would have to prove that she was fertile before a marriage was performed. This was true up to and after the War for Southern Independence. In the Morman Sect of the 1800, early 1900’s, many Mormen men had been killed, hanged, died in jails for their beliefs. So, multiple marriages were authorized just to bring more children into the sect. In Africa today, women are “fixed” so they have no feeling during sex. It is accepted that African men have complete authority over women and that women must submit to any man. Hence, some would say Barak Obama, whose African father was taught in this matter. In Islam a female is nothing more than property. In some areas of Islam when the marriage ceremony was performed a sheeps skin was given to the man to place under his new wife, which he had to retrun to the Imam with blood of his wife on it to prove she was a virgin when married.
While marriage, or formal coupling of a man and woman in some fashion is a long ancient accepted ceremony in history both pagan and religious, the rules of pregnancy are not.
Slave women were given presents by their owners on our Southern plantations when they became pregnant. Those slaves, in many cases, married by jumping over a broom. But the chance of family was almost not existent as a slave marriage was not recognized and they could be sold at will.
Today, we still see some small remnants of that slave mentality in African American children born out of wedlock and a fatherless family, A mentality passed by, some would say, ignorant generations. We thought we could change that with integration. However, historically it has been proven that when two societies integrate the stronger actions of one will eventually overcome the other. We are seeing it happen before our very eyes. Our government facilitates it under the guise of multiculturism, government mandated birth control, food stamps, welfare, and so many other “equalizing” programs. We see it in our lack of proper speech, music, and a week long celebration of the death of a drug addict who lost her millions up her nose and down her throat. It was the same with Janis Joplin in the late 60’s. So skin color has no bearing, our children’s “heros” no longer set a good example.
In my time what Bristol Palin did would have been quietly filed in some journalist’s file. Today, it made worldwide headlines. Because of who she is and the now “food frenzy” attitude of our present media. I wonder what would happen if, in a very short time, one of President Obama’s daughters became pregnant and had a child out of wedlock. The ravenous media would jump all over it and we would have special hour long news programs dedicated to that one subject. “The times they are a changin” a mantra of the late 60’s.
Scientists predict that within 1500 years we will all look the same, that races will no longer exist. That’s probably a good thing. The only problem is what the laws and practices of religion and social responsiblity be in 1500 years?
