Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The Times editorial page has an interesting problem on their hands
If we look at this little snippit:
The Koso marriage is indeed legal, and that is the fault of the Kansas State Legislature, which should heed a call by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and raise the age as soon as it reconvenes in January. Kansas is not the only state that has failed to fix antiquated laws permitting 14-year-old boys to marry 12-year-old girls if the parents permit; several states, including Massachusetts, have laws that are nearly as ridiculous.
The fact that parents are willing to go along with these unions does not make them right. Chances are that in most of these cases, as apparently happened with Mr. Koso's family, when the parents found out that a baby was on the way, they were eager for the child to be born to married parents. But neither parental nor state approval makes it right to tie a girl as young as 12 to another person in what is supposed to be a lifetime commitment.
The Nebraska attorney general has recognized something even more serious in the Koso case, however. Wedding or not, Matthew Koso is a grown man who seduced a child. There are very good reasons for such things being against the law, even in Kansas and even when the child in question believes that she is in love. Prosecuting this case should send a warning to other adults who imagine they can turn sex crimes into romance by marrying their victims.
We can see a problem. The Times has said that these things are wrong because they're, well, wrong, the wishes of those involved and the laws involved nonwithstanding. But they haven't given any reason for these things to be illegal, or in the absence of a legal question for them to be immoral, most likely I think because they can't articulate what that reason might be, they just feel it.
Will they admit this? I don't know, but I doubt it.
The Koso marriage is indeed legal, and that is the fault of the Kansas State Legislature, which should heed a call by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and raise the age as soon as it reconvenes in January. Kansas is not the only state that has failed to fix antiquated laws permitting 14-year-old boys to marry 12-year-old girls if the parents permit; several states, including Massachusetts, have laws that are nearly as ridiculous.
The fact that parents are willing to go along with these unions does not make them right. Chances are that in most of these cases, as apparently happened with Mr. Koso's family, when the parents found out that a baby was on the way, they were eager for the child to be born to married parents. But neither parental nor state approval makes it right to tie a girl as young as 12 to another person in what is supposed to be a lifetime commitment.
The Nebraska attorney general has recognized something even more serious in the Koso case, however. Wedding or not, Matthew Koso is a grown man who seduced a child. There are very good reasons for such things being against the law, even in Kansas and even when the child in question believes that she is in love. Prosecuting this case should send a warning to other adults who imagine they can turn sex crimes into romance by marrying their victims.
We can see a problem. The Times has said that these things are wrong because they're, well, wrong, the wishes of those involved and the laws involved nonwithstanding. But they haven't given any reason for these things to be illegal, or in the absence of a legal question for them to be immoral, most likely I think because they can't articulate what that reason might be, they just feel it.
Will they admit this? I don't know, but I doubt it.
