- Who are you to judge? Who are you to say that the more
than slightly creepy 39-year-old woman
from Arkansas who just gave birth to her 16th child yes that's right
16 kids and try not to cringe in phantom vaginal pain when you say it,
who are you to say Michelle Duggar is not more than a little unhinged and
sad and lost?
-
- And furthermore, who are you to suggest that her equally
troubling husband -- whose name is, of course, Jim Bob and he's hankerin'
to be a Republican senator and try not to wince in sociopolitical pain
when you say that -- isn't more than a little numb to the real world, and
that bringing 16 hungry mewling attention-deprived kids (and she wants
more! Yay!) into this exhausted world zips right by "touching"
and races right past "disturbing" and lurches its way, heaving
and gasping and sweating from the karmic armpits, straight into "Oh
my God, what the hell is wrong with you people?"
-
- But that would be, you know, mean. Mean and callous to
suggest that this might be the most disquieting photo you see all year,
this bizarre Duggar family of 18
spotless white hyperreligious interchangeable people with alarmingly bad
hair, the kids ranging in ages from one to 17, worse than those nuked Smurfs
in that UNICEF
commercial and worse than all the horrific rubble in Pakistan and worse
than the cluster-bomb nightmare that is Katie
Holmes and Tom Cruise having a child as they suck the skin from each
other's Scientological faces and even worse than that huge 13-foot
python which ate that six-foot alligator and then exploded.
-
- It's wrong to be this judgmental. Wrong to suggest that
it is exactly this kind of weird pathological protofamily breeding-happy
gluttony that's making the world groan and cry and recoil, contributing
to vicious overpopulation rates and unrepentant economic strain and a bitter
moral warpage resulting from a massive viral outbreak of homophobic neo-Christians
across our troubled and Bush-ravaged land. Or, is it? ...
-
- click here to read the rest...
-
- http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.
- cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/10/19/
- notes101905.DTL&nl=fix
-
- Comment
Alton Raines
10-20-5
-
- Happy, healthy and financially well supported children.
The world needs more of these, not less. There's no overpopulation problem
in Arkansas, and these kids, and even ten thousands times them, would not
effect the worlds so-called overpopulation problem either. These bright
little bulbs being raised to give their utmost for God's highest are going
to become doctors and lawyers and caregivers and moms and dads who don't
steal, don't kill, don't abuse others and who have the long lost work ethic
instilled in them; they are clean, polite, well-educated and though one
might be haughty enough and so wise in his own eyes to regard their religious
upbringing as a tragedy (get over it, the majority of people on earth are
highly religious, we're not going away, be it Hindu's, Muslims or Christians!
We believe in something greater than ourselves, it's no handicap!), this,
too will be a strength to them. There's no lack of attention in a family
that large, and people who come from large families by and large will tell
you so. They live very close to another large family (12 kids) who share
their particular faith. In 50 years time, those two families will form
a magnificent little community, probably their own town. A town with little
or no crime, clean streets and happy people. Awful, isn't it, that some
of us have our @##^& together while the rest of the world is screwing
itself into disease, depravity and oblivion?
Be fruitful and multiply.
-
-
- Comment
Sheri Wallace-Gaskin
10-20-05
Mr. Morford,
-
- I'm wondering why this family's exercise of their reproductive
options bothers you so much. They aren't on welfare; they don't even take
anything from the public school system, since they home school their children.
Maybe if they were on welfare & in the public school system, and if
they weren't white, Christian & conservative, you wouldn't be so disgusted
by their choice. I'd wager that if this family was ANYTHING but white,
Christian & conservative, your column would've covered a completely
different subject matter & the story of the woman having her 16th child
wouldn't have caught your attention whatsoever.
-
- Regarding your pondering about "why this sort of
bizarre hyperbreeding only seem to afflict antiseptic megareligious families
from the Midwest?", you obviously haven't ventured far from your ivory
tower to an inner city African-American neighborhood or to a barrio, where
large families are rather common, not that you'd ever be mean enough to
judge them. Of course, if you took the time to do this, you wouldn't have
the "insensitivity" to point out how disturbing this is to you
& how bad it is for society. That would be politically incorrect, would
it not? Are you implying that white, Christian and/or conservative people
should know better than to produce large numbers of children, but persons
of darker hue or other faiths shouldn't really be held responsible for
their exercise of their reproductive choice?
-
- You seem bemused by this family's hairstyles & clothing
choices. It's unfortunate that there's not a tattoo or body piercing (that
we can see) or rainbow-hued bird of paradise hair color on anyone in that
family. And they could be deprived of a decent pair of designer jeans.
Horrors! Call CPS, I say. As far as your contemplation of Mrs. Duggar's
vaginal dimensions, well, that's yet another example of something that's
none of your damned business.
-
- I have no idea whether these people are homophobic, nor
do I care & it's really absolutely none of my (or anyone else's) business.
I remember reading a quote from one of my favorite (but unfortunately drug-addled)
poofters, the angelic-voiced Boy George, that he liked straights &
the world needed straight people because they're the only ones who breed
& without heterosexuals, none of us would actually be here. So simple,
yet so true.
-
- I only have two children myself; this was my exercise
of my reproductive choice. I have no regrets whatsoever. I waited until
my 30's to start my family, decided two children were enough, and stopped
there. Mrs. Duggar is correct when she says that children are a gift from
God, no matter which invisible man/woman/being/thing you choose to worship
and regardless of how many children you choose to have.
-
- You seem quite concerned about the "three billion
humans on the planet who subsist on less than two dollars a day. Every
other child in the world (one billion of them) lives in abject poverty."
Send them some money & make yourself feel better. Perhaps you could
make better use of your time & look into joining the Peace Corps. Mr.
and Mrs. Duggar's 16 (and counting) children aren't taking anything from
these children living in abject poverty. If the Duggars (or those large
families in the African-American inner city neighborhoods or in the barrios
or, shudder, other large white, Christian & conservative families)
had chosen to have only one child or even no children, do you think that
would affect those one billion children living in abject poverty? I'll
give you some time to ponder that one.
-
- In fact, if I was a betting woman, I'd say that at least
one of those Duggar children may actually do something to help alleviate
some suffering in this world, sooner if not later. Regardless of whether
you approve of Christians, some of them have done some very significant
things to help ease some of the suffering in this world. The Salvation
Army (a Christian group, last time I checked) did a wonderful job helping
out the people affected by the recent hurricanes in Louisiana and Texas.
Christian churches have adopted entire storm-displaced families & cared
for them in their time of need.
-
- However, I don't seem to recall seeing the ACLU setting
up a feeding line, the People for the American Way helping in the shelters,
Planned Parenthood or NARAL feeding or housing any of these people (although
I do recall hearing that they were offering free hurricane abortions, bless
them), or GLAAD or ACT UP turning over a hand to ease the suffering of
these people. Something tells me that these groups are probably very near
& dear to your heart. Oh, that's right; they're off-limits for criticism
of any type. I must make a note of this for future reference. How insensitive
of me to bring them up. Here's a suggestion, if you can wrap your mind
around it: You manage your own personal reproductive options & the
Duggars & every other person & family in the United States of America
will manage their own, each on an individual level. As to whether God does
or does not want 16 children, he/she/it/they/whatever will let us know
when & if we come face-to-face. Maybe.
-
- -- Sheri Wallace-Gaskin
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