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EDITORIAL: There goes the honeymoon money |
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Thursday, 11 October 2007 |
Isn’t it interesting how much time officials are spending trying to decide how to interpret the wording in the state’s marriage law?
Lawyers, judges and all the other usual suspects are involved in the debate, all because a family in northwest Arkansas wants a 17-year-old female to be able to marry.
Seems to us the issue here is the very idea that a mother would support the marriage of her 17-year-old daughter.
We’re not surprised by much anymore, not in this day and age, and that includes the actions by some parents. The girl is 17, high school age and barely old enough to drive legally.
An independent commission was established to study Arkansas’ marriage law and to try and interpret the age language. A judge in northwest Arkansas ruled Wednesday that the commission was out of line in attempting to correct the state’s law.
Legislators attempted earlier this year to change the law and set 18 as the minimum marriage age. The proposed new law would include an exception clause allowing pregnant teens to marry with parental consent.
Arkansas’ previous law set the minimum marriage age at 17 for boys and 16 for girls.
Do you notice the language there? Boys and girls? Not teens, not adults — boys and girls.
Something needs to be done. We do not agree that it’s the government’s job to make family decisions — be it marriage or any other issue. But, as we all know, the inability of some parents to think sensibly or logically needs a safeguard.
And we wonder where so much taxpayer money goes?
Oh, well, another story for another time.
This issue of the marriage age began when Benton County officials refused to give a marriage license to the 17-year-old, despite her mother’s blessings.
Unfortunately, whether Benton County officials had the authority to deny the girl a marriage license will have to be decided in the courts, if the matter goes that far. But thank goodness someone in the county offices up there had the common sense to realize the girl’s age and deny the marriage license.
Yes, the mother has a right to scream and holler. It’s her daughter. But as we know, so many of today’s problems with youths begin at home with less than tidy parental supervision. There’s no better example than the public school system, which is filled with children who receive little or no guidance and encouragement at home.
We wonder how much time and money it’s going to take to resolve this latest issue with the state’s marriage law.
There goes the cookie jar money for the honeymoon.
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Razorbacks
