cjm writes:

“you can bet money that Bristol is going to get a tv show out of this i bet she and her fiancee become very popular with American teens, and real families.”

Shakespeare leaves children out of his dramas (aside from those dispatched by political villians). But the culture does not forget children. Quite the opposite. The central event of the central narrative of the culture is precisely about a mother and a child:

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.” (Lk 1, 38)

As the fall turns towards winter, just around election time, thoughts and already turning a little bit towards Christmas. Perhaps people will remember January sermons, from the pulpits of Catholic churches especially, on the lament of the nation for its children, lost to Herod.

“Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
‘A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.’”

As the meme turns, perhaps it will begin to contrast a ‘messiah’ who would not punish his daughter with a child to a young girl who, in some profound way, echoes the crucial words: “May it be to me as you have said.”