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The Great American Controversy Over Underage Marriage [Table Of Contents]

Welcome to my article. Recently there has been panic stirring up in the press and the media regarding underage marriage throughout the United States of America. This panic has caused uninformed individuals to confuse voluntary teenage marriage with forced child marriage. Now, I'm emphatically against forced child marriage. However, I am a grandson of a 17-year-old bride, a grandnephew of a 15-year-old bride, and a great-great grandson of a 16-year-old bride; and I can honestly tell you that voluntary teenage marriage is NOT the same thing as forced child marriage. My maternal grandmother, my maternal great aunt, and my paternal great-great grandmother were all three adolescent girls under 18 years of age when they got married, and all three of them lived long, happy lives. As a matter of fact, all three of them lived past their nineties. My maternal grandmother married a young man who was only two years older than her. My maternal grandfather, that is. However, my maternal great aunt and my paternal great-great grandmother married men approximately a decade older than them. Neither one of them suffered any psychiatric problems. At least they did not suffer any that I am aware of.

I realize that there are girls (and even boys) throughout the world who are getting married way too young. I come from the school of thought that if a girl still watches Saturday morning cartoons, believes in the Easter Bunny, and has all of her baby teeth, she is definitely too young to be getting married. By virtue of the same school of thought, I've known of adolescent girls as young as their early teens who have gotten married, not necessarily to boys the same age as them, and have lived long, happy, productive lives.

There are certain political activists and elected state officials who are attempting to ban all underage marriage. That is, they are pushing to pass Draconian laws that would make it illegal for anyone to get married before 18 years old under any circumstances. These people are misinforming the public and misleading others to believe that there is no difference between voluntary teenage marriage and forced child marriage. However, any intelligent individual knows that these righteous do-gooders' perspective on this topic could not be any further from the truth. My article explains why we as Americans need to stop these righteous do-gooders from having their way.

I would be interested in reading any comments any of you reading this article might have to say. I may not agree with everything that you say in your comments. However, I will keep an open mind to anything that any of you have to say about this issue and about my article. I realize that there will be people out there who are going to disagree with my position on this topic. However, the concern that I have is that the press and the media have been giving this topic attention from only a one-sided perspective, when the public has the right to be able to hear both sides of the issue.

Here is the table of contents:

The Great American Controversy Over Underage Marriage [Table Of Contents]

Table Of Contents: