Re: Some Comments

Hi, StarRanger...I liked your post, as usual, though I do have one disagreement that I wanted to mention. I tried making a post before, but something went wrong with my computer and it didn't go through. So I'm making you a shorter one now.

Though I agree that some MAA's break the law very carelessly, I am not harsh to judge all of those who run afoul of those laws. We must consider that denying a whole group of people the right to have relationships with those whom they love is serious business and because we are human it's absolutely inevitable that a few of us will break these laws on occasion, especially if the girl we love tells us that she understands the risks and is fully willing to take them on. Though the great majority of us manage to never break these laws our entire lifetime, some of us will do so, and this is to be expected. For one thing, as I noted above, we are only human. The forces of love and desire do not always lead us to make the BEST decisions; history and literature is replete with examples of love and desire causing people to make bone-headed decisions and to do something foolish. In fact, can we honestly say that Romeo and Juliet were wise to carry on their relationship despite all the consequences that resulted for both of their families, not to mention themselves? But many literary critics interpret the two as being lovestruck rather than immoral and selfish.

Further, I must admit that it's NOT easy to avoid every single temptation that may crop up in a lifetime, even though I have managed to do so without trouble. But I must consider this scenario...if an amazing 14 year old girl that I knew very well came up to me in private and told me, "I love you very much and I want you to make love to me...I promise I will never tell a soul and I think you are worth every risk," I would find that a VERY powerful temptation, even though I would certainly respond by saying, with all due regret, "we have to wait until you are 18, and we will have to see if you still feel the same way about me then." But I fully understand that some adults would cave as a result of such a situation, especially if they really loved the girl back. As I said before, love doesn't always encourage us to make the best decisions...look at all the bad decisions parents often make for their kids out of love. For some reason, many of us seem to say, "if he loves you, he will make the right decision." But that's not always true.

However, I will say once again that despite the fact that I understand how difficult it can be to turn down absolutely every temptation one may encounter in a lifetime, I nevertheless implore all MAA's to NEVER break the law, because even if a given intergenerational couple thinks they have their asses covered, they may still get "found out." But when I periodically do find out that a certain couple was caught, provided they weren't totally foolish about it, I would prefer to give them my support rather than my scorn. We definitely should not expect every single one of us to always obey laws of that nature, even though we should always strive to do so. And I fully admit that the more careless among us, with the least self-control, do tend to mess things up for the majority of us (which is why I was a bit peeved with Dylan Thomas after his latest arrest).