Posted on 02/13/2005 8:46:21 AM PST by Scenic Sounds
M aya Keyes loves her father and mother. She put off college and moved from the family home in Darnestown to Chicago to be with her dad on a grand adventure. Even though she disagrees with him on "almost everything" political, she worked hard for his quixotic and losing campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Now Maya Keyes -- liberal, lesbian and a little lost -- finds herself out on her own. She says her parents -- conservative commentator and perennial candidate Alan Keyes and his wife, Jocelyn -- threw her out of their house, refused to pay her college tuition and stopped speaking to her.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No, I'm serious. I had stepchildren and I thought I loved them as my own, but then I had my own.
Now the stepchildren didn't live with me, and they have their own mother. They love me, and I love them, but they don't love me like they love their mother, and I don't love them like I love my own children.
If you don't have children, you just don't know, and it's not an insult, it's just the truth.
I like Alan Keyes, but I think it would be pretty tough to have him as a dad.
Yep that was the dark ages....
What a crappy thing to say. How dare you say that to a parent.
We don't like that kind of talk around here, which means you probably won't be here very long.
Did you consider it exploitation when Alan Keyes blasted Mary Cheney for her lifestyle, never once mentioning that his own daughter is gay?
But he could trash Mary Cheney?
I don't doubt your sincerity for a moment. I know you honestly believe what you're saying. I know you love your step-kids, but you love your own more. As my wife says, "there's a reason the first time every 350 lb. football player get his face on TV the first words out of his mouth are a diffident 'hi Mom.'"
Nevertheless, the world is full of "enabler" parents that "can't turn their back on their children." It makes very little difference to me what the "drug of choice" is; booze, dope, sex, it's all a variation on the same theme. They are all corrosive to the "life worth living," and sometimes require a "time out" for the child (even grown) to appreciate just how much it is costing to live that way.
Love is not fulfilling ones own desire for the presence of ones children. Love is caring more for them than for yourself, even to the point of denying yourself their affection if the circumstances are desperate enough to warrent it.
And it isn't any easier when there are other "parents" out there further enabling the wayward by telling them what bastards you are for not accepting their "choices."
I won't tell you about my children because that story isn't done yet, but I can tell you about myself, and trust me when I tell you my life has been immeasurably damaged because from a very early age I possessed enough verbal dexterity to mitigate damn near any sanction my parent brought to bear on me.
It was only when I went to live with the other parent (and their what I regard to be profound wisdom) that I learned just how badly I was injuring myself.
I lost my only child to carbon monoxide poisoning in 2000.
I wish he were here in any way, shape, or form.
Call me an enabler.
I didn't say there shouldn't be consequences. For instance, I can understand that Dr. Keyes doesn't want Maya working for his organization, because she doesn't embody the values his organization represents.
On the other hand, except for her sexual choices, Maya doesn't sound like a bad kid. Not every child would defer college for a year to do missionary work, and for another semester to help her father run for office. Maybe she's a bit outspoken and "over the top", but so is her father, just in defense of different causes.
I just can't imagine my parents totally cutting me off, and I can't imagine doing that to my children, either.
He wasn't in too much pain to have her take time off from going to college to help him in his run.
OK, Melas. I think you're wrong.
Therein lies the problem. You may as well say "that soup looks delicious except for the cockroach swimming around in it."
Her lifestyle is abominable by definition according to Keye's religious tradition.
Exactly, and he knew about Maya when he made his comments about Mary Cheney.
It looks like he only got upset when it looked as if it might affect his livelihood.
I just don't know. Unless my child was violent or stealing from me, I don't know that I could cut them off from my affection totally.
But you are pretty tough, Tyger.
Do you have any reason to believe the opportunism was on his part rather than hers? One would have to believe he was pretty hard pressed for campaign workers to follow your reasoning. I have read nothing that leads me to believe his change of demeanor was anything but a reaction to a change of comportment on her part. She certainly seems to be operating opportunistically now.
You have my sincerest sympathies, but your relation to this discussion is as the widower to the cuckold.
Man, you just don't know when to quit, do you?
Please accept my sympathy. I think the worst emotional pain is to outive your child.
As for other posters who lack empathy, their words betray them and they score no points.
And this is the guy who wants reparations from us for slavery.
I kind of think he sits up nights finding things to be unforgiving about.
I am always so surprised at people who are so positive they are right about everything and are so willing to judge everybody and everything. I'd sure hate to know them in real life.
I can't imagine turning your back on your own flesh and blood, whatever the reason.
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