Good & plenty
Callahan, Sidney
ise than six used to be. I can only conclude that family size among Americans, Catholics inclu d ed, will remain small in the foreseeable future. Ironically, our generation was the exception,...
...The operative spirituality of our day was much taken with Franciscan and Catholic Worker espousals of poverty and providence--which works out better for celibates...
...whether people who do truly terrible things are, from that moment on, pariahs who have no contributions to make to the rest of us...
...After committing a brutal act, she repented and softened the hearts of tens of millions of Americans...
...Today the church teaches a more demanding version of Christian parenthood in which parents nmst take responsibility for providing high levels of education and formation...
...and, most basically, whether we're comfortable in our souls with the collective responsibility we assume when the state puts someone to death...
...The power of the Tucker case came from the challenge her execution posed to Christian conservatives who support the death penalty in principle...
...Small families were certainly the norm during the Depression era...
...efore Karla Faye Tucker's execution fades from our memories, it's worth pondering the legacy she lef~ behind...
...As a child, I never knew a married woman who worked professionally--or even wanted to...
...I am opposed to capital punishment but know that I would want the person who killed a loved one to die...
...But that is not true...
...Those odd young '50s' women like myself who aspired to intellectual careers as well as family life felt confident that we would be able to work out a transition down the road when the children were older and our husbands were established...
...Two was the median, the mode, and the mean, even though back in Alabama my mother had been one of nine children and her mother one of eighteen born to a primitive Baptist minister...
...We worried then about many of the things that Karla Faye Tucker forced us to think about now': whether executing someone is the best way to declare our mutual conunihnent to the principle that taking another's life is wrong...
...Foes of capital punishment often find themselves defending people who not only did awful things, but seem to have no remorse for having done them...
...The widespread acceptance of birth control makes a difference in the means of limiting family size, but why has the desire for large families diminished...
...I remember once when my husband avowed he would like to have twelve children...
...Now in a more pessimistic time I can cast a colder eye and see that enthusiastic parental risk-taking can be irresponsible...
...She forced them to look afresh at what they really think of the death penalty...
...Indeed a general domestic confidence prevailed--until the tumultuous and disillusioning 1960s and '70s hit American culture...
...Working parents suffer incredible stresses and conflicts...
...But Tucker reminded us of all the irrationalities of the death penalty--how it is unevenly applied, how it answers one form of brutality with another and becomes a spectacle...
...Why have childbearing patterns changed so much since the 1950s...
...The best case for the death penalty is that it is the only just sentence for a human being who takes the life of another...
...I am opposed to capital punishment but know that I would want the person who killed a loved one to die...
...Before divorce became rampant, women weren't afraid of being abandoned and dumped onto the job market with no skills...
...Many of them came to believe that she, a bornagain Christian who appeared truly to have repenI-ed of her double murder with a pickax, deserved clemency...
...And in my case, I must admit that as a lazy feminine bookworm with little money, having many children was like an Outward Bound Survival challenge...
...But young Catholics aren't any longer imbued with the fervent belief that God will provide and come to one's succor...
...She forced them to look afresh at what they really think of the death penalty...
...The power of the Tucker case came from the challenge her execution posed to Christian conservatives who support the death penalty in principle...
...we were free to be extravagantly fruitful in a time when life was grace and favor, and good and plenty...
...Why not have many children...
...She knows that in letters written before my wedding in 1955, I expressed my desire for six children, perhaps all girls...
...Before these rude awakenings, middle-class families expected to be able to protect their children and raise them well...
...It must be human nature because I can remember as a child forcing my poor sister to go without covers in winter so we could shiver and pretend to be Eskimos struggling to survive in the freezing Arctic...
...It's not iust increased selfishness...
...It is presumed that because support for the death penalty is now so overwhehning in the United States, it has always been thus...
...But if I point out to them that you cannot have large families or enjoy adult children unless you first produce babies, I get no response...
...The Tucker execution, I suspect, will be a turning point in our country's long and difficult debate over whether capital punishment is right...
...Don't most young peopIe want to live fully, passionately, and throw themselves into daring projects...
...and, most basically, whether we're comfortable in our souls with the collective responsibility we assume when the state puts someone to death...
...A big family was like the Peace Corps, only at home...
...So maybe some of this childbearing was narcissistic pride in one's Commonweal 8 February27, 1998 own progeny, but there was also a great deal of altruism involved...
...The best case for the death penalty is that it is the only just sentence for a human being who takes the life of another...
...Having five boys (surprise) and one girl within ten years (1955-65) was an arduous fulfillment of my dream, but today it's the aspiration itself that seems incredible to my children...
...Many of them came to believe that she, a bornagain Christian who appeared truly to have repenI-ed of her double murder with a pickax, deserved clemency...
...This feeble thrust hits home, since on most clays the children all get along with each other and us, and always adore being part of a large loving family...
...Were we nostalgic for the past or hyper-hopeful about the future...
...Psychological and economic standards of childrearing have risen in the last forty years...
...I reply...
...The Reverend s Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell rose to her defense and the language they used echoed arguments long made, ineffectually, by opponents of the Commonweal 9 February 27, 1998...
...You might skimp and slave to get through school, often with the help of the GI Bill for husbands, but then the world was your oyster...
...They are hard-pressed to answer the families of murder victims shouting for just vengeance...
...It was like a commune, only you produced all the members...
...asks my grown-up daughter, herself now a mother of a two-yearold...
...Growing up in my family's Southern WASP circle, I don't think I ever knew anyone who had more than three children...
...Well, which of you do you wish weren't here...
...Ah well, another blessing to be grateful for...
...We worried then about many of the things that Karla Faye Tucker forced us to think about now': whether executing someone is the best way to declare our mutual conunihnent to the principle that taking another's life is wrong...
...Ironically, our generation was the exception, providing an unusual bulge in the demographic curve...
...For Catholics, another cause of the move to smaller families are changes in the church since Vatican II...
...The national trend of fertility was generally downward until my cohort of women came along and gladly rushed into marriage and babybooming...
...O.K...
...At other times in our history, most recently three decades ago, we looked far more skeptically upon this ultimate punishment...
...At other times in our history, most recently three decades ago, we looked far more skeptically upon this ultimate punishment...
...And increasingly, families are hardpressed for time, energy, money, and communal support...
...Intergenerational differences like these over reproduction force me to reflection...
...But Tucker reminded us of all the irrationalities of the death penalty--how it is unevenly applied, how it answers one form of brutality with another and becomes a spectacle...
...we were free to be extravagantly fruitful in a time when life was grace and favor, and good and plenty...
...My husband and I were 1930s' babies and each of us was the elder in a two-child, middleclass family...
...The Reverend s Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell rose to her defense and the language they used echoed arguments long made, ineffectually, by opponents of the Commonweal 9 February 27, 1998 W hy did you want so many children, Morn...
...jobs, even in academia, were plentiful and offered security...
...whether people who do truly terrible things are, from that moment on, pariahs who have no contributions to make to the rest of us...
...Is it the ominous growth of genetic knowledge and the newly salient risks of fetal impairment that increase anxiety about having children...
...I am also prodded to the inquiry by a paper assignment on the nature of responsible parenthood in a time of genetic progress...
...It would not seem fair that such a person would long outlive his or her victim...
...Since there had been few Depression babies there was less competition for desirable academic places or for good jobs...
...I try to explain to young people that before the world changed, the main channel for youthful desires ~o serve others was domestic...
...It never crossed my mind that getting good work would ever be a problem...
...It would not seem fair that such a person would long outlive his or her victim...
...Foes of capital punishment often find themselves defending people who not only did awful things, but seem to have no remorse for having done them...
...Two children seem harder to raise than six used to be...
...efore Karla Faye Tucker's execution fades from our memories, it's worth pondering the legacy she lef~ behind...
...Ah well, another blessing to be grateful for...
...I assured him that I could only manage six because I intended to have a career...
...Ironically, our generation was the exception, providing an unusual bulge in the demographic curve...
...But that is not true...
...Or is it a general instability in the economic and cultural forces in society...
...The Tucker execution, I suspect, will be a turning point in our country's long and difficult debate over whether capital punishment is right...
...Economic boom times in the 1950s certainly had a lot to do with the high fertility rate...
...It is presumed that because support for the death penalty is now so overwhehning in the United States, it has always been thus...
...Is it hard times in a new guise...
...They are hard-pressed to answer the families of murder victims shouting for just vengeance...
...And I'd never heard of Saint Teresa setting out at age ten to convert the Moors...
...This assurance and the delight of loving one's children fed the desire to have more, and still more...
...After committing a brutal act, she repented and softened the hearts of tens of millions of Americans...
...Then, too, unlike today, most married women would not have to work in order to make ends meet, or to have basic security...
Vol. 125 • February 1998 • No. 4
