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The Nation's Pulse
The Kid
A disturbing scene from Charles Murray in the beautiful Rockies.
Charles Murray has made a splash with his new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, a book not as controversial as his previous blockbuster, 1994’s The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (produced with co-author Richard Herrnstein), but one interesting as a study of the social aspects of even rural life, such as in Salmon, Idaho, where I live. Some of the social pathologies of which Murray writes are also present in this small town in the Rockies that in many ways recalls Norman Rockwell’s America. Readers familiar with Murray’s work know that Coming Apart concerns America’s rising white underclass, thus avoiding the howls of racism from the left that greeted The Bell Curve. His first book, Losing Ground (1984), a study of the social ravages of welfare dependency, was also a political lightning rod.
The Lemhi River runs behind my apartment complex here, and on a recent Sunday afternoon I took a walk along the river. Coming back on a dirt road I saw from a distance a small child leaning over the railing of a second story terrace on one of the backside apartments. This is not good, I thought.
I crossed through the sagebrush and onto the back lawn and was soon standing beneath a little boy about a year old with towhead blond hair. The day was warm and he wore nothing but a diaper. He had a knobby, protruding belly button. He smiled down at me and chattered away in baby talk. Something seemed to amuse him as he gripped the railing with one tiny hand and pointed at nearby trees with the other. He had climbed onto a chair against the railing and had thus attained his precarious perch ten or twelve feet above me. The beaming little face looked down at me and continued its babbling.
“Hey, is anybody up there?” I called out, thinking to rouse the apartment’s occupants.
Nothing. I considered going around to the front to knock on the door, but wasn’t sure of the correct apartment number. On second thought I decided it wouldn’t be smart to leave the kid, who was still chattering away and swaying on the railing as if buffeted by a breeze. I thought that if he fell I would try to catch him in my arms.
“Is anybody up there?” Again, nothing.
In his book Murray posits that “America is coming apart at the seams. Not ethnic seams, but those of class.” A number of single mothers that live in my complex are typical of the people Murray is writing about. Many are jobless, as are the men in their lives or they’re absent. Murray writes: “Over the last half century marriage has become the fault line dividing American classes.” America’s well-educated elites who inhabit Murray’s liberal “SuperZips” paradoxically — despite their voting patterns and political views — practice traditional values, such as waiting to marry before having children. On the other side of that fault line are those I call “the pajama people,” after the currently popular mode of slovenly female dress noted in public places nowadays (the tattooed boyfriends retain the backward caps and drooping pants). These folks require significant amounts of public assistance to survive; from welfare checks to housing vouchers and food stamps. Murray: “When the government intervenes to help, it enfeebles the institutions through which people live satisfying lives.” To quote the author from a Time magazine interview, they live in “communities that require a welfare state.”
Current statistics tell us that 40 percent of children are now born out-of-wedlock. This does not bode well for the future civic and social health of America.
I focused on the kid, ready for him to tumble over the railing at any moment. We shared smiling eye contact that would have been pleasant in a different situation.
“Get off the chair,” I said, gently. “Get-off-the-chair.” He smiled and chattered and pointed at the trees again.
“Get-off-the-chair,” I repeated, slowly, as if somehow the power of suggestion would get through to him. And then again, more loudly: “Is anybody up there?”
A young woman suddenly came out of the kitchen door and onto the terrace. She looked nineteen or twenty and had long black hair. She snatched the child off the railing , and began to carry him back into the apartment, using his body to shield her face from me.
“I was trying to get your attention,” I said, sternly. “He could have fallen.”
Without a word she slammed the kitchen door behind her.
Who are these people? I thought. And what sort of future does my little anonymous friend have?
About the Author
Bill Croke, formerly of Cody, Wyoming, is a writer in Salmon, Idaho.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 6.6.12 @ 6:40AM
I collect donations for a "respite" program at a local shelter for children aged 12-20 (more or less) which gives young women with babies or tots a few hours off to see a doctor or counselor, or have a shower and a cup of tea, while someone else watches their little one. For many of them this is the only time they ever have to themselves, a condition they never anticipated. One afternoon as I dropped off my donations, I saw one of the volunteers comforting a young woman of maybe 15 or 16 years old who was trying to overcome her crying spell to explain what was wrong. Finally she choked out the words, "She never goes away! I can't do anything...I can't go anywhere...I can't even take a bath...I love her but SHE NEVER GOES AWAY." Whatever reason she had for having the baby, she was finding reality was a whole different ballgame from her imagination. There are now programs in which young women in her same circumstances are going to schools and explaining the cold facts of teen pregnancy to boys and girls alike. I am sure they do have an effect, but there are not enough of them and its likely that many of the girls who hear the talks think "That won't happen to me -- HE LOVES ME -- I'll stick her in daycare... somebody will do something..."
In my day girls had siblings and we saw right up close and personal what it was like to have full responsibility for a baby. Today they imagine that "someone will do something". Sadly, nobody does.
KyMouse| 6.6.12 @ 9:16AM
Thanks, Appleby. We pro-life people are in something of a quandary: It's good to explain the "cold facts of teen pregnancy to boys and girls," but we want them to choose adoption, not abortion, for babies they can't or won't raise.
Before Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, pregnancy outside of marriage was far rarer than it is today, and so was abortion. Now, we face the dilemma of discouraging mothers from aborting their babies when the hardships of motherhood dawn on them.
I've mentioned this excellent book before: "Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage." Anyone interested in this "epidemic" should read it.
Brooksifier | 6.6.12 @ 6:00PM
"Now, we face the dilemma of discouraging mothers from aborting their babies when the hardships of motherhood dawn on them."
So encourage gay sex and you wont have teen moms, poverty stricken moms, low-end Bell Curve moms, and abortions! See easy things are when you put your mind to it?
Brooksifier | 6.6.12 @ 6:02PM
See how easy things are when you put your minds to it?
Encourage gay sex-- and contraception for straights-- and little or no unwanted kids will be the ISSUE.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.12 @ 8:03PM
Brooksifer: Joe Haldeman, The Forever War. Cite those you note ideas from, Brooksie.
Cromulent| 6.7.12 @ 9:04AM
Funny, the last 50 years have seen an explosion in both measures you endorse, yet the problem has gotten worse, not better.
Seek| 6.6.12 @ 6:20PM
Abortion, I'm afraid, was very common prior to Roe v. Wade. People just didn't talk about it as much.
TLP| 6.6.12 @ 8:37PM
Nor, did they do it as much.
Idiot.
Appleby| 6.6.12 @ 6:40AM
I collect donations for a "respite" program at a local shelter for children aged 12-20 (more or less) which gives young women with babies or tots a few hours off to see a doctor or counselor, or have a shower and a cup of tea, while someone else watches their little one. For many of them this is the only time they ever have to themselves, a condition they never anticipated. One afternoon as I dropped off my donations, I saw one of the volunteers comforting a young woman of maybe 15 or 16 years old who was trying to overcome her crying spell to explain what was wrong. Finally she choked out the words, "She never goes away! I can't do anything...I can't go anywhere...I can't even take a bath...I love her but SHE NEVER GOES AWAY." Whatever reason she had for having the baby, she was finding reality was a whole different ballgame from her imagination. There are now programs in which young women in her same circumstances are going to schools and explaining the cold facts of teen pregnancy to boys and girls alike. I am sure they do have an effect, but there are not enough of them and its likely that many of the girls who hear the talks think "That won't happen to me -- HE LOVES ME -- I'll stick her in daycare... somebody will do something..."
In my day girls had siblings and we saw right up close and personal what it was like to have full responsibility for a baby. Today they imagine that "someone will do something". Sadly, nobody does.
Moe Blotz| 6.6.12 @ 1:03PM
Excuse me ma'am, but I thought at this time in June you would be basking in Castrol "R" by the river Sarthe.
Truth to Power| 6.6.12 @ 6:55AM
This is good article for our Seek. Maybe something bad is happening that has nothing to do with race and everything to do with harm done by liberal ideas of alternate families. Charles Murray stripped race out his recent work. It turns out that black people have just played the role of canary in the liberal mine shaft. Nobody is immune to human nature encouraged and enabled by the immoral.
TLP| 6.6.12 @ 3:58PM
You couldn't be more right.
Well done.
Seek| 6.6.12 @ 6:33PM
Actually, you're putting the cart before the horse. Lower-class whites emulate lower-class blacks, not the other way around. Believe it, I've known more than my share of these so-called "wiggers," and down to the last one, they're WINOs (white in name only).
As for blacks, they are hardly prisoners on some "liberal plantation." Au contraire, they OWN the plantation. White liberals, like white conservatives, are terrified of offending them. "B-b-b-b-ut I'm n-n-not a r-r-r-acist," say ostensibly enlightened conservatives as well as their liberal counterparts. "Honest. It's liberals who are the real racists. We're the good guys. We love you. You are natural conservatives. You are future Republicans." Oh, yeah. Like the blacks are going to be impressed. They'll laugh in your face, and rightfully so.
As for the emerging white underclass, they have just enough social skills and respect for the law to avoid the fate of blacks -- barely. What we should be doing to reverse their growth is STOP enabling teen childbirth. Hard-headed future orientation, including family planning education, must take precedence over untutored female sentimentality.
Kitty | 6.6.12 @ 7:19AM
Chances are the kid will survive his upbringing, or the lack thereof, in spite of everything. The bigger question is what kind of an adult will he be?
Great article, Bill. Glad TAS hasn't forgotten you.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.6.12 @ 8:33AM
Having worked in law enforcement for more than a quarter century, I can suggest that that the child in question will be spending lots of time with government workers. They will start out as early childhood intervention specialists, headstart workers, special education teachers, and family service workers. Then it will shift from “workers” to “officers” i.e. truant officers, police officers, juvenile probation officers, sheriff’s deputies, presentence investigators, correctional officers, and parole officers in a repeating cycle. Much of this, from prenatal care to lethal injection, will be funded by tax dollars. Some of this money will be well spent, but much will not be.
Now that I have these happy thoughts to remind and inspire me, it is off to the range to re-qualify this morning, and hopefully give the taxpayers their value for those dollars.
Kitty | 6.6.12 @ 10:58AM
I know what you're saying because my son-in-law is a C.O. at one of NYS's "boot camp" prisons.
Btw, this is his favorite t-shirt: http://thoseshirts.com/diversity.html
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.6.12 @ 2:00PM
It is both an excellent statement and a fine example of casual wear.
Occam's Tool| 6.6.12 @ 8:04PM
Albert: and don't forget me! I get to have fun in that mix, should the little guy get suicidal from doing meth at age 18.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.6.12 @ 9:19PM
My apologies. We would often refer to children in these circumstances as job security, and the psychiatric professional holds a stake here, as well.
Should the little miscreant score the ultimate felony, at the death penalty hearing, they would seek the expert opinions from the neurologist and another psychiatrist as to how the blow to the head the lad took as a toddler from falling off of the balcony rendered him incapable of controlling violent impulses, following your testimony that he was legally sane, and capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and chose to kill.
At the lesser felonious level, he would be challenging your anti-social or borderline personality disorder diagnosis, and try to present as a mood disorder, in order to scam some medication off Medicaid that he could abuse or sell.
Occam's Tool| 6.7.12 @ 12:09PM
Yup. I tend to have a super high threshhold for McNaughton, and I would tend to testify Conservatively.
Take care, Albert. We need more like you, sir.
LindaF | 6.6.12 @ 7:52AM
The good news is that she hid her face from you - that shows consciousness of shame.
Cobalt| 6.6.12 @ 8:26AM
Unfortunately, many of them seem to have no shame.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....f-car.html
c. j. acworth| 6.6.12 @ 8:23AM
I had to smile when the author mentioned "tattooed boyfriends " in "backwards caps and droopy pants". I once heard of a speaker at a local high school who explained the path to success as being along the lines of what their parents had told them; namely study, work hard, get married, etc. "In other words" he said "PULL UP YOUR PANTS, TURN YOUR HAT AROUND AND GET A JOB!"
SCMike| 6.6.12 @ 9:44AM
You're lucky you weren't arrested for trespass or worse.
MikeBee| 6.6.12 @ 9:52AM
The child will end up a football player, with a penchant for concussions.
cicero| 6.6.12 @ 11:01AM
The only remedy for this is a harsh one. All taxpayer borne subsidy for irresponsible behavior must cease. One child out of wedlock may have been a mistake (but after so many years of sex ed starting in the 3rd grade, I think not). However, multiple out of wedlock children is an industry. If the girls were told from the beginning that all children were their responsibility, the nonsense would stop.
Bob K| 6.6.12 @ 11:44AM
Judge not.
It can happen anywhere as it happened when I was small during WW 2 and my father was on Active duty.
My mother, myself and my younger brother lived in a small second floor apartment with a closed in balcony overlooking the street below. Somehow my 2 year old brother climbed up on the open window sill, sat down on it and waved and babbled hello to the passers by below. A young girl came up to the back door and informed my mother that "little Jimmy is sitting in the window and waving at everybody?" My mother almost had a heart attack but rushed out and grabbed him of the sill!" Of course my mother was mortified by this and I remember that well. And so I am sure, was that 19 year old mother living in Mr. Croke's village. It is hard work being a mother and sometimes human mistakes happen.
My mother was an orphan with a 9th grade education, raised by relatives in homes that spoke Polish. Despite that, with my father she raised 3 successful sons.
What do you people think about Mayor Bloomberg and his Nanny State? Is he being strict enough? Are there enough Social Workers around to bring our society up to your standards? Do we pay enough taxes to see that things like this won't happen again? Should we renew "Vista" like programs where people could volunteer and be assigned to rural area's like Mr. Crokes to teach women there mothering skills?
PJ| 6.6.12 @ 11:48AM
These unwed, teenage mothers should be encouraged to put their babies up for adoption. These teenagers & all teenagers are definitely not mature & responsible enough to care for babies. And if these babies do survive into adulthood, the odds that they will be social deviants are excellent. What is so discouraging in this situation is that it is inter-generational, ie if the mother is unwed teenager, her daughters & granddaughters & ... will probably be too. Not many are able to break the cycle. It's even worse if drugs are involved.
This unwed teenage mother problem is horrible but can be lessened dramatically if the adoption laws were reasonable. There are so many well-qualified parents out there desperately trying to adopt a baby in this country, regardless of race but the bureaucracy, unnecessary regulations, & costs prevent them from doing it.
Gisele| 6.6.12 @ 12:44PM
Dear Mr. Croke,
Just because something has been documented does not mean it has not already existed, and for a long time.
In 1967, I was the 12-year-old pulling a 2-year-old nephew off of a porch railing while his mother and others partied. LBJ can't be blamed for personal irresponsibility. It's nice to know that when the problem gets big enough, someone writes a book about it.
Doctor Right| 6.6.12 @ 1:18PM
Who are these people?
"They" are almost all fat...like morbidly obese. It's the result of a sloth-like lifestyle and a diet of processed foods like potato chips, frozen pizza, bean burritos, and lots of soda.
Ever see a child, not yet damaged by a bad diet, in the company of two obese parents ambling through WalMart? His future has been written - diabetes, heart disease, and an early death. (Although some of these kids are already lost; I see a lot of obese pre-teens.)
Some of them walk; the rest of them - after parking in a Handicap space - roll along on Rascal scooters and reach into the freezer for 3 cartons of Ice ream ("It's on sale!")
The chubby, tattooed moms are left to fend for themselves and their brood since their tattooed, backwards-hat, wife-beater t-shirt, pants-on-the-ground wigger boyfriends are nowhere to be found unless they're picking up trash by the highway in an orange jumpsuit.
Their bad diets damage their brains, too. Not only are they slow-moving, they're slow-witted and incurious, just the kind of people who can be won over by a meaningless slogan like "Yes, we can!", especially if that slogan involves goodies like "free" healthcare.
And therein lies the rub, folks. The REAL injustice of it all.
Because thanks to the Government and Mr. Obama, our hard-earned tax dollars will be subsidizing the unhealthy lifestyles of these chubby proles and their feral, overweight progeny for generations.
Who are these people? The future.
Check, please...
TLP| 6.6.12 @ 4:01PM
You realize that you're an Idiot, right?
Of course you do.
Idiot.
Doctor Right| 6.6.12 @ 4:51PM
Looks like I struck a nerve.
Whatsa' matter, Timmy? Did you spill your Big Gulp all over your Cheetos?
TLP| 6.6.12 @ 5:28PM
Like I said.
An Idiot.
Doctor Right| 6.6.12 @ 9:07PM
Oh, I get it.
You're chubby.
Occam's Tool| 6.7.12 @ 12:05PM
Hey, why are you two guys fighting? What happened? I like you both!
I must confess to liking my ice cream too much. But I watch
Occam's Tool| 6.7.12 @ 12:06PM
what you guys write, and I like you both.
Darragh Ryan| 6.6.12 @ 4:48PM
I live in a rural, largely white state. For years I've witnessed people doing contortions to address "diversity" for federal grants in a state with less than a 4% minority population. Meanwhile, the rural white underclass grows. This is the tragedy of beautiful, empty states. It's all about jobs and economics. And drugs. Meanwhile the affluent liberal retiree enclaves have forums about the tiny population of immigrants in the largest city. It's surreal.
cowgirl| 6.6.12 @ 8:55PM
One of the core principals of communism is to break up the family. We have done a great job of that in America since 1960's. We got rid of Dad and put it all on single mom. As a result we have gangs, kids failing in school, overpopulated prisons, poverty and kids having kids.
The commies are winning.
maillot de bain pas cher | 6.7.12 @ 4:17AM
I crossed through the sagebrush and onto the back lawn and was soon standing beneath a little boy about a year old with towhead blond hair. The day was warm and he wore nothing but a diaper. He had a knobby, protruding belly button. He smiled down at me and chattered away in baby talk. Something seemed to amuse him as he gripped the railing with one tiny hand and pointed at nearby trees with the other. He had climbed onto a chair against the railing and had thus attained his precarious perch ten or twelve feet above me. The beaming little face looked down at me and continued its babbling.
Seek| 6.7.12 @ 12:27PM
Rural whites need a lot more math and a lot less meth.