While the pop culture press may have dispensed with newlyweds in favor crowning the next MILF-to-be with bump watches and fanning hookup/breakup rumors, for the regular news media, ‘newlywed’ is a heart-string tugger of an adjective.
It’s both an intensifier of horrific acts in crime and punishment stories, and a softener of already gooey human interest news stories. Newlyweds, like cute harmless puppies or radiant pregnant women, contain our collective desire for possibility and promise. They’re trotted forth to show how and when that covenant has been shattered, and to beg for a small reprieve - for them to be sheltered from the crueler realities of life.
Take this Israeli story, for example. Aharon Karov, a 22-year-old officer from Karnei Shomron went to war in Gaza a day after his wedding and was critically wounded. While he’s recuperating nicely and due to go for rehabilitation this week, his case has sparked action on the part of Israeli lawmakers, who are toying with a bill that would provide a one-year exemption from mandatory military service to new husbands and wives.
This begs the question: What would happen if that same extension were applied in the US? By no means is Karov’s case unique; just last week a soldier from Rockland, MA was killed in Iraq when a jeep he was riding in rolled over.
Does this matter as much for a volunteer army as a conscripted one? Would such an exemption be as open to abuse for volunteers? Would it apply equally to women as men?
Comments and responses are welcome.