Malia in Mexico

Natalee Holloway disappeared in May of 2005 on a high school graduation trip to Aruba.  She was last seen by her classmates outside a Caribbean chain restaurant and nightclub in a car with three locals.  She never made her flight or her high school graduation.  She was 18, and of age.

News stories are disappearing about rumors that First Daughter Malia Obama, 13, is spending Spring Break in Oaxaca, Mexico, with a phalanx of 12 friends and even bigger phalanx of Secret Service agents.  Adding Malia, that makes a group of unlucky 13.

There are a number of questions:  First of all, is it true?  It’s mainly European papers reporting the stories.  Secondly, are taxpayers paying for the trip, just as we’ve paid for all the other trips?  Next, is it very wise to send a 13 year-old, particularly a daughter of the President of the United States, and all her friends to a part of Mexico known for its violence?  Finally, why are all the papers and websites suddenly yanking the story? 

If it’s for security, that’s understandable.  Yet, the Media has not shirked from advertising all the other Obama vacations.  Still, if it’s such a security problem, why send her to such a place to begin with?  Perhaps the parents figure since the girls are surrounded by a virtual army of Secret Service agents, the kids aren’t in much danger.

Any parents who allow their teenagers to travel to the Caribbean, Mexico or South America alone, and even worse, with a group of teenagers, are out of their minds.  Holloway was at the age of consent, so her mother couldn’t very well stop her.  But what were the school officials thinking, sponsoring such a trip?

There’s not much danger of Malia disappearing the way Natalee did, although it wasn’t a really great idea to broadcast her location.  But the fact that all the stories about her vacation are disappearing is an ominous sign of the future of electronic news.  What if Malia had been vacationing in say, Malibu, and the White House had the Media yank the story because they didn’t want bad press – i.e., wasting taxpayers money for a 13 year-old’s holiday - just before a presidential election?

If the American people, through its Media and even on their own, can’t question the President’s decisions as a parent and as a chief executive, while the First Lady certainly questions the judgment and interferes with the decisions of American parents, then we’re farther down along the road of tyranny than we thought.