Allen West on Fatherhood and Black Family

Marriage and Race; Marriage and Prison

I've just read a couple of articles that  mention marriage and its significance in two different contexts.  One of the articles is in the current issue of National Review and the other is an old clipping that I had squirreled away in a folder.  Taking the latter first, the author is George Gilder writing in the Wall Street Journal in 1995.  He's drawing a connection between a book that he wrote, Visible Man:  A True Story of Post Racist America, and a book that Dinesh D'Souza wrote, The End of Racism.  Apparently, both writers come to the conclusion that white racism was not a "significant problem" for blacks in recent American history.  

What Gilder says is a problem for blacks is the fact that young black men are not socialized through marriage.  To quote:  "The key problem of the underclass--the crucible of crime, the source of violence, the root of poverty--is the utter failure of socialization of young men through marriage.  The problem resides in the nexus of men and marriage."  Gilder goes on to point out that attempts to  address the problems of the underclass all focus on the women!  That leaves the men to indulge in being "predators" rather than "providers," and, in many cases to languish in prison.  He gives the statistic that 40% of young black males between ages 17 and 35 are in prison or on probation.  

Writing some 15 years later, Mitch Pearlstein  says that research shows that married men are less likely than single men to break the law.  He isn't concerned with race.  Some of his statistics:

Across the country, studies consistently show that more than 40 percent of low-income men who father a child out of wedlock have already been in jail or prison by the time their first son or daughter is born.

One in four black men born between 1975 and 1979 had experienced imprisonment by 2009. The comparable ratio for white men was one in 19. The chance of having been imprisoned for black men in this cohort who had not graduated from high school was two in three.

As of 2000, about 25 percent of black men between the ages of 22 and 30 were married. Among incarcerated black men, the marriage rate was less than half of that, 11 percent.

With praises for the book, he references The Case for Marriage, citing a study which showed that marriage was a significant factor in the lives of those men who "reduced" their criminal activity.   Pearlstein is looking for solutions, especially in the area of hiring and jobs, so that criminals can get back on their feet without being condemned forever by their past  records.  That makes sense--save as many as you can--but we also have to tackle the root of the problem which, whether pertaining to black or white, is a welfare society, a feminized society, a libertine society  that has permitted the so-called wonders and privileges of sexual liberation, secularism and feminism to trump the institution of marriage.

SFC Alwyn Cashe

Along with the more familiar definition of the word "amazing"  as 'very surprising, wonderful, astonishing,  astounding,' my dictionary gives several archaic senses for the word amazement.  They are 'overwhelming fear, bewilderment, stupefaction.'  Put these all together and such is the feeling when reading the account of  SFC Cashe's courage and determination back in 2005 in Iraq.   SFC Cashe died of his burn wounds about a month after being injured.   R.I.P.  What a legacy of bravery to leave behind. 

Archbishop Dolan to Barack Obama

Our archbishop is defending the faith as he again speaks up, this time to Barack Obama regarding his position on DOMA.  Dolan made this defense in his capacity as president of the USCCB.  Some are calling it a "remarkable" letter with a "stepped up" tone of urgency.   Dolan's letter can be read here.   Dolan takes the president to task for his attempt to characterize those who support traditional marriage as bigots.  

That is why it is particularly upsetting, Mr. President, when your Administration, through the various court documents, pronouncements and policies identified in the attached analysis, attributes to those who support DOMA a motivation rooted in prejudice and bias. It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination, as your Administration insists on doing. 

Our federal government should not be presuming ill intent or moral blindness on the part of the overwhelming majority of its citizens, millions of whom have gone to the polls to directly support DOMAs in their states and have thereby endorsed marriage as the union of man and woman. Nor should a policy disagreement over the meaning of marriage be treated by federal officials as a federal offense—but this will happen if the Justice Department‟s latest constitutional theory prevails in court. The Administration‟s failure to change course on this matter will, as the attached analysis indicates, precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.

Thanks, Mrs. Scaraffia

In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg's misguided push for mandatory sex education in the public schools, an Italian journalist summarizes  the problem nicely.

"It is not clear why public institutions in the West continue to have such magical trust in the effectiveness of sex education, especially when young people in those countries continue to have precocious, unprotected sex, leading to an increase of disease, pregnancy and abortion." 

She points out the importance of family and Catholic teaching in the matter of educating about sex.

"For the Catholic Church, she said, sexual activity is an important part of human and spiritual maturity and properly belongs only to marriage and the formation of a family.  The church teaches respect for one's own body, which means giving importance and weight to the acts that are done with it, not just taking into consideration the possibility of enjoyment or narcissistic gratification."

Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Watch This Short Video on America's Form of Government