Opinion: Maybe it's time to put limits on no-fault divorce

Like Howard Troxler, we have grown accustomed to a society where no-fault divorce seems like an inalienable right. Our generation, we'll call it the "Beatles' generation," revolted against marriage as a life-long commitment. We both feel that our generation was wrong and Howard Troxler is still clinging to the failed mantra of a misguided past.

An auction in London a few years ago, illustrated to us the depth of pain that divorce confers. It touches more than just the two people involved -- it deeply affects children as well. There was an anonymous bidder who purchased Paul McCartney's recording notes for Hey, Jude and this was later revealed to be Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son from his first marriage. It turned out that the song was written by McCartney for Julian, to comfort him during the breakup of his parents' marriage. Originally entitled Hey, Jules, this song reflects the consequences of divorce on children -- evidently a loss of trust so deep that Julian still longs for its healing balm today.

We both have witnessed many of our friends go through painful divorces and have seen the terrible toll on their children, the extended family, and our society. Maybe the "Beatles' generation" was wrong. Maybe it's time to put some restraints on this no-fault divorce and institute government controls to bolster marriage. Experience and numerous studies have shown that all marriages have their difficult periods and that couples who "hang in there" and work on their differences are often more satisfied than ever. A 1995 University of Oklahoma study showed that permissive divorce statues contributed to higher divorce rates, while more restrictive statutes discouraged people from hastily turning to divorce. Given that the average waiting period for a divorce in the United States is less than one year and that research shows that many divorcees often perceive, looking back, that they gave up on their marriages too soon, it is hard to agree with Troxler. It seems to us that some proposals for reforming the divorce laws and strengthening marriages should take place.

Marriage is a civic responsibility of the state and therefore the purview of our governor. We applaud Gov. Jeb Bush for giving marriages in Florida greater attention. We applaud him for considering changes in the divorce laws; this may offer couples and children and our society a better chance to "take a sad song and make it better."
-- Jim and Jan Avery, Clearwater

Move to shared parenting

Re: Howard Troxler's article, If voters haven't called for "marriage reform," why bring it up?

Howard Troxler and the politicians are not addressing the most obvious point. While no-fault divorce, education, etc., are areas that should be discussed, they are ignoring the major point. That is, allowing the "Divorce Industry" to deny children their right to both parents.

Our current "one winner, one loser" system in divorce, routinely removes one parent from the children's lives, usually the father. The U.S. Census bureau has reported all sorts of problems associated with children raised in a single-parent household, again, mostly fatherless households. The problems range from bad grades and increased drug abuse to lifelong psychological problems.

The obvious solution in the majority of cases is 50/50 shared parenting. Not only would this give children the benefit of both parents' influence on their lives, it would stop most of the ongoing litigation, the forced poverty on the "losing" parent, and it would help keep the government out of our lives.

Let's really work for "the best interest of the children."
-- Don Delaney, St. Petersburg

Where do governor's loyalties lie?

Re: GOP site question tests Bush's loyalties, Dec. 11.

Gov. Jeb Bush recently responded to questions about how, if at all, he intends to promote Tampa to the Republican Party, and to the White House, as a site for the 2004 GOP National Convention. Apparently he will not use his personal relationship with the president to promote Tampa's bid for the convention.

It disturbs me that he would say, in regard to balancing his obligations to his millions of constituents in the state of Florida and to his brother, the president, "At the end of the day, they (the GOP National Convention site selection committee) will do what is in the best interests of our great president, and I will as well. I'm a loyal soldier in his army as it relates to his political career."

With all due respect to our governor, is he a leader or a lackey? Florida Democrats and Republicans alike voted him to a second term in office to forcefully represent all of our best interests as our voice to the nation and to the world. This includes things like attracting the millions of dollars in immediate revenue and the tremendous public relations boost the 2004 convention would bring to Tampa Bay and the entire state.

Jeb Bush appears to have just shown that his priorities, and his loyalties, lie somewhere between the career of the former governor of Texas and his own political career after his final term as governor of the great state of Florida expires.
-- Jim Knetsch, Tampa

Wary of spreading consumer mania

Re: Stanford may advance Earth's needs, Dec. 7.

The Global Climate and Energy Project, heralded in William O'Keefe's column recently, will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor the development of abundant, cleaner energy for a world that is expected to increase by 1.3-billion people (over 20 percent) by the year 2020. The column goes on to state that, with this increase, "it's obvious that we desperately should be expanding -- not constricting -- the Earth's economy and its energy supplies." While I would certainly applaud the arrival of cleaner energy sources, it's the part about the desperate need to expand the global economy that makes me shudder.

"Expanding the global economy" is a euphemism for exporting our American lifestyle to the rapidly growing populations of the developing nations. While I agree that these people deserve a greater share of the Earth's goodies, I believe that to promote such a surge in global consumption at this time would only delay our inevitable transition to a sustainable global economy. Before that can happen, the developing nations need to stabilize their populations at levels that are sustainable relative to the size and resources of their homelands, and America must curb its current addiction to a throwaway, environment-abusive, conspicuous-consumption life style. These issues are both difficult and stubborn, but I hope the movers and shakers of the world will have the courage to face them soon and act responsibly.
-- Charles W. Clapp, Sun City Center

Get more money to working people

If there is one economic lesson that the Great Depression taught America, it is that we cannot have a prosperous country unless working people are earning a living wage. All the gimmicks and experiments of the New Deal failed to bring prosperity until World War II put most Americans to work making a living wage. Past experience told America that there would be a depression when the war was over, but that did not happen after World War II, because Harry Truman was able to keep Americans employed making products for which shortages had developed during the war and working on building the infrastructure.

If President Bush and the Republicans are sincere about creating a prosperous America, they will find ways to put more money in the pockets of working people. That is the key to prosperity as America learned in the Roosevelt and Truman years. America does not have to endure a slumping stock market, more unemployment, lower wages for working people, loss of the value of pension funds and general loss of confidence in the future.

Government does make economic policy whether Bush and the Republicans like it or not, and at present that policy is to make rich Americans richer. The lesson that the Bush tax cut has proved, again, is that if government puts more money in the pockets of the rich, it will not trickle down into the pockets of the poor. From the days of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover through the administrations of Eisenhower, Reagan and the elder Bush to the present Bush, the Republicans keep trying to prove that trickle-down economics works. Isn't it time the Republicans quit fooling themselves and quit trying to fool all Americans?
-- David B. Higginbottom, Frostproof

Getting older and deeper in debt

Now that the financial institutions have lowered their lending rates to as low as they were back in the 1950s, all due to the Federal Reserve and Alan Greenspan, how about a rollback to the 1950s for our other needs as well?

The borrowers now have low interest rates and the savers have low interest rates, too. How about having gas at the pump, our monthly electric bill, groceries and the price of an automobile (just to name a few) rolled back to the prices we paid in the 1950s? If it's called "stimulating the economy" then stimulate it all the way.

Sure the interest rates are low. Do we really need these low interest rates to borrow and put us deeper in debt? It seems that the federal government wants it that way so we can be singing, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." Or because when you borrow and you owe you can also sing: You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store.

Stimulate is just a word. And the federal government just loves to use the word stimulate. It's becoming old hat.
-- Michael J. Kowalik, Spring Hill

Make our kids 'sun smart'

Floridians may be surprised to learn that the "sunshine state" has the third highest rate of skin cancer cases in the nation. Sadly, many of these cases could have been averted. Almost all forms of skin cancer are preventable, and if detected early, highly curable.

On behalf of the Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, I would like to applaud and endorse the Richard David Kann Melanoma Foundation's legislative initiative to install mandatory skin cancer prevention and early detection education in our public schools. The SunSmart America curriculum provides age-appropriate, FCAT-ready lesson plans, which increase awareness of skin cancer and facilitate behavior changes that will ultimately lead to thousands of lives saved. Schools in Palm Beach County have already adopted this program. Let's work toward making the rest of Florida's kids "sun smart."

I urge you to join the Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery in support of the SunSmart America initiative. It's a life-saving lesson students cannot afford to miss.
-- Mark S. Nestor, M.D., Ph.D., president, Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, Aventura

Weary of football photos

Well, how fortuitous that every Monday following a football game happens to be a "slow news day," as well! I guess you can add my name to the growing list of readers of the Times who object to the huge, full-color photo, with accompanying large type, that is invariably splashed all over the front page of the A section the day after a game.
-- Brenda Gamache, Largo

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