Throughout my childhood up to graduation from high school in 1964, I knew only one student whose parents were divorced. It was whispered about in the schoolyard in sixth grade, as if the very pretty but clearly melancholy girl were carrying a dread disease. As a teacher for 26 years, I have seen the results in my students. All these broken homes today, combined with the transience, impersonality, and commercialism of American society, have stunted the emotional development of the young. As a libertarian, I oppose any attempt by the government to control private behavior.
Marriages ought to be formed or dissolved according to personal desire or whim.
But much more attention needs to be paid to public education and cultural enrichment in America, which can partly restore what has been lost in the perhaps irreversible breakdown of the family. It's WASP gentrification of the worst kind. Cher destroyed her fabulous profile in the same way, and now it's Courtney Love who's veered toward the Connie Sellecca ski-jump look. I'm absolutely delighted with Madeleine Albright's confirmation as Secretary of State. It brings American women one step closer to winning the White House.