Louisiana Marriage Proclamation - 2/14, 1999

[Smartmarriages ©]

This Marriage Day Proclamation is available on the CMFCE web site at 
http://www.smartmarriages.com/proclamation.html
courtesy of Governor Mike Foster of Louisiana. 

Send it to your Governor, Mayor, Senator??  -diane 

___________________________
State Of Louisiana

M.J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.
Governor

Proclamation

WHEREAS,	We come together this day to reaffirm the special status of 
marriage in America.  Marriage is not just another lifestyle choice but 
the foundation of healthy families and a healthy future for 		America; and

WHEREAS,	Marriage, in every known human society, creates new families, 
		binds men and women together in a network of affection, mutual 		aid, 
and mutual obligation, commits fathers to their children, and 		connects 
children to a wider network of welcoming kin. Marriage is 		the outward, 
visible sign of a man and a woman's desire to create 		a lasting love,  
to forge a tie so strong that a child's heart can rely 		upon it; and

WHEREAS,	Mounting scientific evidence confirms that when the marriage tie 
frays, our children suffer: Children raised outside of marriage are more 
likely to commit crime, to fail at school and on the job, to abuse drugs, 
to lapse into physical and mental illness, to become teen parents, to 
suffer material deprivation, and saddest of all, to become the victims of 
child abuse; and

WHEREAS,	 Children suffer as well from painful anxieties, persistent 
fears of 		abandonment, arising from one or both parents inability to 
make or 		keep the marriage commitment. Marriage as an institution 
			deserves our special respect and concern because it is 
			irreplaceable: marriage creates the safest space for children to 
		flourish, the only practical way for children to enjoy the full 
			emotional, moral and financial protection of both parents; and

WHEREAS,	Marriage protects adults as well as children, mothers as well as 
fathers, offering the way of life to adults that promotes the core values 
Americans hold dear: work, responsibility, commitment, sobriety, 
relationship.  This may be one reason why, research shows, men and women 
who get and stay married live longer, healthier, wealthier more 
satisfying lives; and 

WHEREAS,	Because we recognize the special place of marriage in American 
society and in American hearts; and

WHEREAS,	Because we honor marriage as the extraordinary vow that ordinary 
people make-and guide their lives by-- every day; and

WHEREAS,	Because we acknowledge the irreplaceable importance of lasting, 
healthy marriage to the well-being of children and therefore, to the 
		future of our nation; and

WHEREAS,	Because we wish to applaud and encourage efforts by states and 
local government and by leaders of civil society to strengthen 
		marriages in a variety of new ways, such as marriage education 
		programs, community marriage policies and new covenant 		marriage laws,

NOW, THEREFORE, I M.J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., Governor of the state of 
Louisiana, do hereby proclaim February 14, 1999, as

					 NATIONAL MARRIAGE DAY

					in the state of Louisiana.

signed by 
Governor, M.J. "Mike" Foster, Jr.






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Diane Sollee, Director
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