Georgia Chief Justice Sears: Marriages Invaluable for All - 12/16/05

[Smartmarriages]

We didn't select Atlanta BECAUSE of this Judge, but looks like we should
have!  Wow, a Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court that is on our team.
- diane 


- VALUED MARRIAGES INVALUABLE FOR ALL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By LEAH WARD SEARS
December 16, 2005 

To see a photo of Chief Justice Leah Sears, go to:
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/1205/12edsears.html

Benin Dakar astutely pointed out in her Monday @issue column ("Drop in black
marriages hurts families") that "a large majority of African-American
children are born out of wedlock and up to 85 percent of African-American
children will spend some or all of their childhood in a single-parent home."

The devaluation of marriage, however, is not confined to the
African-American community. Nor are most Georgians aware of how much time
our courts spend dealing with families in crisis. Even though family
problems begin in private, statistics show that they become public problems
with social and financial consequences. The burden they place on our court
system cannot be discounted.

As chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, I am working to raise
awareness about the impact the disintegrating family is having on our court
system. In our superior courts, for instance, 65 percent of all civil cases
involve family matters (divorce, child custody, etc.). In fact, these cases
outnumber all other civil cases by better than 3-1, just as they outnumber
all criminal cases by a wide margin.

Additionally, 25 percent of Georgia's children under the age of 18 have
their child support payments collected for them by a state agency. As
recently as 2004, Georgia's Child Support Enforcement Unit collected more
than $550 million on behalf of more than 500,000 of our children.

Better than 70 percent of those funds were collected and distributed
pursuant to an order entered and enforced in a superior court.

It is not only our superior courts, though, that have a burden to bear when
it comes to families and children. In 2004, more than 122,000 cases were
filed in Georgia's juvenile courts. It is safe to say that many of those
children would not have been in court if their home environment were stable
with two parents present and accounted for.

I'm sharing these numbers because they speak directly to what has happened
to the family. In 1955, the year I was born, only four out of every 100
children were born out of wedlock, while eight had parents who divorced. By
the year 2000, those numbers had risen dramatically: For every 100 children
born, 33 were born out of wedlock and 27 had parents who divorced. Moreover,
in America today one-third of all children live away from their fathers. For
children whose parents have divorced, 40 percent never see their fathers in
a typical year.

It is not my intention to make single parents feel bad about the choices
they've made. Many single mothers and fathers succeed as parents, and they
are to be commended. Nor do I believe that everyone should marry, or once
married, that every couple should remain together.

I know firsthand that sometimes divorce is, unfortunately, the best of the
available bad options. However, there has grown up in America over the last
30 years a fairly large group of people, many of whom are college educated,
career driven and affluent, who do not intend to marry but who do intend to
have children. Unfortunately, it is often the courts that must step in when
the parents' nonbinding relationship comes to an end.

Marriage is more than a private emotional relationship, especially when
children are involved. It is also a social good. Statistics show that
communities in which lasting marriages are common have better outcomes for
children, women and men than do communities plagued with high rates of
divorce and unmarried childbearing. When families are held together by two
dedicated parents working in partnership, those families tend to prosper.
Stable, prosperous families are good for our state.

We must work to reinvigorate the institution of marriage. Much lasting good
can be accomplished through marriage education and divorce intervention
programs. Fledgling families can be nurtured; fractured families can be put
back together. Lastly, mothers and fathers from all walks of life must be
reminded that the precious children they bring into this world have much
more to lose from divorce and family disunity than they do.


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