What If California Outlawed Divorce?
In response to Prop 8, one California man likes the idea of banning divorce to save marriage.
There may not always be a right and wrong to an issue (though there usually is), but the side with the better sense of humor generally laughs last and first (or something). Anyway, a gentleman from California seems to have a chip on his funny bone regarding a certain controversial proposition that eeked by the Golden State's voters (it was Prop 8 and it took some of the shine off of the Obama victory for some CA voters, I'm told). Per the AP, CA citizen John Marcotte would like outlaw divorce. Watch: Prop 8, Saving One Marriage At A Time
If you said, "Whiggitty whaaa...?" then we are on the same page. Mr. Marcotte feels that marriage must be defended at all costs and the best way to prevent marriage from ending is to make divorce illegal. He only needs 694,354 signatures by the second day of spring (March the 22nd, 2010) to get the resolution on a ballot in 2010. So far, his Facebook page has 1,100 members.
I don't have any figures to back this up, but by my count far more marriages have ended from divorce than from, say, gay marriage or lascivious television programming, so perhaps Mr Marcotte is on to something. To my knowledge, part of the push back against gay marriage is that it's a gateway marriage to other things such as marriage to dogs. Most states have age-of-consent laws that would likely prevent canine weddings, as pups seldom live into their teens. And common sense may prevent other inter-species interactions. Though it should be noted we will not be able to prevent human-robot marriage; that is a foregone conclusion. Read: Scientist Predicts Sex And Marriage To Robots
A couple of other states have made hilarious laws regarding marriage, albeit accidentally. First of all, Arkansas's legislators included an extra "not" in a law governing under-18 marriages. The double negative could have allowed children to get hitched at their leisure: Read: Age Min. For Marriage Back In Arkansas And one interpretation of the Texas ban on gay marriage indicates that it bans ALL marriage (per the Miami Herald).
Any thoughts on outlawing divorce? Inadvertently banning marriage? Robot weddings?
Discussion
marriage does seem to be the leading cause of divorce. makes sense to me. it would make people think twice about "til death do us part." but like book mama mentioned, there would be more homicides and domestic violence. when will people admit that humans are not naturally monogamous?
Maybe Mr. Marcotte should pay some of those people that stand outside of Trader Joes trying to get signatures. It seems that when people have just bought peanut butter pretzels they will sign any petition..no matter how stupid it is. And of course we all know now that those people with the signature don't have to believe in the cause...just give them a dollar a signature.
Back to the topic, banning divorce won't happen, because the divorce rate is now slightly higher than the marriage rate! Majority rules. Love the article. Keep it up Tom.
