Posted by
Craig Freeborn on Monday, January 22, 2007 12:21:00 PM
Last week our local newspaper ran a story telling us that, for the first time in history, 51% of American women are now living without a spouse. I heard the same report on the radio newscast, and I’m sure I’d have seen it on the television news if I watched television news. I pulled up copies of several other newspapers across the country – ain’t technology wonderful? – and sure enough they all carried their own versions of the same story.
They all referred to a piece in the New York Times, and they all had a decidedly anti-marriage slant. Every one of them carried the quote by a certain Elissa Terris – divorced after 34 years of marriage. “Marriage” she said “kind of aged me…” Well yeah, 34 years will do that. “Now I have choices”, she continued. “One night I slept on the other side of the bed, and I thought, I like this side.”
Of all the possible reasons for getting a divorce, I won’t even try to argue with that one!
But the more I thought about it, the more perplexed I became. The numbers just didn’t ring true. While at the same time, it fit too nicely into the current politically correct line of building up same-sex “marriage” by tearing down traditional marriage.
Turns out the answer wasn’t as hard to find as I anticipated. The government has a website – well, actually it has hundreds if not thousands of websites (your tax dollars at work) – maintained by the Census Bureau. Many of the statistics are updated through 2005 – since we only have a census every ten years (as mandated by the Constitution) I haven’t a clue where they get the raw data.
Sidebar
A lot of the stuff on this site would put a statistician to sleep, and it’s not presented in a consistent format. But it does have some pages that caught my eye.
For instance, check out the U.S. Population Clock in real time (POP Clock), or the Fact Sheet on your community (Hometown). My favorite is the page with the Males-per-100-Females Chart (Chicks Chart).
End Sidebar
According to the Census Bureau, a 56% majority of women over age 20 are currently married. So what is this story all about?
It’s all about discrediting marriage, but it’s based on Mark Twain’s observation: “There are three kinds of liars – liars, damn liars, and statisticians.”
In order to get the slant he wanted, the NYT columnist manipulated the Census Bureau data.
First, he included all “women” 16 and over. Now just how many 16 year old “women” do you know who are married?
Then he added women who are widowed. Yeah, as if they’re making an anti-marriage statement!
And finely he added those women whose husbands are “temporally” away like serving in the military, working away from home, or in jail – well, maybe some women should get divorced. I work with many people in Texas who are “living” in a company-paid apartment or motel but actually live with their families in another state when they’re home.
Regardless of the NYT’s wishes, marriage is alive and well. The dream of the average little Freeborn American girl is still to get married, raise a family, and live happily ever after.
I think Mark Twain could have added one more “kind of liar” to his list – columnists with agendas.