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TALK TO US: WHAT EFFECT IS THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY HAVING ON OUR SOCIETY?

MARY T. FARMER ’95 MA
One of the societal changes I might expect as a result of America's changing demographic is an awareness of insensitive language. Imagine my surprise at learning my three adopted children are not "natural." In only one sentence the term biological is used in your article, so I know the author is aware of the terminology. Throughout the rest of the article, such children are called natural. I don't think I'm overly PC, just very aware of the reality of my "unnatural" children. 

ERIC MATSON ’02
I don't know if I have ever been less proud to be a Buckeye than I feel after reading through the latest Alumni Magazine. Not all alumni are going to buy into the fact that we need to accept the way the American family is changing, and that none of our opinions were expressed in this issue. I read Archie Griffin's letter and the piece by Faye Wattleton, but nothing from the other side of the spectrum. I don't want the world to affiliate me with the views of the alumni magazine simply because my diploma is from that same institution.

This is a sickening attempt to cram liberal progressive ideas down our throats in order to get us to accept the fact that the traditional American family is a thing of the past, and that this is a good thing. This could not be further from the truth. The deterioration of the American family is the root cause for many of the issues we face today in society. Yet my alumni magazine wants people to believe that this deterioration is a good thing, and that we need to accept it, and offers no other opinion or alternative.  As we continue to get further and further away from traditional American values in this country, we will continue to see more and more problems.

The only thing keeping me from cancelling my membership is the football ticket vice that they have me in. It saddens me that my money goes to an organization that obviously supports opinions that are in opposition to those with values and morals on the opposite side, and who probably make up a majority of your membership. Spare me from any more of your "progressive thinking."  You aren't going to get me to accept the moral decline in this country, and I am ashamed that the magazine even tried to.

DICK WEBBER ’52
Your article led me to wonder more about the causes of the changing American family rather than the effect. I believe there two major causes; civil right changes and the birth control pill.

In my boyhood in the Bronx I had many black friends and was aware of the terrible Harlem race riots about ten subway stops south of my very integrated De Witt Clinton High School. In 1949, I traveled with the racially mixed Ohio State swim team to the NCAA championships in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Several of our dark-skinned Hawaiian team members were told by older teammates to ignore both the "white only" toilets and the "colored in the back row" bus signs. The bus driver glared at us but wisely bit his tongue. It is inspiring how decades of civil rights evolution have helped minorities and their families.      

The mixed blessings of the birth control pill have also revolutionized the female roll in the family. Ignoring the religious and moral downsides, it has caused a major change within families throughout the western world.

JEFF TOKARSKY ’81 (LM)
The changing nature of the American family is gradually eroding freedom. Our freedom is not guaranteed by the Constitution but by Americans taking personal responsibility for their actions.

 Faye Wattleton ’64 says, in “Our families, Our Future” that “government should be helping us address the issues with which families must contend and advocating values that support healthy human development” rather than trying to “control the structure of family relationships.” She is naïve or intentionally misleading. Any government involvement that “addresses the issues” or “advocates values” will influence, if not control, family structure. That is how we got in this mess in the first place. Government policy that once nurtured traditional families has been weakened or abandoned.

In “The Family Next Door,” divorce, economics, and societal values are stated to have led to the rapid change of families. Perhaps, but the unintended consequences of more “compassionate” government policies had a much larger effect. Great Society and anti-poverty programs weakened the family. Government became the bread winner for and provided a roof over many families. While not eliminating poverty, it decimated the family and personal responsibility. Social safety nets cost money, so taxes had to be raised. Rising taxes reduced disposable family income and pushed mom into the work force more than any stagnating economy. Lastly, how can any serious discussion that mentions increased divorce rates not mention the changes in divorce law that made divorces easier to obtain?

Almost every problem, from drug use to crime to grades to teen pregnancy to STDs to child abuse to accidental deaths can be reduced by strengthening the traditional family. It seems silly to do endless studies and develop experimental programs to remedy the problems that occur when children do not have the support and guidance best provided by a traditional family when you could simply go back to supporting the real thing. Admitting the mistakes of the last 40 years is the first step toward realizing a cure.