Saturday, March 31, 2012

Blog 2: The Marriage Vow



By Melissa Schwab


                The article that I found and chose to write about today was an article posted on July 13th 2011 called “Romney says he won’t sign controversial marriage pledge” by CNN wire staff. The article is discussing the fact that he will not sign the marriage pledge that is trying to be put in place by the Iowa social conservative group, The Family Leader. Mitt Romney defiantly supports traditional marriages but the vow/pledge contains some controversial provisions that are not appropriate for a presidential campaign.
                After reading this article I did not know much about the Marriage pledge that the article was referencing so I looked it up online and read the vow itself. Although I am a firm believer on the fact that a marriage is sacred and there should be no infidelity in a marriage I did not agree with some of the facts that they had put into the vow before the actual pledge itself. Some of the things that the pledge states can be depicted as racist to many, for instance it says “Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USAs first African-American President.”
                That is just one example of a racist remark that is made in this pledge that the family leader proposed. The article also states that Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum on the other hand did sign the Marriage Vow. Because they did sign this and there is a preamble that I stated before suggesting black children born into slavery had better family structures than black children now, they had to clarify their support for the pledge. The excerpt has since been removed.
                To somewhat support this pledge that was in the Marriage vow, I will bring up the article that we just had to read this week regarding poor families “Too poor to parent” by Burroughs. This article along with many others has to do with race and how African American families are treated differently and looked at differently by the government and other people in society. For some reason the Family Leader felt the need to place this preamble in the Marriage Vow even though it was not appropriate. They showed their lack of respect for African American people and I agree with the fact that Mitt Romney did not sign this preamble.
                Another article that we have had to read for this course is “Marriage and Love” by Goldman. This preamble does have regard to a couple’s marriage and the socially acceptable things that they should go by, including be faithful to your partner. The article explains what marriage is and what love is and the depiction of marriage is cookie cutter and to the point just like the preamble is that was written by the Family Leader.
                To conclude, this preamble has some key points that are important to a healthy marriage but the fact that they put in the parts regarding African Americans I could not be a supporter of the Preamble and believe that Mitt Romney made a  smart choice in his presidential campaign to not sign this preamble like the others did.


News article:
Marriage Vow:

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