By Wade Emmert
Wade Emmert
Families in America are under attack and it is killing our society. It is hurting our economy, straining our educational system, and threatening our very way of life.
I’m reminded of the children’s song from Sunday school about the foolish man building his house on the sand. When the rains came down and the floods came up, the foolish man’s house went “splat.” Why? Because it was not built on a good foundation like the house built on solid rock by the wise man.
By way of analogy, the family unit is the building block of our society. If we try to build our society on something else, it will not withstand the inevitable storms. Take away the solid rock that families provide and many parts of our society start to crumble.
The Republican Party of Texas recognizes the role strong families play in our society. In fact, it is the very first guiding principle in the Texas GOP platform:
We support:
Strong Families – Families intent on giving their children the hope of a better tomorrow, the promise of a safe and secure today, and an appreciation and respect of yesterday.
It’s not hard to understand why the family is so important.
Statistics showing the breakdown of the family and its devastating effects are easy to come by. For this article, my primary source is ChildStats.gov, a website run by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a collection of 22 Federal government agencies involved in research and activities related to children and families.[1]
Their numbers on the breakdown of the family are compelling. In 2010, only 66 percent of children ages 0-17 lived with two married parents. That is down from 77 percent in 1980. When broken out based on ethnicities, 75 percent of White, 61 percent of Hispanic, and 35 percent of Black children lived with two married parents in 2010.[2]
Part of the problem is that more children are born outside of wedlock, so the traditional family unit never has a chance.[3] In 2009, 41 percent of all births were to unmarried women.[4] In 1980, that rate was only 18 percent.
The lack of a stable family unit results in more children living in poverty and not having needed resources to thrive. Children of unmarried mothers are more likely to live in poverty than children of married mothers[5] and they are at greater risk for adverse consequences because the social, emotional, and financial resources available to the family may be limited.[6] This affects their educational prospects and earning opportunities.[7]
Locally, these numbers are even more disturbing. In Texas, single-parent families increased from 31% in 2000 to 34% in 2010. In Dallas County, these numbers have increased every decade since 1990.[8]
The point of this article is not provide a preachy solution or to imply that Republicans are immune from the trend of single-parent families. I know first hand that is not true. I am the result of a single-parent family.
Neither am I trying to say exactly what the family unit should look like. No, the point of this article is to recognize a problem exits regardless of political party and ethnicity and that it affects all of us. This is a shared-problem with shared-implications.
The call for stronger families is not just an platitude that sounds good at political rallies. Rather, it is an essential part of who we are as a country. Families define us and empower us. To put a point on it: when families suffer, America suffers.
Looking at the elements in the Republican principle, we see that families provide our children at least three very important things:
1. Give children hope of a better tomorrow;
2. Keep children safe and secure; and
3. Instill within children an appreciation and respect of yesterday.
The promise of hope for a better tomorrow is not intended to extend to only a select few. The promise is a hope for all through better education, better opportunities for economic growth and better opportunities for personal achievement.
Better educational opportunities give children the tools they will need to grow up, mature and provide for themselves and their families. Real hope, though, comes from opportunities to succeed.
Whether they want to be school teachers, lawyers, pastors or entrepreneurs, our children deserve an opportunity to make something of themselves. They deserve a chance to be who they want to be, not merely default to a life because they have no other choice.
Families also keep children safe and secure. Safety comes through the protection and provision of loving parents who look out for their children’s best interests and nurture them into adulthood. Security comes by giving children the means of providing for themselves.
Education is a good example. An educated person can provide for himself or herself rather than relying on the government or charity. That kind of security is perhaps the greatest gift our generation can provide to the next.
The goal of instilling within our children an appreciation and respect of yesterday is a call to instill within them patriotism and pride in America. Never forget where we came from, whether it be our low moments or our greatest achievements. We are all bound together through our history. Its not all good history, but it is our history. Either way, it is the fabric of our society and we need to know it.
Knowing the disastrous effects of struggling families is not the same thing as finding a solution. We must start with an acknowledgement of the problem if we ever hope to find a solution.
A long term solution, however, will necessarily involve reclaiming our traditional American values, especially those that support the family unit. The family unit is the building block of our society. Take away that cornerstone and, just like the house of the foolish man, our society will go “splat.”
[1] http://www.childstats.gov/forum/ “About the Forum”
[2] http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/famsoc1.asp “Family Structure & Child Living Arrangements”
[3] National Center for Health Statistics. (1995). Report to Congress on out-of-wedlock childbearing. Hyattsville, MD: Author.
[4] Hamilton, B.E., Martin, J.A., and Ventura, S.J. (2010). Births: Preliminary data for 2009. National Vital Statistics Reports, 59(3). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
[5] McLanahan, S. (1995). The consequences of nonmarital childbearing for women, children, and society. In National Center for Health Statistics, Report to Congress on out-of-wedlock childbearing. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
[6] McLanahan, S. (1995). The consequences of nonmarital childbearing for women, children, and society. In National Center for Health Statistics, Report to Congress on out-of-wedlock childbearing. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
[7] Strohschein, L. (2005, December). Household income histories and child mental health trajectories. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(4), 359–357.
[8] http://kidscount.org “Kids County Data Center”
Wade Emmert is Chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party and former memberof the Cedar Hill City Council.
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