Controversy

I am reading the latest Ann Coulter book, Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America. I know how controversial some of her books are and this is no exception. Already she has had several heated discussions with some of the liberal talk shows and it has been interesting.

There is no question that I am a pretty conservative political person. Which is funny because I tend to be the minority with my friends and even family. I tend to keep my mouth shut because I truly don't want to hurt people's feelings and conservative viewpoints don't always come off as unoffensive. I am not judgemental and the struggle that I find myself when I read her books is that she puts harsh criticism and blame on "someone". While I don't always agree that putting blame somewhere is productive I DO agree with some of her points.

In her latest book her argument is the most liberal people in our country make being a victim something heroic. Rather than try to prevent them from getting into these situations (by choice, fate, poor circumstances, etc) we enable them. Particularly in this book she focuses on single mothers. I am very torn on this subject because I do admire single mothers. It is a tough load to haul. I am not sure that I could ever mange it. On the other hand no other classification can be so clearly pointed to as the one common thread for a long strew of social issues in our country.

"By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced. A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared. Various studies come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. A study cited in the far left-wing Village Voice found that children brought up in single-mother homes "are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home." "

I wish that Ann and others would spend less time criticizing the mothers and more time working on finding solutions to help curve this issue. I also wish that more time was spent criticizing the fathers that for whatever reason are no longer around. I wish for everyone to stop taking offense and accept the harsh reality. Instead we argue and throw blame.