The family in society

Several things worth noting in Mr. Pat Buchanan's recent column.^[1] First: one in three abortions today, or at least according to his 2002 statistic, are performed on black women; second: 44 percent of state and federal prison inmates are black, and 35 percent white. It follows from this that violent crime is either seven times greater in the black community, or seven times more successfully prosecuted. The two are not, on the surface, related, nor does Mr. Buchanan attempt to relate them.

I think they are, in fact, related however. Both I suspect stem from the breakdown in the family. Taking either side of the disjoint in the latter, with the family broken by chronic dependency, chronic absentee fathers, and multiple marriages, children have little chance of breaking out of poverty(and thus pay for legal assistance). Alternately, the lack of positive male influence, coupled with the presence of negative male influence, would clearly (except to a radical feminist) leave a vacuum in the child's life, making him or her a more vulnerable target for temptation to crime. Taking the former proposition, the same breakdown of the family would create greater pressures on the mother that could lead her to feel there is no option except abortion.

The family is the building block of society. As it is attacked, as it breaks down, our society crumbles with it. These are just some of the results.