Family Values

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- When Gov. Bill Clinton brought hi presidential campaign to the University of Notre Dame the other day, he was well aware that his support of abortion rights could be a political minefield. But he navigated it deftly by focusing on life after birth.In a style that brought to mind Democratic Rep. Barney Frank's old wisecrack that President Bush was concerned about children from conception to birth, Clinton talked of the obligation to assure the healthy and intellectual development of "every child born in the U.S.A."

My mother went into paid work soon after my father's clothing store was flooded out in a hurricane, almost wiping him out. She had no choice. We needed the money. This was some two decades before a tidal wave of wives and mothers went into paid work. For the relatively few women with four-year college degrees, this change was the consequence of wider educational opportunity and new laws against gender discrimination that opened professions to well-educated women. But the vast majority of women entered the paid workforce because male wages were dropping.

It could be said that Sheila Song's choice of career as a geriatric pharmacist is in herblood. For it is the close relationship the Carney resident has long shared with her grandmother, Cheng Soon Song, now 89, who had a major role in Song's upbringing, and who led Song to see that there is both need and reward in working with the elderly. The Loch Raven High School graduate, Song, 25, recently earned her Doctorate of Pharmacy after completing an intensive four-year program at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.

I am a culinary food scientist who arrived in Baltimore a quarter century ago with little more than my degree in hand. I embarked on a career with local food manufacturers and have lived for more than two decades with my life partner, a health-care administrator with a renowned local medical institution. On our 10th anniversary we were joined in a civil union at an Episcopal church in Vermont. I helped my partner raise his son, who made us extremely proud by serving this nation honorably in Iraq.

When the owners of FutureCare Health and Management and the people who work at its 12 Baltimore-area skilled nursing centers talk about “family,” they mean it. For one thing, the Pasadena-based company is family-owned and its board chairman, Leonard J. Attman, says it will remain that way. For another, whether they perform nursing care, do laundry, prepare meals, maintain the buildings or manage the administrative side of the business, employees...

My mother went into paid work soon after my father's clothing store was flooded out in a hurricane, almost wiping him out. She had no choice. We needed the money. This was some two decades before a tidal wave of wives and mothers went into paid work. For the relatively few women with four-year college degrees, this change was the consequence of wider educational opportunity and new laws against gender discrimination that opened professions to well-educated women. But the vast majority of women entered the paid workforce because male wages were dropping.

Republicans should talk as much about family value as about family values. There is no better anti-poverty program than marriage.According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the breakup of a marriage and childbirth by single women are the principal reasons people go on welfare. Forty-five percent of all those going on welfare do so after divorce or separation; 30 percent of new people on welfare rolls are single women with new babies. The largest single category of people getting off welfare are those who get married: They and their children account for 35 percent of the people leaving welfare rolls.

Robert Greene cites God's word and reminds us that an entire city (Sodom) was destroyed because of God's anger with homosexuality ("Gay marriage contradicts God's word," Feb. 28). Mr. Greene is upset because of the destruction of "traditional family values" that seem so "disposable" to today's expansion of civil rights. If he reviews again the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, he will be reminded that Lot was permitted to escape their destruction after he offered up his two virgin daughters to the evil men of the city of Sodom to do with them whatever they would like.

Reading your editorial "Stop the madness" (Nov. 22) got me wondering: Will Mr. Target or Ms. Wal-Mart or any of the other executives who decided to open their stores on Thanksgiving be in their offices Thursday evening? Of course not. They will be home with their families and friends enjoying the holiday. I bet they won't even be in the office on Friday. It's truly amazing how much corporate greed has trumped family time. Does anyone really believe that opening the stores a few hours earlier is going to make that much of a difference?

The title character of "Pecker," John Waters' 13th film, is a teen-age sandwich-maker in Hampden who is nicknamed Pecker because as a child he pecked at his food. But just as the film's title flashes on screen, Waters assures us that his dirty mind is still working, when he flashes a shot of Baltimore's Washington monument, photographed at an angle that renders the father of our country an unwitting spokesman for Viagra. Welcome to the world of John Waters, who at 52 remains in giggly thrall to the naughty appeal of sex, vice and all-around rude behavior.

The Episcopal Church took a major step toward recognizing same-sex unions this week when delegates at its triennial General Convention in Indianapolis voted overwhelmingly to allow priests to bestow the church's blessings on gay couples in lifetime committed relationships. Though the resolution stopped just short of declaring the blessing a marriage rite, and its use by priests remains contingent on the approval of local bishops, the move marks a growing acceptance by one of the country's oldest, most established denominations that gay people have always been part of the church and that their presence should be acknowledged in its liturgy.

Hilary Phelps was approaching the finish line of her first Ironman triathlon. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" was playing. She was wrung out from more than 14 hours of swimming, cycling and now running, certain that there wasn't a single drop of liquid left inside her. Then she saw her family, and the tears started flowing as she ran into their arms - mom Debbie, sister Whitney and brother Michael. "I've never done anything this impressive," she remembers Michael saying. "Are you kidding me?"

    So it's official. No one really cares that Newt Gingrich is an egotistical, vainglorious scoundrel, at least where women are concerned. Sure, his ex-wife went on TV two days before the South Carolina primary and re-dished a bunch of dirt about their marriage, but based on the outcome there, it seems GOP voters got over the whole family values thing a long time ago. At the very least, it seems that unapologetic combativeness is proving a more effective campaign strategy than bragging about the longevity of your marriage or releasing enviably wholesome family portraits.

I suppose it makes sense, as presidential politicking picks up speed, to try to get the candidates to put some of their lofty campaign promises in writing. Are you really going to cut taxes, balance the budget, dismantle the EPA and bomb Iran? Or are you just saying that because you think that's what we voters want to hear? Are you going to double-talk your way out of these commitments once you are safely in the White House? Those hardscrabble Iowans sure aren't taking any chances with slippery politicians this presidential season.

When the owners of FutureCare Health and Management and the people who work at its 12 Baltimore-area skilled nursing centers talk about “family,” they mean it. For one thing, the Pasadena-based company is family-owned and its board chairman, Leonard J. Attman, says it will remain that way. For another, whether they perform nursing care, do laundry, prepare meals, maintain the buildings or manage the administrative side of the business, employees...

Reading your editorial "Stop the madness" (Nov. 22) got me wondering: Will Mr. Target or Ms. Wal-Mart or any of the other executives who decided to open their stores on Thanksgiving be in their offices Thursday evening? Of course not. They will be home with their families and friends enjoying the holiday. I bet they won't even be in the office on Friday. It's truly amazing how much corporate greed has trumped family time. Does anyone really believe that opening the stores a few hours earlier is going to make that much of a difference?

Was Dan Quayle right after all? Last week the Census Bureau reported that the conventional model of American family life -- a married couple with kids and a stable home -- is on the verge of becoming the exception rather than the rule. The latest figures are bound to renew the "family values" debate highlighted by former Vice President Quayle during the 1992 presidential campaign.The bureau found that in 1991, only 50.8 percent of American children lived in a traditional "nuclear" family -- defined as one where both biological parents are present and all children were born after the marriage.

It could be said that Sheila Song's choice of career as a geriatric pharmacist is in herblood. For it is the close relationship the Carney resident has long shared with her grandmother, Cheng Soon Song, now 89, who had a major role in Song's upbringing, and who led Song to see that there is both need and reward in working with the elderly. The Loch Raven High School graduate, Song, 25, recently earned her Doctorate of Pharmacy after completing an intensive four-year program at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.

My son and I visited a small, private, reputable liberal arts college about 500 miles south of Baltimore during its "Welcome High School Juniors Weekend" a few months ago. We spent a beautifully orchestrated day interacting with so many students who looked exactly like us that it almost felt like we had been on a tour of The Sims University. Because this is my third and final child entering the college vetting process, I knew enough not to extol the school's merits or denigrate its shortcomings and risk prejudicing my son's impressions.