The Marriage Cure

[Ellen Forradalom]

From The New Yorker, August 18/25, 2003:

"Oklahoma has rarely found itself in the vanguard of antipoverty thinking but the class to which were heading embodies a vigorous new idea--something known locally, and archy, as "the marriage cure." Traditionally, singleness as been viewed as a symptom of poverty. Today, however, a politically heterodox cadre of academics is arguing that singleness--and, particuarly, single parenthood--is one of poverty's primary causes, for which matrimony might be a plausible tonic. In an initiative praised by the Bush Administration, which aims to seed marriage-promotion programs nationwide, the state has deputized public-relations firms, community leaders, and preachers ... to take matrimony's benefits to the people. Last summer, that marriage drive reached Sooner Haven. "Come learn about relationships!" said the recruiter who knocked on the housing project's beat-up doors."

The article follows the lives of attendees Kim and Corean and exposes the obstacles they face in realizing a stable marriage. Two awful details struck me: Kim has a hard time finding a job because buses won't stop to pick up public-housing residents; and Corean's son Fella has done a stellar job in high school, but despite Corean's exertions there's no money to send him to college.

No link to the article, but a supplementary interview with the author is at http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/?030818on_onlineonly