On whose watch? The silent separation of American children from their fathers

Within two generations, the primary reason that American children were deprived of a father shifted from a father's death to a woman's choice. That is, prior to the 1960s, the major cause of fatherlessness was the death of the father through illness or accident. After the 1960s, the children became deprived of fathers primarily because of women's decisions to petition for a divorce or to become a single parent mother. The path of the shift is examined, and the consequences writ small per child and writ large for the commonweal are examined. Rule #1: "All politics are local "-Speaker Tip O'Neill Rule #2: "All long terms politics are reproduction strategies." Rule #3: All effective long term politics camouflage Rule #2.-Ipsoc Macquire Around the world, the thousands of known cultures have built their social structures around some version of the nuclear family: a mother, a father and their children. Superimposed upon this core, are variations such as extended families or the avuncu-late. However, in 1994 nearly 2,000,000 American children became fatherless as a consequence of decisions made by individuals which were adjudged not inappropriate by the commonweal. That is, the system of American folkways & mores had been re-arranged and re-adjusted such that fatherlessness was no