The odds married couples stay together are slim today and it’s even slimmer for remarriages.
Are lawmakers concerned about this? Not really.
Instead of interrogating heterosexual couples in their second, third or even fourth marriage, government officials focus on couples like Shari Feldman and Inderjit Singh, featured in a recent New York Times article (June 13), about their nearly 17-year marriage. Immigration has yet to “approve” them after three petitions and five failed marriage interviews.
The Daily Nebraskan believes interrogations looking for ‘sham’ marriages are wrong. Sure, the government claims it’s trying to prevent marriage fraud, but who’s to say “normal,” multi-wed, already naturalized heterosexual couples aren’t committing fraud? (Don’t mean to pick on the multi-wed, but seriously, who’s to say?) The interrogations are a complete, utter and unnecessary invasion of privacy. Marriage is a contract between two consenting adults who decided to join together for any number of reasons; love, finances, domestic residency issues, comfort, etc. Government officials should not be authorized to question individuals on the legitimacy of their marriage.
The Daily Nebraskan is against all measures forbidding marriages and unions between two consenting adults gay, straight or otherwise, as long as they’re living human beings.
If the government is to challenge couples for green cards or same-sex marriage, then the government should interrogate all individuals seeking marriage.
It’s absurd to ask couples the color of their spouse’s toothbrush or where the microwave is in their home in order to “prove” their union. Answering questions about the details of the first date, wedding night and honeymoon is embarrassing and senseless. There are couples who’ve been married over 25 years who don’t know the color of their own toothbrush, let alone their spouse’s.
Over and over we hear that statistic 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. In 2008, about 12,500 people married in Nebraska; in that same year 6,100 divorced according to the 2008 National Vital Statistics Reports. (Of course none of them were same-sex couples because Nebraska is behind in that area.) If couples want to consent to marriage, let them! Don’t question them on their intentions because it’s unfair and a huge waste of time and resources.