THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410300053
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The phrase ``family values'' has such a warm, comforting sound doesn't it?
No wonder politicians can't resist throwing the term around like they're playing catch with a cocker spaniel.
It doesn't polarize like abortion. It doesn't confuse like health reform. Or backfire like gun control.
Listen to ol' Ollie, a guy who has spent millions telling us what a good family man he is. ``If you want a senator who stands up for your family, instead of just voting the Washington line, I'm your candidate,'' says the same guy accused of standing before Congress and telling a passel of lies.
Hey, Ollie, wouldn't honesty be considered a family value?
The trump card is a little tougher for Chuck Robb to pull, seeing as people keep bringing up those wild parties, nude massages and all. Still, he never misses an opportunity to be seen with wife and daughters.
``Family really does mean a lot,'' says Robb as his wife and daughters stand by nodding. ``It makes a difference when times are tough.''
Times like when your wife has to hold a press conference to forgive you for your womanizing ways?
You can't blame Ollie and Chuck for taking the family road. Politicians across the country are pushing family values as a cure-all for an ailing America.
Burrow down past the images of home and hearth and you run into some hard questions:
What kind of families are politicians talking about when they trumpet family values? Two-parent, white-picket-fence families? Families where the mother stays home to care for the children? Where children live with the same two parents who brought them into the world?
Because if they are, the candidates are preaching to the choir and the choir's shrinking fast.
But you rarely hear a candidate get that specific. And no wonder. Look what happened to Dan Quayle when he made the mistake of blasting TV's Murphy Brown for having a child without getting married.
Fictitious or not, Murphy Brown landed Quayle in a heap of trouble with a host of very real single moms, who indignantly blasted back.
Candidates face the same problem when they start talking about family values: How do you promote things like marriage without alienating people who are divorced or single? How do you champion staying home with your kids without slamming people who have to work for a living?
The truth is that good families come in all shapes and sizes. Single-parent families, gay families, step families, working families. Ozzie and Harriet don't have the corner on what makes a family work.
Instead of telling us what kind of families we ought to be, politicians should be taking a stand on issues that will help create nurturing, stable, secure families no matter what the dimensions.
Issues like paid parental leave. Bigger tax deductions for children. Free child care for the working poor. Immunizations and well-baby check ups for all kids, not just the ones whose families can afford it.
Those are family values that talk, guys.
How about taking a stand? by CNB