At the end of the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” really one of the best films of that decade, Dustin Hoffman swoops in to steal “Elaine! Elaine!” from the altar.
The impulsive couple runs from her groom and her church and jumps on a public transportation bus. But as they ride away, you can see their minds moving from the excitement of the moment to wondering just what exactly they’re going do next.
That reality check — “OK, we’re married now, what now?” may resonate with plenty of couples, whether they got married soon after meeting or had a lengthy engagement; whether they got married this year or 50 years ago.
While many couples live up to their “till death do us part” vows, the statistics make it clear that many other couples don’t.
For two or three decades now, about half of the marriages in Mississippi have ended in divorce. There are surely many reasons for this sad percentage, but one of them has to be that a lifelong commitment usually calls for a bit of thinking and planning.
The topic comes to mind after reading a Mississippi Today column by Geoff Pender, “Mississippi divorce laws are irrevocably broken.” (You can read it on the State tab of the Enterprise-Journal website.) It notes that the state Senate has passed a bill that would allow one partner to claim an “irrevocably broken” marriage as grounds for divorce.
Sen. Brice Wiggins, chairman of the Judiciary A Committee, introduced the bill, which he said is based on the recommendations of judges, lawyers and others who have reviewed Mississippi’s domestic laws.
Wiggins told Mississippi Today that Mississippi’s current restrictive divorce laws are too often used as a weapon by one spouse, bringing great harm to children and adults alike.
Mississippi and South Dakota are the only two states that do not allow one spouse to seek court permission to end a marriage. Current Mississippi law requires mutual consent to declare irreconcilable differences as the reason to separate permanently.
Pender’s column was not optimistic that the Senate bill will become law. He may be right: A conservative state like Mississippi is going to want to encourage couples to stay together.
Lawmakers, who made it easier for people to begin a marriage several years ago, may be reluctant to extend a simpler path to end one. That idealism aside, current law can increase the expense of getting a divorce because of legal fees in cases that can drag on for years, especially if one spouse is in the mood to delay things.
This may explain a small percentage of Mississippi’s high divorce rate — though it must be noted that couples in rest of the country aren’t doing much better at staying together.
If it’s easy to get married but hard to get divorced, it would not be surprising if more people decided to live together and raise a family without being married. Viewed from that angle, current state law isn’t working well at all.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
