13 Jan 2011 In the Daily Caller: Lisa Fritsch of Project 21 Discusses the Dissolving American Family

Project 21 member Lisa Fritsch’s newest New Visions commentary was recently posted to the Daily Caller web site.

Titled “D.C. is a Sign of Our Nation’s Times,” Lisa talks about shocking new data that shows that a large majority of households in the poorest neighborhoods of our nation’s capital are headed by just a single parent — usually female.  While this bodes ill, for D.C., it highlights an unfortunate trend plaguing all of America.

Lisa suggests that the new conservative majority in the House take advantage of its unique power to try to reverse D.C.’s downward spiral.  She writes:

According to government data, 74 percent of households east of the Anacostia River — among the poorest in Washington — have only one parent.  Only nine percent of those are headed by men.  In similar neighborhoods in the rest of southeast D.C. and in northeast D.C., single-parent households are the norm…

Will the two-parent family someday be an abnormality in America?  Will the term “family” itself become a relic like Westerns and black-and-white television?…

The new chairman of the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia inherits enormous crisis and potential.  The profound power Congress wields over D.C. affairs gives it an opportunity to address the disintegrating American family through the introduction of programs that promote active roles for fathers and assistance programs that nurture togetherness rather than reward dissolution and disparity.

Let D.C. transform from the epitome of the problem to the example of how to fix the American family.

To read the entire commentary, click here.