Healthy Marriage Month

I'm a little late in seeing this but Governor Robert Bentley proclaimed February as Healthy Marriage Month:

"WHEREAS, marriage is not just another lifestyle choice, but the foundation of healthy families and a healthy future for America; and

WHEREAS, marriage, in every known human society, creates new families, binds men and women together in a network of affection, mutual aid and mutual obligation; marriage commits parents to their children and connects children to a wider network of welcoming kin; and

WHEREAS, marriage is the outward, visible sign of a man and a woman’s desire to create a lasting love and forge a tie so strong that a child’s heart can rely upon it; and

WHEREAS, mounting scientific evidence confirms that children raised outside of marriage are more likely to commit crime, fail at school and on the job, to abuse drugs, to lapse into physical and mental illness, to become teen parents, to suffer material deprivation, and perhaps saddest of all, to become the victims of child abuse; and

WHEREAS, marriage, as an institution, deserves our special respect and concern because healthy marriages create a way for children to enjoy the full emotional, moral and financial protection of both parents; and

WHEREAS, it is important to recognize the special place of marriage in American society and in American hearts; and

WHEREAS, marriage should be honored as the extraordinary vow that ordinary people make and guide their lives by every day:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert Bentley, Governor of the State of Alabama, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2013, as

Healthy Marriage Month"

I raise my glass of sweet tea and offer Governor Bentley a hearty hear, hear.