Test Driving A Spouse

Idalis Burgos

I was listening to Elvis Duran radio show in the morning on my way to school a few days ago and the topic of that day was the 2 year renewable contract marriages in Mexico.  Surprisingly, many of the callers were opposed to this kind of marriage arrangement.  I have always heard of contract marriages, but what I didn’t know was that somewhere in the world this is actually about to become legal, or the norm even.  If passed, the law is said to help newlyweds avoid the hassle of the tedious process of divorce.  The couples can sign a marriage contract with a minimum of two years with the option to opt out of the marriage after two years.  And I quote, "’the proposal is, when the two-year period is up, if the relationship is not stable or harmonious, the contract simply ends,’ says the bill's co-author, Leonel Luna of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, Reuters reports.”  If a couple wishes not to renew their contract they can walk away scot free, no legal hassle, and no dragged out legal matters.  This makes me wonder what effect this will have on the constitution of marriage. 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/mexico-city-lawmaker-propose-renewable-marriage-contracts/1#                                                                 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/10202377.cms

Growing up, I always imagined getting married to the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  The culture in which I was raised taught me that you marry for love and you spend the rest of your life fighting for that love.  Wedding vowels are to be recited to your partner before family and friends and most importantly, locked and sealed before God.  And you spend the rest of your life compromising and growing in love unless it becomes harmful, dangerous or unfaithful.  If the idea of a renewable marriage contract spreads, why would anyone feel the need to salvage a marriage when in just two years, they can opt out?  In other words, why fix something that can easily be replaced?  Some people already take marriage as a joke and this will only reinforce that kind of careless behavior. 

Now, I understand that life doesn’t always work out as planned.  But throughout the course of the radio show, I still could not understand the idea of going into a marriage without the intent of spending the rest of your life with that person.  It just seems like God is being taken out of everything and being replaced with the government and what’s convenient.  The constitution of marriage is based on love, faithfulness and endurance amongst other things.  It seems so superficial, like leasing a car with the option to buy.  In this case, test driving a spouse with the option to renew your marriage contract.  I don’t know.  What do you all think?

Tes

The Problems With Mixed Cultural Relationships

By Teairah Tate

Some may say “society has indeed accepted mixed cultural relationships,” but really have they come to grips that maybe a African American can marry a Jew or a Chinese can marry a Indonesian. My answer is no. Media has deceived people into thinking that mixed cultural relationships can get into a intimate relationship and live happily ever after, when if you actually read between the lines all its saying, is that this is America and we can co-exist but not intertwine. Take two similar cultures or what a person could consider similar, African Americans and Africans. First some background, African Americans is anyone of an African decent or origin meaning derived form African. Africans are people that weren’t born in America, Yet many has a citizenship here. In a different culture one would ask “well whats the difference?” And they will get slim answers similarities and a large number of differences, one being the way we go about dating and marriage.

The question is when families of different cultures leave there native land, why cant they leave there cultural beliefs behind to adapt to the American society”fully”? We have this thing called becoming Americanized and when you become Americanized you are deemed acceptable to are culture. Yet in the case of being with an African man of the igbo tribe, is highly frowned upon if they were to even be brought up in the same sentence with an American woman. My thoughts is that its extremely unfair to come to a new country and not accept the norms of being in a honest relationship of whoever you want to be with. But the problem really lies into what African American cultures display to the world. Especially the women. A lot of what is put into the media is stereotypes and biases about young black woman and it should be a crime to exploit us in that way, because of the bad reputation we get from the cultures around the world. In closing, I was in a relationship where as though my culture was unacceptable in theirs, and I winded up with a broken heart, hurt feeling and bad memories, And finally saying, that my perception of Africans will never be the same.