LETTERS
To the Editor:

The Health Fair at Union General Hospital was heldon Saturday, November 3rd from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Laboratory Manager, Betty Crawford reported 271 patients arrived for testing.

Help was provided by nursing students at North Georgia Tech, a few employees and the Union General Hospital Auxiliary. Thank you everyone very much for your help.
Rita Miller
To the Editor:

This letter is in response to last week's "article" (and I use the term article very loosely) entitled "Biased Judges Scar Children, Wound Fathers". First of all, I would like to state that this piece of cow's manure belonged in the editorial section and certainly not on the front page of any newspaper, no matter how poorly edited said paper may be.

In response to the question of why fathers are discriminated against when it comes to child custody, the answer seems fairly clear. Mothers are nature's nurturers. Fathers are the providers. Children of a young age need their mothers far more than their fathers. Granted, as a child becomes older, the father's role becomes more important, but fathers will still never obtain the nurturing instinct which is inherent in most women. There are cases where this does not always hold true. Sometimes it is in the best interest of the child to reside with the father, especially when the mother is unfit to care for her children or does not wish to care for them.

The argument that 80% of divorce cases are filed by women first has nothing to do with women being unfit to retain custody of their children. In these cases, it is more likely than not something wrong on the part of the husband that the woman sees as a detriment to herself and/or her children. Oftentimes, a woman will put up with a lot more from her husband if there are children involved for the sake of keeping the children with both parents. When a woman with children decides to petition for divorce, it is generally because the spouse was either abusive (emotionally or physically), was emotionally absent from the family, or was committing adultery.

The argument that "children pine for their fathers...have much higher rates of depression, suicide" etc. can very easily be turned around and the same argument could be made about children pining for their mothers. The point is, single parent families are not the best solution, but it happens all the time. It is the responsibility of our judges, whom we elected, to make the decision as to who the primary caretaker should be using the guidelines set forth in Supreme Court rulings. In Parham v. J.R., the Court ruled that "there is a presumption that fit parents act in their children's best interests." It is the duty of the court to determine which parent is more fit to act in the child's best interests, which, more often than not, is the mother.
Respectfully yours,
Alexis LaPorta