To the editor:

Now that a constitutional amendment safely guards Kansas families from threats from my gay and lesbian friends and relatives, it may be time to focus on other threats to family. It seems to me that divorce is one of the major threats. In 2001, 42.1 percent of Kansas marriages ended in divorce or annulment and lasted four years or less. Recent state data indicates that 9,363 minor children were affected by their parents’ marriage dissolution during 2001 and over half of the marriage dissolutions involved at least one minor child. We can help solve this problem with a minor change to our new amendment by simply adding the words “in perpetuity” to the statement on marriage between one man and one woman.

One of the big factors leading to divorce in Kansas is often infidelity. Gratefully, we still have the death penalty in Kansas, though we have been reluctant to use it in cases of adultery. History shows that the stoning of adulterers is a real deterrent to infidelity.

Perhaps these should be the next steps toward preserving the Kansas family.

Jerry Niebaum,

Lawrence