A broken marriage doesn’t mean a broken pocket

By now almost everyone in America has gotten wind of the divorce proceedings between basketball great, Michael Jordan and his soon to be ex-wife, Juanita.

The issue of assessing blame for the failure of this relationship gets beyond the point of the real salient points. America has an admitted fascination with its athletes and Michael Jordan has without saying, reached an almost icon status. Unfortunately, as fast as America builds its icons, it finds a way to magnify their shortcomings and deconstruct them even faster. In the case of the Jordans divorce, the lion’s share of negative comments seem to be coming from the female segment of the population.

“She should get half.” “She’s the mother of his children, she had those babies for him,” and “He cheated on her,” are a few of the reasons I hear those with high estrogen levels claim why Juanita is entitled to a generous divorce settlement.

It’s a fact that judges tend to be biased in divorces involving children, and make rulings accordingly, usually to the financial detriment of the man. But the mentality that the woman in the failed marriage “had those kids for that man” holds no water. Doing something “for” someone implies that a service has been rendered. A woman getting pregnant isn’t a totally self-inflicted state of being, but her consent is usually a critical step in the process.

Installing your cable or satellite system or changing a head gasket on a car is a service. Having a baby isn’t and certainly shouldn’t be something you monetarily profit from.

We live under a judicial system that’s become overly sensitive to women’s issues and political correctness.

Thus, I’m sure Juanita will ultimately walk away from this divorce in a fiscally comfortable status. But how that fortune was actually amassed deserves much more consideration than it’ll get when the final ruling comes down.

Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball athlete to ever step on the court. Infidelity, broken marriage vows or irreconcilable differences, while they may be emotionally trying for Mrs. Jordan, certainly don’t merit her an exorbitant means of living, most of which she isn’t responsible for generating.

The only woman Michael Jordan might be inclined to have feelings of indebtedness to is his mother for the portion of the DNA she contributed in creating a physically complete athlete.

Hopefully, this latest and most highly publicized divorce will spawn a new age of financially conscious athletes, who arm themselves with iron clad prenuptial agreements or aggressive birth control measures.

Or better yet, with the newly defined gender roles and laws governing marriage, maybe more male athletes will elect not to marry at all.

Donathan Prater, 26, is a graduate journalism student from Spartanburg, S.C. He can be reached at dredlocks25@hotmail.com