Letter: No-fault divorces are best solution to problem

Sunday, Feb. 9, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Tim ultimately sees holding the initiator accountable to the "'til death do us part" promise by assigning costs and payments to the victim of the broken promise. My experience tells me this is the kind of logic that created the formulas and templates used by those that earn their living running the divorce industry.

Sometimes a marriage degrades into a destructive union of two antagonists, making the initiator the deliverer of merciful termination, just like in other real-life contracts where certain partnerships are no longer productive.

Concluding that no-fault divorce is the same as state endorsement of harming people, skims over the best part of no-fault where spelling out in graphic detail all the stupid things that happened in your marriage to prove cause is replaced by just settling who ends up with what.

Divorce exists because it is needed, not because it was invented to harm people. Believing that remaining together, honoring vows and eliminating breakups is the right choice in every nuptial disregards the harm generated by people who are not where they need to be.

So when no children are involved, let's not perpetuate the sock it to the initiator and concentrate on a fair settlement based on reality instead of formulas or reparations.

Walt Harmer