1. Meet Your State Legislators

The odds are that your State Representative in the Legislature and your State Senator have never spoken with a constituent who asked for these two steps to Reform Divorce that could reduce your state's divorce rate by 50%. Why not propose that your Representative or Senator lead the battle to slash your state's divorce rate in half, saving the state tens of millions of dollars? There's no better time to do so than in this election season.

2. Build a Reform Divorce Committee

Ask your friends who have also suffered from a divorce as a child or as an adult to join you in this fight. If ten friends form a Reform Divorce Committee, each of you could talk to 10 Representatives and 10 Senators. Create a Blog, and ask your ten friends to do the same. If each reaches out to ten new victims of divorce, you now have a Reform Divorce Committee of 100 who could become a real political force. One place to start is with the Children's Rights Council, which has chapters in 37 states of activists who have had a divorce forced upon them. Call David Levy, 301 459-1220.

3. Hold a Press Conference

Your Reform Divorce Committee of 100 could meet the press in front of your State Capitol, demanding that the Legislature consider the need to Reform Divorce. Give any state Representative or Senator who takes the lead, the visibility of speaking at your press conference. Use data published in a new study, released on April 15, 2008, on the costs of family fragmentation, for your own state, "The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing." For a copy call the Institute for American Values, 212 246-3942,.

4. Draft legislation

Here is how Virginia considered replacing No Fault Divorce with a requirement of Mutual Consent if children are involved, and no major fault such as abuse, adultery or conviction of a felony are alleged. It is not complicated: The Virginia bill (2008) provided that unilateral divorce "shall not apply if (1) there are minor children born of the parties born of either party and adopted by the other, or adopted by both parties, and (2) either party files a written objection to the granting of a divorce..."

5. Ask the Governor to Reform Divorce To Slash Divorces in Half

No one is more visible than a governor in a state. His/her support would guarantee that Divorce Reform would be debated and considered seriously.

6. Create a Website Linked to www.ReformDivorce.org

Each group of activists needs its own website to make a case for reform, and keeps track of how the issue is faring. Your work will inspire other states to follow your example. Think of your group as a "City on a Hill," as Jesus put it, an example to others.

7. Build a Movement

It is unrealistic to think that the "ignorance and fear" which dominates current thinking on Divorce Reform by state legislatorsi can be overcome -- unless a grassroots Reform Divorce Movement is created with thousands of activists, all of whom call upon their state legislators to act on this issue.

a) Recruitment: Activists can be recruited from the 30 million adult children of divorce and the 40 million men and women who have been under court orders due to a divorce, from clergy and other leaders of the "helping professions" who see the impact of divorce daily, and even from grandparents who no longer have access to their grandchildren after a divorce.

b) Editorial Endorsement: Reforming Divorce is a new issue to the press. Leaders should make a point of sitting down with the editorial boards of local newspapers, and ask them to support the cause. Chances are, they will ask the activists to write a 750 word column making a case for such a step. If you write such a column, or if the newspaper writes an editorial in support, send it to this www.ReformDivorce.org  and it will be posted here to encourage others to follow your initiative.

c) Candidates In an Election Year. Of course, 2008 is an election year. Ask your state Representative and Senator if he/she would support steps to slash America's divorce rate in half. If your legislator is uninterested in the issue, go to his/her opponent in this year's elections. Make this an issue that candidates dare not take a stand upon.

8. Set a Goal: Enact Reforms in 2009

Reform Divorce suggests that State Reform Divorce Committees set a goal of passing a law to enact Divorce Reforms in 2009. That means you must spark the movement for action during 2008. A quarter of the year is already passed.

"The fields are white unto harvest, but the workers are few."

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