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Shack up, ship out

A Pender County woman who was forced to quit her job last year as a sheriff's dispatcher because of her live-in boyfriend.

Get married, the high sheriff told her. Or get another job.

She got another job. Now she's suing to overturn the 1805 North Carolina law that makes it illegal for unmarried couples to live together.

They call it cohabitation. Mama called it "shackin' up," and she didn't mean that in a complimentary way. Mama made some good points about the drawbacks of such domestic arrangements.

But I'd rather she tell me not to do it than the Legislature. However you feel about the moral implications of couples living together out of wedlock, that's your business, not the government's.

Comments (6)

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govtwriter said:

Good grief! (As my grandma would say) People, get you some business!!

F Reid said:

Change the law or pay for the crime it is morally and socially wrong.
What are we teaching our children?
The morals in this country are going(as they say "down the drain")

Joe Killian said:

Well, yes. But let's change the law rather than make people pay for the crime of peacefully and consensually disagreeing with the culturally obselete idea that people have to be married to share a dwelling.

govtwriter said:

Why is that something that is wrong for YOU has to be wrong for everyone? Personally, I don't believe in living with someone either -- if you want to live with me and merge assets and all of that, you need to marry me, HOWEVER, I realize that what is right for ME, what I would choose for ME doesn't make it wrong if someone else chooses otherwise. So, yes, change the law and please PLEASE AMERICA, stop trying to legislate morality.

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