Had those two stone tablets been just a bit bigger, the Ten Commandments might number 11, with a special directive for married folk alone:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wifelessness.

When the ol' ball and chain is throwing his or her weight around, it's hard not to envy the unfettered lot of America's 96 million singletons. Like it or not, it is your patriotic duty to be nice to those people until midnight Sunday.

This is National USA Week.

That's "USA" as in Unmarried and Single Americans, a formulation that acknowledges that not all unmarried people are unattached.

An Ohio group decided some 20 years ago "to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society."

A wholly unscientific poll of 11 Louisville-area singles found none who thought their ilk suffered from a lack of celebration or recognition.

"It's kind of like saying Father's Day is the only day you should like your dad," said Reed Johnson, 22. "I'm not real sure we need a singles week but, hey, we'll take it."

Why not? According to about.com, there is a National Clown Week, Dog Week, Crochet Week and Employ Older Workers Week. There's even a National Pet Peeve Week, the perfect occasion to proclaim a distaste for the national week phenomenon.

USA Week was more regional than national until the cause was adopted four years ago by Unmarried America, a national non-profit information service that promotes the interests of unwed employees, consumers, taxpayers and voters.

Tanja Moore, 26, said childless singles have it pretty good -- except, on occasion, in the workplace.

"A single man or woman, they don't have to worry about taking anyone to the doctor or picking up anyone from school," said Moore, a college student and new mother who has dated the same man for six years. "So they are the ones who get hit up to stay late and work extra because they don't have the perfect excuse."

Hoping to push such issues into the spotlight, Unmarried America launched a PR blitz in 2001, but its message was ignored in the wake of 9/11.

The group has kept plugging -- its members have prompted mayors and governors to draft special proclamations in 33 states -- but USA Week hasn't gained much traction in the national imagination. No major parade or convention marks the occasion. There's not even a Hallmark card.

Big business is overlooking a big market. Singles comprise 43 percent of Americans age 15 and older, and head nearly half the households in the United States, according to the Census Bureau.

Hollywood and cyberspace are tuned into the demographic. From "Sex and the City" to Match.com, pop culture celebrates single life with vigor.

But political culture, from tax breaks to stump speeches, is all but obsessed with "family values" -- a husband, wife and the proverbial 2.2 children.

"Everything in the (2004 presidential) election was about family values -- everything," said T.J. Plaskett, 21. "But I didn't feel excluded. I have a family. I just don't have my own family, so to speak."

He has plenty of company. The 2000 census showed that, for the first time in U.S. history, single adults outnumber couples with children as the most common type of household in America.

Unmarried people are so plentiful that perhaps they are taken for granted, if not envied. Nearly 60 million Americans over 15 have never said "I do." Most of them have avoided the altar by choice.

Societal pressures to get married seem to be easing. Either that or they are becoming easier to ignore.

"I've learned to not be pressured by society to think I necessarily have to have a boyfriend or a husband," said Brenda Elliott, 28. "I've made up my own mind. I'll get married when I'm ready, and I don't date just to date."

Some singles are adamant about retaining their freelance status:

"I can do anything I want," said Andre Brown, 20. "Nobody's going to hold me down."

"Being single is great," said Lindsay Stewart, 21. "You've got more money, you have more fun and you don't have to worry about answering to somebody when you get home."

Some singles miss the company of a significant other -- sometimes.

"On holidays and other important times of the year, it's nice to be with someone special," said Michael Young, 26. "But I like being single right now. I'd like to be married by 30, though. When you start to get older, you want to settle down with somebody special."

That can be easier said than done, particularly for women. There are only 86 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women in the United States, according to census data.

The ratio is 78 to 100 in metro Louisville. But in the 18-to-44 age bracket alone, there are 104 single men for every 100 single women.

Whether the numbers are on your side or not, it takes some luck to find the perfect mate. Kati Arnold knows that.

Arnold, 22, lives with boyfriend Reed Johnson, her beau for 2½ years. Arnold was asked if she ever misses being 100 percent single.

"A little bit," she said. "But I love him, and I'm so lucky I found him."