June 19, 2004
Column #1,190
A Sad
Father's Day
Father's
Day will not be a happy one for millions of fathers who can't see their
children due to an unwanted divorce forced on them by a wife and courts
which do not allow a spouse (of either gender) to fight for the marriage.
Consider the "Last Will and Testament of A.T. Renouf:"
"Last Friday my bank account was garnished. I was left with a total of
$00.43 in the bank. At this time I have rent and bills to pay which would
come to somewhere approaching $1500 to $1800. Since my last pay was direct
deposited on Friday I now have no way of supporting myself. I have no money
for food or for gas for my car to enable me to work...
"I have tried talking to the Family Support people....Their answer was: `we
have a court order.' I have tried talking to the welfare people in Markham,
since I earned over $520 in the last month I am not eligible for assistance.
"I have had no contact with my daughter in approx. 4 years. I do not even
know if she is alive and well....I have no family and no friends, very
little food, no viable job and very poor future prospects. I have therefore
decided that there is no further point in continuing my life. It is my
intention to...feed the car exhaust into the car, take some sleeping
pills...
"I would have preferred to die with more dignity.
"It is my last will and testament that this letter be published for all to
see and read."
A.T. Renouf signed his will on the day he died, Oct. 16, 1995.
Rev. Alan Stewart, said upon his death, "Andrew mentions two government agencies: Family Support garnishes his wages and Welfare tells him that he
still really has the money the other agency took away."
Four times as many men kill themselves as women. Why? At least two-thirds of
divorces are filed by women. Divorced men are also four times as likely as
married men to commit suicide.
This is an extreme case which led to the loss of a daughter's father, the
ex-wife's loss of child support and most tragically, the loss of a man's
life.
The evil Andrew does not mention is the divorce over which he had no choice.
LSU Law Professor Katherine Spaht says America's divorce system "fails to
achieve justice, because even the person who is at fault can be the one who
destroys the marriage. It is as if the person who injured you, can sue you
for damages.
"There is no defense, no due process. It is offensive. There is no other
place in the law where the wrong-doer has a remedy. And the victim, the
innocent party, has no defense."
Consider a more benign case of Stephen Baskerville, "one of many
involuntarily divorced fathers," as he put it. "I never agreed to divorce,
never gave her grounds for one. She never had any accusations of adultery or
domestic abuse." He does see his daughters three days bi-weekly but adds, "I
have crushing child support, $1,200 monthly on a salary of $40,000, on which
I could not survive if I did not live with my mother." Nor can he deduct
what he spends on the girls.
He is a professor at Howard University, and is president of the American
Coalition for Fathers and Children, the largest father's group with 45,000
members in many local groups.
Baskerville has a proposed solution, a federal law, the Parents' Rights and
Responsibilities Act of 2005" for which he is lining up support among
pro-family groups in Washington. His bill cites Supreme Court cases which
assert that the right of parents to the care and custody of their children
is "a fundamental right protected by the First, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth
Amendments" as "more precious than property rights."
Yet courts treat the right of parents "as a non-fundamental right." His law
would add federal protection of the right of parents to the care and custody
of their children. It would shift the burden to the government to
demonstrate that the "interference or usurpation is essential to accomplish
a compelling government interest."
This law would not federalize state laws on marriage and divorce.
However it would make appeal to federal courts possible, if the
constitutional rights of parents are violated. That happens daily.
A fresh idea worth considering.
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