Father's Rights

SWEAR ON THE PIGGY BANK!!

“Bringing a father to the family court is like bringing a knife to a gun fight..” An ominous warning I refused to believe until it was proven true in Central Islip and again in Riverhead, Family Court. My first experience was when I told the DA that I felt adultery was the basest betrayal a person could experience. The DA told my attorney and I, “We are concerned with assets not adultery.” I asked why we swear in on a bible and not a piggy bank and was threatened with contempt of court. My religious views disregarded and ignored

GENDER BIAS!!!

That was the first of many obvious gender-biased, unconstitutional, and down right demoralizing experiences I have endured as a father who wants nothing more than EQUALITY! I want my children with me, 50% of the time...EQUALITY! Not so in the Family court of New York in Riverhead. Judge Barbara Lynaugh refused to even speak, or entertain the idea of equality. I had my every petition, 5 in all, dismissed without any review at all. In Fact a woman lawyer, who was appointed as a law guardian and insisted on interviewing me in her Riverhead office after I had worked a ten hour day, interviewed the children in the “new home”, of my x wife’s gay lover. The law guardian even told me, “I wish more men would fight for equality, but it will fall on deaf ears.” When I asked for court ordered investigations to prove the legitimacy of my own three bedroom home, AND MY RIGHT TO EQUALITY, Judge Lynaugh asked in open court, “Mr. Bush, are you going to pay the 10 thousand dollars for the investigation?” Money, not equality once again at the bottom of everything.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!

So what does a man do who wants to move forward after a debilitating barrage of unconstitutional attacks on his civil liberties? How do we move as individuals and tax paying constituents toward a more just tomorrow? What avenues or more appropriately red tape covered hoops do we leap through in order to achieve what is best for our children? As a co-parenting advocate now, I was excited by the Responsible Fatherhood act of 2009. This bill is supposed to reunite fathers with children and address the destruction of family, and fatherlessness this country is now facing. Of course in the fine print we find that NO federal funding will be available for cases not executed through the child support system. In plain English the Federal funds cannot be allocated without the quota of people paying into the system being maximized. If the state can show 500 thousand dollars being “executed”, than the Feds will buck up the same amount. In essence what it does is further the gender bias already so prevalent in the family court, by making the states chose between money and fathers rights…and you can imagine that decision

FIGHT FOR EQUALITY!!!

In the latest issue of “The Long Island Parent”, co-parenting specialist Laurie Hollman, Ph.D., puts the issue in clear language; “Ultimately divorce is aimed at making life better for everyone involved. The married parents who can’t get along can get on with their lives. Children who have been swept up by their parents’ hostilities are finally free of the daily discord and can also begin to relax and just enjoy being children. Co-parenting is essential for all of this to happen.” Laurie Hollman, Ph.D., www.liparent.com So now the psychologists also see the problems, and know what the answers are. The question is, when will the family and federal courts follow? In a letter provided by the Coalition of Fathers and Families in Albany New York, the outcome of this one sided system and its effects on the children is clear; “While this is bad for parents, grand parents and extended families it is worse for the children. It is so bad that children’s suicide rates double when their family breaks up. Children abuse alcohol and drugs more, they commit more crime and they have children early (teen years) and out of wedlock more. Please do something to help these families and mostly help these children stay healthy and happy with both of their parents families involved.” The Coalition of Fathers and Families NY, www.fafny.org We the people can see the problems which follow the gender biased attacks of father hood. The psychologists, sociologists, and even law professionals cashing in on the system can see it. And yes our leaders can see its effects only when the results reach the national stage. After the Columbine massacre Bill Clinton said something in the Rose Garden that may be the most important thing to ever come from his mouth. He spoke of how America needs to stand together and fix the family unit. You see if America is a body than the family is the nucleus on which the entire whole is supported. Before even the basic structure of community and congregation, the family is first! In the new book “A Promise to Ourselves”, award winning actor Alec Baldwin outlines the atrocity against men’s rights in his own family court battle. It begs the question, where are the pro-bono rights lawyers and the ACLU? Alec and I are on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum, but can agree on one thing: marginalizing and disenfranchising fathers through the court “system” can be traced to the root of numerous social ailments by destroying the family unit. The most influential Lobbyist with an incentive to keep things biased is the AME, the Associated Municipal Employees union of Suffolk County. It’s just good business sense to them. How do we sit by and watch the systematic destruction of fathers and families by those we elected to protect it? I have now pledged to remove and recuse my case from Riverhead family court and return to Superior Court in Central Islip. I cannot imagine the written reason I will require the judge to give me to prevent my quest for equality. This is a call to all rights activists to stand up with us! This is a call out to the lawyers who still have souls, the ACLU, and the men who are suffering and have given up. It is time to address our representatives and delegates, it is time to stand and cry out “NO MORE!” After all we are your brothers, your fathers, your uncles and sons. We are your mechanics and butchers, and your ushers on Sunday. We ask not for more financial relief, more time than the mothers of children, or more rights than anyone. We simply ask for equal financial burden, equal time with our kids, and at last equal rights! I will not give up!