Letters to the Editor – A Forum for Father's

“Debtors Prison is Alive…in America” 

My sympathy is going out to the mum who has been it seems that separated from her youngsters and, as a result of unemployment resulting from incarceration, not able to pay criminal charges.   Concern for the youngsters have to be sufficient to attract sympathy from the courts however, as I’ve come to comprehend firsthand, an establishment will also be dispassionate in such issues – even under the title of justice and such notions as “innocent until proven guilty”…   

Specifically in regards to the feedback of Wallace:  “There’s no such thing as debtor’s prison”, my letter is to tell the readership that there's…in America, jail for individuals who can not or haven't paid kid toughen.   Before you bounce to conclusions, learn on…

Non-custodial oldsters – mostly men – are subjected to debtor’s prison because they have not or will not pay child support…and are in arrears.   Publicly portrayed as “Deadbeat Dads”, these kinds of males have continued a few stage of loss in the course of the bias and coverage of divorce courts:  so much males coming into a court docket (for divorce) are the defendants and, traditionally, shall be decreased to a non-custodial (if youngsters are concerned, in fact); debtor’s jail places them in a Catch-22 the place employment is interrupted by way of incarceration and so forth.   

The tragedy of dropping your proper to be figure will also be crushing – as males are oldsters too.   Your rights are misplaced – no longer on account of any possibility to your kids – however as a result of bias and coverage of the courts that regulates your visitation and strips any authority in your kids’s lives.   It is a tragedy of which I am individually conscious…as is my youngsters.    Consider that suicide amongst males is a minimum of seven occasions higher in submit-divorce…

No-fault divorce has been the impetus for the surge of the divorce fee in America and, even as divorce charges are down (so much not too long ago carried out to financial prerequisites), the wedding fee could also be in decline.   Some say that marriage is a demise establishment; others say that divorce is by way of a ways the most vital risk to marriage as an establishment. I consider each to be precise.           

Speaking of establishments, our courts programs are essentially accountable (for this surge…).   Besides No-fault divorce, Child Support enforcement is every other federally backed device that imputes the non-custodial – stripped in their proper to be a figure – to monetary duties that are sometimes untenable for purposes past their keep watch over.   

The bias and coverage of the so-known as device of justice has perpetuated divorce (and the loss of life of the circle of relatives) via unfair scales and a blindfold lifted for the wishes of the only over the desires of the numerous.    To finish a wedding for comfort is rarely lead to for the prices born by way of the youngsters; but, No-fault divorce incorporates the day…with Child Support ready within the wings as a benefit middle for the state.   One establishment is destroying the opposite establishment and the spine of a loose Democracy…     

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Regarding article on April twenty fifth, “Fatherless boys want function fashions to show them tips on how to be males” by way of Carol Hagan, Jacksonville, AL

“The Cry of the Fatherless…and the Fathers” 

Thank-you Carol for the submitted article on April twenty fifth.  I agree wholeheartedly that boys want male function fashions – and that the absence of fellows in households is correlated to delinquency and a complete host of different issues of our boys…and youngsters.   

I were a father, a step-father, a Big Brother, and a scout chief; but, in each and every and all of those cases, stay deeply serious about the woes of the fatherless.    Recent reads by way of David Popenoe (Life with out Father) and David Blankenhorn (Fatherless America) were each enlightening and disheartening when it comes to the value and severity of this social problem.  

What I could make of the problem is that there's extra at lead to than the willful abandonment or denial of fathers; however in addition, a winning stigma and remedy of fatherhood.  

David Popenoe describes it in this fashion: 

• The culmination of many cultural, social, and financial developments…is a society             strangely unsupportive of fatherhood.  Indeed, if one had been in particular to  layout a tradition and a social device for the specific objective of undercutting   fatherhood and males’s contribution to the circle of relatives lifestyles, our present society might  be just about what might end result. 

Similarly, David Blankenhorn signifies: 

• Men, typically, and fathers specifically, are increasingly more considered as superfluous to circle of relatives lifestyles:  both expendable or as a part of the issue. Masculinity itself…is usually handled with suspicion or even hostility in our cultural discourse.   

I come with those observations most effective to convey to mild that the fatherless have suffered partly as a result of devaluing of fatherhood.   Whether in the course of the media, the courts or tradition, the erosion of the daddy has prepared the ground for the dilution of the circle of relatives – and the kid endure all of the extra.  

Believe it our no longer, there are fathers out-there that wish to be oldsters to their youngsters; however were decreased to one thing less on account of mal-remedy and discrimination by way of the courts; and there are males who need to supply management and function modeling to youngsters – however are scared to demise of a few unwell-conceived allegation or pretense that is bound imprisonment and perpetual profile.       

Fatherhood is an essential component of the traditional circle of relatives, and males are wanted as function fashions to boys (and ladies); and our society is unfortunately lacking them each….Perhaps it’s time so as to add a line to the Pete Seeger tune:   “Where have all the fathers gone…” 

Perhaps it’s time so as to add a line to the Pete Seeger tune:   “Where have all the fathers gone…” 

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 “Unanimous Underwriting of Families Ties” 

 Much way to the House for vote casting unanimously to toughen grandparents’ rights to be a “stabilizing force” to their grandchildren; in all probability the Senate has (or will) percentage an equivalent level of fervor in helping the households of our state—to incorporate the ones broken by way of divorce.   

I should consider that grandparents are deeply thankful for this piece of law, the “Paw Paw bill”—in mitigating the numerous bad effects of marital dissolution.   I recognize of grandparents (and clan) that experience had to simply accept the unlucky and unjustified lack of such relationships by way of affiliation to the non-custodial circle of relatives. 

In the vintage case look at, Judith Wallerstein describes the prospective cases for kids (Second Chances: Men, Women and Children a Decade after Divorce): 

• Children really feel excessive loneliness.  It amazes me how little toughen they get right now, even from grandparents.  Divorce is an acute, painful, lengthy-remembered revel in that youngsters should frequently negotiate with the feel that they're by myself on the planet (p.thirteen)

 In The Custody Revolution, Robert Warshak describes the as soon as-clan:  “Grandparents are the forgotten victims of modern divorces.”   (p.24) 

 Thanks once more for giving toughen to youngsters, grandmas and grandpas.  

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 “Who’s at Fault for Marriage Rights?” 

In her editorial, not anything is discussed of the rising devaluing of marriage typically.    In this as soon as-sacred sacrament of our society, who’s at fault?  Specifically, why is marriage a civil establishment while custom and historical past display it a spiritual one?  

Is it greater than cash – a type of taxation…?

Since the 1970′s (the advent of No-fault divorce), marriage has been devaluing:  a covenant – and even a freelance – has given approach to a courting of comfort.   Everyday, spouses and oldsters are dragged into court docket for divorce towards their will or want.   No-fault has devalued marriage to the level that such radical deviations as defined within the supply article will also be thought to be – even followed – into an establishment that has served loose society smartly in the course of the a long time…steeped in faith.   

What of the youngsters – emotionally or paternally destitute by way of divorce?  The device that created No-fault lays declare to paintings of their perfect passion towards the information of submit-divorce issues which are overwhelmingly upper than in standard households.   If the device is operating is their perfect passion, why are the youngsters being adversely suffering from the consequences?    

The civil establishment doesn't appreciate marriage, circle of relatives, or spiritual sacraments.  

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“Thanks for Program” 

I am grateful for this system to assist dads be “better fathers”. 

The remedy of imprisoning borrowers is a Catch-22 as a result of being in prison disables any possibility to toughen one’s youngsters and, because of this, establishes a cycle for which no resolution exists.   

Some won't consider the genesis of a countrywide kid enforcement fashion; however briefly, the fashion used to be derived by way of an lawyer, Bob Williams, who has made tens of millions via this industry undertaking.   States that installation this fashion download federal finances on kid toughen collections; therefore, kid toughen orders turn into a part of state sales in a few share to that ordered and picked up as taxes.

If a dad is disparaged as a figure but is imputed with taxes, he reviews taxation with out illustration.   He might earnestly wish to toughen his personal youngsters—no longer as simply a debtor or paycheck, however as a dad or figure.    If dismembered from his youngsters via an undesirable and unjustified divorce, he is of course broken—disowned from his offspring by way of the regulation and courts just because of gender.   

Any attending figure might fight with the painful situation of dropping youngsters via such strategies, and any ardent citizen might fight with taxation with out illustration.   

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Regarding Leonard Pitts’ column, “Rand Paul…”

I suppose the item—or blast approximately “a blast…”—proves the purpose of why generalizations and establishments err.  Do all “social conservatives”, from the previous to the current, grasp to racial prejudice?  Was Rand truly speaking approximately racism…? 

Rand’s ideals grasp to restricted executive (despite the fact that “tiny” could be just right).  I suppose he holds to the ideals that exact duty (over institutional imposition) rendered freedom.  (In retaining with the Constitutional clause that all are created equivalent…).

The drawback comes while an establishment imposes such “equality” most effective to perpetually create extra inequality; and even as reparations are worth, the outcome can by no means be enough for all who suffered—as justice can by no means be…while due procedure is the exception in place of the rule of thumb.           

Where not unusual flooring are available is the straightforward reality that establishments can not retailer us from the previous or the prevailing; subsequently, each and every particular person need to be accountable to make a choice on the root of one thing greater than arbitrary regulation.  

“Freedom is not a gift received from the State or leader, but a possession to be won every day by the effort of each and the union of all.” – Albert Camus

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“Time for new…Corrections in Alabama”, Sue Bell Cobb,

With restricted wisdom at the overcrowded penal device (state and nationwide), I am satisfied the issue is being made extra public (remaining week, the Jefferson county prison and, this week, the state’s device). The developments that experience lead our country to the top incarceration fee on the planet (consistent with capita and in overall inhabitants) have to be regarding to everybody.  

As a naïve query, will have to “the obvious need of change” come with reform of the regulation?  Consider plea bargaining utilized in over ninety% of prison circumstances; the place the defendant isn't blameless till confirmed accountable (past an affordable doubt), however is arguably accountable as charged.  

In the plea cut price is the anomaly of the jail device:  one of the programs’ avid gamers win, or scale back prices, and a few lose; in particular, the courts and council win by way of restricting the associated fee for conviction even as the jail device loses with overcrowding and inadequate budgets.  Justice or due procedure is of little attention.      

As a lot overcrowding has been attributed to the conflict on medicine, the similarity to precise wars is putting:   the ever rising prices with the fake feel of safety, the stakeholders that win and the servants that lose, and the injustices that by no means finish.    

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