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MNDnet: Your Alternate Daily News Source » The McCain/Fathers? Rights Incident (Part II)

The McCain/Fathers? Rights Incident (Part II)

By Glenn Sacks

In John McCain Testily Dismisses Fathers’ Rights at Iowa Town Hall Meeting–Video Available, I discussed the incident Friday when aspiring Republican presidential candidate John McCain contemptuously dismissed fathers’ concerns over family law at a mid-day town hall meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Shared parenting activist Tony Taylor asked McCain if he “would be bold enough to address the issue of equal access to children for fathers that have gone through divorce,” and McCain testily replied, in essence, that he wasn’t going to do a damn thing. To learn more, click here.

What hasn’t been mentioned is that Taylor’s question was framed in the context of the rights of military parents. As I noted in my co-authored Veterans Day 2006 column Protect Deployed Parents’ Rights:

“Divorced or separated military parents often lose custody of their children–and sometimes permanently forfeit any meaningful role in their lives–simply because they have served their country. Many married parents deploy overseas, never suspecting that their parenthood essentially ended the day they left home.”

This is a major issue for deployed service personnel–I often receive letters from men in Iraq or Afghanistan who are losing their children or being put through the wringer by the child support system, and who are unable to defend themselves. There have been a few–but only a few–legislative efforts to solve this problem. To learn more, click here. It’s bad enough that McCain dismissed fathers’ concerns–it’s even worse that he dismissed the concerns of deployed fathers (and mothers). My column detailing deployed parents’ problems appears below.

Protect Deployed Parents’ Rights
By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks
(Tucson Citizen, Trenton Times, Macon Telegraph and others, 11/11/06)
 
Divorced or separated military parents often lose custody of their children–and sometimes permanently forfeit any meaningful role in their lives–simply because they have served their country. Many married parents deploy overseas, never suspecting that their parenthood essentially ended the day they left home.

The divorce rate in the Armed Forces has skyrocketed during the long deployments necessitated by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scenario is a common one–a marriage crumbles during a long separation, and the stateside military spouse moves to another state and files for divorce, knowing that he or she is virtually certain to gain custody through the divorce proceedings in the new state. Given service personnel’s limited ability to travel, the high cost of legal representation and travel, and the financial hardships created by child support and spousal support obligations, it is extremely difficult for the deployed parent to fight for his or her parental rights in the new state.

For example, in one highly-publicized California case, Gary S., a San Diego-based US Navy SEAL, was deployed to Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and served in the Tora Bora region as US forces attacked Taliban and Al Qaeda strongholds. While away, Gary’s little son was permanently moved out of the country, with the complicity of a California family court. The 19-year Navy veteran with an unblemished military record has seen his son only a few times since he returned from Afghanistan, and has been pushed near bankruptcy by legal fees and stiff child and spousal support obligations. (more…)

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