The Cincinnati Post - Fathers’ group protests images on pizza boxes
HAMILTON - A fathers’ rights group picketed a restaurant that is displaying pictures on its pizza boxes of men who are seriously in arrears on paying their child support.
Members of Fathers-4-Justice, a nonprofit volunteer group fighting for “truth, justice and equality in family law,” stood outside Karen’s Pizzeria on Eaton Avenue for hours dressed in camouflage pants and bright purple T-shirts, waving posters and banners stating “Kids need both parents. Families now. Reform now.”
The business began placing posters from the Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency depicting “deadbeat dads” on its delivery boxes in August. The agency said the effort has let to the arrest of at least one man who owed $21,200 in child support.
Karen Willis, owner of the business, said she doesn’t plan to discontinue the promotion.
“I think the children need the support,” she said.
John Fowler, a member of Fathers-4-Justice, said that before the protest began, he asked Willis to remove the posters featuring the delinquent dads from her restaurant’s boxes.
She declined and about a half dozen people started waving signs about 11 a.m. and urging passersby, with the assistance of a bull horn, to eat elsewhere.
“I said no, absolutely not,” Willis said, when asked what she told the protesters who urged the removal of the posters. “They don’t scare me.”
Fowler, a Columbus resident, said the group is protesting the way fathers are portrayed in the posters as well as in the court system, where he believes fathers are rarely granted equal custody.
“We need a change in the legal system that insures 50/50 parenting,” Willis said, adding that when fathers are active and involved in their children’s lives, they are more likely to meet support obligations in full and on time.
Fowler said the children are often the ones hurt the most by enforcement tactics such as the pizza box posters. “Can you imagine how the children feel seeing their father’s picture and how they are treated at school when their friends see it?”
Carol Wintz, a single mother from Delaware, Ohio, was one of the few women protestors Friday.
“Fathers are more than just an ATM machine,” she said. “And as long as the legal system continues to treat them as just a source of money and not an equal parent, there will be problems.”
33 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Deeny // Apr 4, 2007 at 6:38 am
Karen Willis needs more educated! I wonder what she would think if her husband was paying support, got hit by a car while he gets the mail? Now he’s out of a job and he’ll become a deadbeat whether she likes it or not! That would be funny, wouldn’t it? Her own husband on a pizza box?
2 Kevin Merck // Apr 4, 2007 at 8:12 am
Can this shop owner increase sales by attaching pictures of “exploited parents†on the pizza boxes?
That’s what this boils down to. I doubt if this owner will let this issue put her out of business. If she can increase profits, or keep the profits stable, then she will likely continue the practice because she thinks she’s doing some good. If it hurts her business she will probably abandon the idea.
It’s about the same thing for the people conducting this racket. If they can continue to make a profit from the exploitation of children and their parents, they will continue to do so until it either becomes unprofitable, or lands them in jail.
How can we tell people not to buy this pizza, when so many of us are making it profitable for people to exploit parents and their children by paying “child support�
I may just go buy some pizza from this shop myself. Maybe I can help make it so profitable for her that she will be able to open up more shops. Maybe Starbucks will join in and you will be able to look at the pictures of “exploited parents†on your morning coffee.
That may be such a big hit, that we will have a “Ten Most Wanted Exploited Parents†show on fox. As long as it remains profitable, that is the direction it will likely head.
Isn’t it about time we “all†did the right thing?
Kevin Merck
3 Jim Deeny // Apr 4, 2007 at 9:26 am
You’re absolutely correct Kevin- It kind of reminds me of the tabloids. I beleive that people need more educated on the subject before they commit to something like this, but then again, money covers up what’s morally right. I wonder, do these people know that our ArmedForces men that get called to duty, then get home are “theoretically” dead beats? A man in the reserves say, works for 50k a year, he gets called to go to Iraq making 20k a year. His wages are attached to pay support on the 50k, not the 20k. So when he gets home, he’s in the arrears and he’s probably considered a deadbeat on the black/white. It’s awefully ironic that the SAME district atty. that is promoting this pizza box stunt has stated that there needs to be an investigation into the CSEA!
4 fastscott // Apr 4, 2007 at 10:23 pm
What is wrong with you wimpering men?
What do you not understand about “the best interests of the child”?
The best interest of the child are best served by criminalizing fatherhood.
The ultra liberals who control this country need to criminalize, humiliate, and emasculate fathers in able to countrol our childrens minds. This is innevitable unless you all band together and pool all your resources-then you just may have a fighting chance. The other alternative is to go out and shoot every ultra liberal-I am beginning to think that this is the only way to preserve the family and fathers rights.
As long as “the best interests of the child” is the only guideline that the courts have - you are doomed. Its the catch 22. Who can argue with it!
Totally disgusted,
Scott
5 Jim Deeny // Apr 5, 2007 at 11:24 am
Scott- Shooting them isn’t going to resolve anything, but make the situation worse. Get out and vote, stop paying the extortion are our only options. END OF STORY.
6 joepetitioner // Apr 5, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I see some posters here advocating that we “stop paying the extortion”. What does that mean? Stop paying child support?
7 Jim Deeny // Apr 5, 2007 at 2:44 pm
joepetitioner said,
“I see some posters here advocating that we “stop paying the extortionâ€. What does that mean? Stop paying child support?”
That’s right Joe. I said it.
8 joepetitioner // Apr 5, 2007 at 2:54 pm
And so these “sanctions” or what ever you want to call them come in droves. I am desperately trying to renew a passport that was revoked because of a stipulated settlement for a colledge fund that is now counted as arrearages. What will I accomplish by not paying?
9 Jim Deeny // Apr 5, 2007 at 7:26 pm
There’s two ways to go about it. If you want IMMEDIATE gratification as we all want in the world today, you could grow a set and stop paying. OR, you can reap the benefits for decades to come by voting the people in offfice that value what we have on the table here. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure that one out.
10 joepetitioner // Apr 5, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Well golly, im no scientist but yah, using my power to vote can surely bring about a possitive change. And as far as NOT paying, Im not sure if that requires growing balls. But my question is WHAT WILL I ACCOMPLISH by not paying?
11 Kevin Merck // Apr 5, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Carol Rhodes said,
on January 29th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
It’s all about the money. It’s not about the kids, or the family, the constitution or even about law and order. The primary function of the Circuit Court’s Family Court System, is getting more kids on the roles so more money can be claimed from the Federal Tax prize. Every dollar that we Enforcement Officers collected was matched by $50+ dollars of tax benefits for our county Court System..Custody and parenting time issues don’t bring in Federal dollars. My director told us that pursuing these complaints were a “waste of our time.†I was ordered-under penalty of punishment-â€to stop getting involved†in what I thought was best for the children or their parents. We were brainwashed to avoid having personal knowledge or concern about the parties of cases. We were told to call and leave response messages when we thought it least likely that the inquiring party would be home [and then, of course, we couldn’t leave any substantive information]. The system smiled on us when we sent people to jail by issuing bench warrants for failure to appear in hearings we scheduled. Everything about office policy and procedure was designed to keep the parties to cases in the dark as to what they should or could do to protect themselves financially. It is a power game. The Court can change the rules at any time. There is no one who will ever question when the constitution or the laws are violated or misapplied by the Court. The only question asked in the FOC is whether all the options have been tried for increased child-support collections. People can be sentenced to jail illegally by the Court officers, and the Court will find a way to justify or spread the blame so thinly that no one is accountable. But if an officer of the Court is caught HELPING a party to a case understand his or her rights to petition the Court for a REDUCTION of support, that sin is punishable by firing and cover-up legal manuvering. [I was written up for merely giving both parties a list of office policy rules for what is or is not acceptable reasons to deny parenting time.] I was chastised on record that office policy was NEVER to be given out to parties of cases, or to any individuals outside the FOC office personnel. Our 37th Circuit Court FOC was a model to other counties all across Michigan. We trained other officers from other states and counties. We weren’t the exception, we were the ideal of efficient FOC operation.
Young parents need to know that signing the form to consent to have the Friend of the Court [or any Title IV D “serviceâ€] become involved IS OPTIONAL. You do NOT HAVE to allow the Friend of the Court to take over your children as Wards of the Court unless one of the parents fills out and signs the form. Your attorney and your FOC will never tell you that, but smart attorneys ALWAYS opt out of the FOC services. Most people don’t know what they are getting into before it is too late.
12 joepetitioner // Apr 5, 2007 at 9:04 pm
That’s interesting, In my jurisdiction, The court goes to pretty impressive lengths to resolve time sharing issues with out even dealing with support with the “Court Clinic”. The CSED however works quite independant of the family court (unfortunatly). Ironicaly, the Court Clinic that offers long term conflict resolution regarding time sharing and parenting plans generaly works without any fee. Yet the court is criticised for supporting a “cottage industry” of GAL’s and evaluators. More often than not however,These are only necessary when one of the parents (usualy the custodial one) continues to resist comprimise. CSED employee’s including case workers and enforcment agents are hired appointments and not elected.
13 Jim Deeny // Apr 6, 2007 at 6:17 am
Joe- You say WHAT WILL I ACCOMPLISH? When I see those words it irks me because it shows me you’re clearly out for yourself. It can’t and it will never work like that. That’s just my belief man. If we want any headway into this, we need to come together as a whole, not as a ME or an I. It’s got to be US or WE. So what do you think WE can accomplish by not paying?
Regards-
14 joepetitioner // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:13 am
Fair enough. What will WE accomplish? I do see where you are going with this. If we all stop paying, resisting the temptation to ease our lives, then the establishment will realise that there needs to be a new approach. Meanwhile we are just giving fuel to the “pizza box mentality” and perpetuating the stereotype. Is it possible that we would have more impact by paying support and lobbying for change? Would’nt we be more credible as NON “deadbeats” looking for a better way? I have found that nobody listens to fathers rights to parent issues when the father is ignoring support. (or even struggeling to comply but trying).
15 fastscott // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:29 am
Joe,
it takes backbone.
I was raised to not support lying and corruption.
If you pay you are rubber stamping their actions.
Once it costs them more to collect or for your incarceration they may realize that their system is broke.
IF YOU PAY YOU ARE SUPPORTING THEIR CORRUPTION.
Your problem is that you think men who do not pay are DEADBEAT DADS. I think of them as freedom fighters and men and women who are fighting for their children and to change a system that is so totally wrong and corrupt.
But, if you think more of your now self than of the future-then pay.
Scott
16 fastscott // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:32 am
Added note-
They have already taken your children from you-is jail that much worse?
17 fastscott // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:40 am
Joe,
one more thing
if you pay and then lobby for change -change will not happen-it has’nt for over 20 years. They will just think “if it ain’t broken -don’t fix it.
If you pay they are accom;plishing their mission.
YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!
It is not about the children, its not about families, it’s not about what is good for the society. Its about putting money in a lot of peoples pockets.
And that money comes from your pocket.
18 joepetitioner // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:50 am
In a word-YES. Jail is worse! But I digress. I DO NOT think that dads who dont pay are deadbeats. Im simply exploreing different approaches. I see your point Scott. I HAVE been in jail for child support. Have you? (it doesnt matter) But my point is that by not paying, we are, in a way, playing into thier hands. As the article above states- “The system smiled on us when we sent people to jail” and “People can be sentenced to jail illegally by the Court officers, and the Court will find a way to justify or spread the blame so thinly that no one is accountable. ”
I ask, are there other ways, ways that take the attention OFF support and place it where it belongs, TIMESHARING. Belive me, Going to court and pleading for time whith ones children after being released from jail is beyond useless! It takes the system SO FAR away from parent rights that you will wish you had the injustice you had before you were incarcerated. Once THE COURT confirms you are a deadbeat, The road to a relationship with child becomes decidedly steeper.
Joe
19 Kevin Merck // Apr 6, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Rosa Parks, hailed as the mother of the modern Civil Rights movement, passed away at the age of 92.
In an interview, Ms. Parks explained why she had refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus: “The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.â€
20 joepetitioner // Apr 6, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Rosa Parks wasn’t trying to get visitation with the bus drivers kids! (?)
21 Kevin Merck // Apr 7, 2007 at 8:25 pm
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
-Jesus Christ
22 fastscott // Apr 7, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Joe to answer your question-yes I have been in jail for non payment and I did not owe any support at the time the judge sentenced me. My X just clicks her heels and gets what she wants from the court. My X makes over $100,000 a year-I work construction when there is work to be had. I am supposed to pay her $1,500 a month plus what is in arrears. I cannot live on what is left after taxes.
Scott
23 joepetitioner // Apr 8, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Scott,
That’s concrete.You actualy back up your statements with personal experience!
I am in a simular situation. What I struggle with is the fact that the way things are, if I walk away from support, I am walking away from any chance of seeing my kids (which is really the only thing that is important). So I wonder if what I read and hear about fathers fighting for thier rights is really fathers fighting for thier money. I have yet to see a post about visitation, and that is what makes the whole movment look bad to outsiders in my view. Is there not another way for fathers to rally together for change, other than defying support orders/sanctions?
Joe
24 Kevin Merck // Apr 9, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Charlton Hesston at Harvard Law School
Charlton Hesston, speaking on ‘Winning the Cultural War,’ Tuesday, February 16, 7:30 pm, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall. Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Forum, a student organization at Harvard Law School. For almost 50 years, the Forum has been bringing to HLS noteworthy individuals from all fields to engage in exciting and wide-ranging exchanges of ideas. Forum programs are open to the public and generally consist of a speech or panel discussion followed by a question-and-answer session.
Mr. Hesston
I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living.
“My Daddy,” he said, “pretends to be people.”
There have been quite a few of them.
Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo.
If you want the ceiling re-painted I’ll do my best.
It’s just that there always seems to be a lot of different fellows up here. I’m never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I’m the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty … your own freedom of thought … your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, “We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.”
Those words are true again. . . I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that’s about to hijack your birthright to think and say what lives in your heart.
I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you . . . the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up a little. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve … I serve as a moving target for the media who’ve called me everything from “ridiculous” and “duped” to a ” brain-injured, senile, crazy old man.” I know, I’m pretty old … but I sure Lord ain’t senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I’ve realized that firearms are not the only issue.
No, it’s much, much bigger than that.
I’ve come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else’s pride, they called me a racist.
I’ve worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country.
But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they’re essentially saying, “Chuck, how dare you speak your mind like that? You are using language not authorized for public consumption!”
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we’d still be King George’s boys - subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, “The End of Sanity,” Martin Gross writes that “blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the country, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don’t like it.”
Let me read a few examples.
At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation … all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs - the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not … need not … tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team “The Tribe” because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don’t speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R’s in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know . . . that’s out of bounds now. Dr. King said “Negroes.”
Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said “black.” But it’s a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward . . . particularly “Native-American.†I’m a Native American, for God’s sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux.
On my wife’s side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation Native American . . . with the capital letter on “American.”
Finally, just last month . . . David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word “niggardly” while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, “niggardly” means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: “David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who, (a) didn’t know the meaning of niggardly,’ (b) didn’t know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance.â€
What does all this mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can’t be far behind.
Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America’s campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it?
Why do you, who’re supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?
Let’s be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe?
That scares me to death. It should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that … and abide it … you are - by your grandfathers’ standards - cowards.
Here’s another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they’ll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor’s pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.
I don’t care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Democracy is dialogue!
Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, “Don’t shoot me.”
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist.
If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you sexist.
If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don’t celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.
Don’t let America’s universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.
But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer’s been here all along.
I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply … disobey.
Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.
But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don’t. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King . . . who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.
In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful … it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies.
You must be willing to be humiliated … to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma.
You must be willing to experience discomfort. I’m not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have left their mark on me.
Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called “Cop Killer” celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black.
I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of “Cop Killer” - every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
“I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF I’M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF I’M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF…” It got worse, a lot worse. I won’t read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that.
Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
“SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ….”
Well, I won’t do to you here what I did to them. Let’s just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said “We can’t print that.” ‘‘I know,” I replied, “but Time/Warner’s selling it.
Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T’s contract. I’ll never be offered another film by Warner’s, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk. When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself… jam the switchboard of the district attorney’s office.
When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors . . . choke the halls of the board of regents.
When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl’s cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment . . . march on that school and block its doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you . . . petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time magazine’s cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month . . . boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.
So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.
If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree.
Thank you
25 joepetitioner // Apr 10, 2007 at 12:40 am
Hey Kevin,
Do you have the guts to tell us what YOU live with? T ell us about your children. Tell us what YOU have experienced! YOU!
Do you even have kids and when was the last time you tried to see them?
If Dr. King were here, I bet he would tell you to RAISE YOUR CHILDREN!
THEN start bitching
26 joepetitioner // Apr 10, 2007 at 12:42 am
If im wrong, Do your verbal abuse, kick my ass thing that you always do!
27 Kevin Merck // Apr 10, 2007 at 6:16 pm
We can all wallow in self-pity over our individual circumstances, or we can take suitable action.
I’ll be honest. If I were to talk about my circumstances, it wouldn’t be with some “gutless wonder†that hides behind a pseudonym. I could care less about anyone’s opinion that doesn’t have the courage to use their real name. A lot of good men died so that we could speak our minds freely and a coward like you only brings disgrace to us all.
I’ll leave you with a few more “pearls†of wisdom, which I’m sure you are incapable of grasping, but maybe there are others listening who might gain from them.
Kevin Merck
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the lawâ€.
“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progressâ€.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressedâ€.
“A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bentâ€.
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?â€
“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to liveâ€.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
28 joepetitioner // Apr 10, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Kevin,
My name is Joe, Do you get that? My last name is Denniston. Ok? I am like many others who uses a nick name on a blog, You are about the only person who doesnt and I suspect it is so you can criticize others (something you seem to hang your hat on) That and constantly quoting others leads me to belive that you have no opinion of your own at all! You shouldnt be out here spouting advice when you dont have the COURAGE to share how your superior wisdom is working in your own life. Do you refuse to pay your child support like you encourage others to do? Do you belittle your children and others who dont share your views? Do you try to point out percieved weekness in others to hide your own vast short comings?
Please, Leave us fathers alone and go beat your exwife.
29 Kevin Merck // Apr 11, 2007 at 6:34 pm
This article is about putting pictures of “deadbeats†on pizza boxes.
I guess the logical question is: “What exactly is a deadbeat dad�
Is a deadbeat someone who falls behind because he can’t afford the unrealistic and unwarranted court imposed financial “obligation�
Is it someone who refuses to pay what amounts to extortion in order to “visit†his children twice a month; someone who has the self-respect to reject the role as “visitor†to his children?
Is it someone who refuses to pay corrupt courts extortion money for a child born to a female he was not married to and didn’t want a child with?
Is it someone who refuses to pay because he’s “denied the equal protection of our laws†when it comes to decisions about parenting; someone who was ordered to pay as a result of a blood test, or DNA test, and was given no other option?
Is it someone who refuses to pay the extortion because he’s a victim of “paternity fraud�
I don’t think so.
Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who pays the extortion knowing that the courts are violating his constitutional rights and that his thoughtless actions put all Americans at risk for loss of liberty?
Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who pays the extortion, which enables the courts to continue “kidnapping†millions of children from their fathers, in order to extort money from them and the “duped taxpayer�
Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who doesn’t have the courage to “do the right thing†for fear of incarceration?
Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who would rather pay the extortion than accept an “equal role†in raising his children?
Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who by paying the extortion insures that his children will be the next victims of this injustice?
I think so.
If the measure of a good father is a coward who is afraid to speak his mind publicly, and allows criminals to “pimp†himself and his molested children, then I guess old “joepetitioner†is about as good a father as humanly possible.
Kevin Merck
30 joepetitioner // Apr 11, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Nice reply “kevin”. I wonder what jurusdiction you are filed in. I speak my mind publicly and you hide behind MLK. Who are you? Tell us your story and why your advice is relevent. If you cant, then YOU are a coward! I can totally understand why you lost miserably in court.
You said- “Maybe the “deadbeat†is the father who would rather pay the extortion than accept an “equal role†in raising his children?”
What role do you play in your childrens lives!!!! You are losing credibility on this site just as you lost in court. How far must we go to make you SHUT UP AND GO AWAY! (sorry to quote your children!)
31 joepetitioner // Apr 12, 2007 at 10:36 am
Kevin,
You are just a selfish guy who could care less about his kids and doesnt want to pay child support!
Joe Denniston
32 Charles Fockaert // Apr 20, 2007 at 5:53 am
“But my question is WHAT WILL I ACCOMPLISH by not paying?”
You will stop funding a system that is destroying our families. Your family.
I refuse to pay because I refuse to pay for the destruction of my family. I requested full custody of my children. I got visitation. I demanded 50/50 custody of my children, I got visitation. I demanded visitation, I got “we’re too busy with criminal matters to deal with this civil matter.”
I refuse to pay for the destruction of my family.
33 Charles Fockaert // Apr 20, 2007 at 6:25 am
btw: I spent several hundred hours writing a book to dispel the myth that us ‘deadbeat dads’ don’t care for our children. I titled it Deadbeat Dad. It is a true story of how one dad was made into a ‘deadbeat dad.’ The last review I received was, “well written, well documented, not angry.”
May I suggest purchasing the book and giving it to the owners of the pizza stores? It may just change their minds.
http://www.lulu.com/content/315711
For those of you who may think I’m trying to benefit from dads in this situation, I offer this: when many others were taking leisure time I invested my time writing. I worked hard to get this book finished, to make available a documented true story of how many of us dads come to be labeled ‘deadbeat dads.’ It was one of the most difficult endeavers I have ever undertaken, having to recall in minute detail over a period of several years, the destruction of my family. I then spent several hundreds of dollars I couldn’t afford to get it published. I’ll be fortunate to break even.
Writing Deadbeat Dad was something I could do besides just complain about our situation.
I’ve provided a tool. It’s up to others to use it.
You must log in to post a comment.