I did not intend to get involved in the politics of the
Father's Rights movement and was happy at the start just telling my story to
anyone that would listen.
That was until I stumbled on a story from Columbus
about a father that had tried to get the Ohio Supreme Court to do something
about making sure that all parents with shared parenting got a proper deviation
in their child support to reflect the true cost to them of raising their
children. It was not so much the story
as the title that struck me along with a comment made by Justice Paul Pfeiffer of
the Ohio Supreme Court. During the course of testimony, Justice Pfeiffer made a
comment that shared parenting was nothing more than "cocktail conversation".
And that fathers only showed up to take care of their children when they did
not have a golf game. This struck me as odd and hit a nerve for me as I was a
golfer that had never put my golf game over my son.
I wrote the man that whose case this was and asked if I
could out a link to the case on my website. That permission was granted and
subsequent conversations lend to my forming a chapter of Parents And Children
for Equality in Akron. Working
to get a chapter up and going was a struggle but a challenge that I liked. I
was glad that I had others that shared my views on this problem and joined with
others from my area to get going. I was introduced to man that help get a
separate website going for the Akron
Chapter and have since taken that site over and serve as webmaster to this
day.
The letter that I wrote to Justice Pfeiffer and sent to the
rest of the Ohio Supreme Court started that ball rolling for me. I started to
write to the local representatives of the US Congress, Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich and
the House of Representatives
in Columbus. If any of the responded I wrote back
and kept pressing forward to try to get the laws changed so that every parent
had an opportunity to enjoy the same rights I had as a parent.
During my activities with PACE
I have worked on many projects including helping to write a equal custody bill that was
introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives. This bill died in Committee as
the Judges and lawyers refused to meet with us to discuss changes that they
wanted made to the bill.
I have also helped to organize two different rallies that
were held on the steps of the Statehouse in Columbus.
The first was when we learned that Mike Galluzzo had been granted a certified
question as to the Constitutionality
of Ohio's Custody law. The
second was also held and brought about the introduction of Fathers4Justice
in America.
This was major effort as it involved the first time that several groups had
joined together to protest.
Still I pressed on and wrote the next time to every member
of the both sides of the Ohio
legislature and again presented a custody bill to them that was not only
beneficial to all fit parents but was also constitutionally compliant. I did
another website to make this
information available to the general public that I still maintain to this day.
Please take the time to read all the information and look at
all the links I have provided here. After you do, write letters and make phone
calls to your representatives at the Statehouse press for changes to protect
American families after divorce. Tell them that divorce does not make one unfit
and that it is time to change the law to protect all fit parents.