Well worth the read...

[MYSONSDAD]

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/manion/2004/manion113004.htm

The Best Kept Lie in America
The Economic Chain Gang - Fathers Without Rights

December 1, 2004
by Jim Manion

Seven more months before I am a truly free man.  I am not in prison, but I
can be at any moment.  If I miss my bi-monthly commitment, even once, they
will find me.  And they will put me away.

It has been almost 12 years since I accepted and agreed to the terms of my
limited freedom.  I am a free man as long as I submit to what I call
unrestricted welfare.

I never saw a judge, nor a jury.  My sentence was meted out by an
anonymous judicial system that presumed my guilt before I even entered the
system.  A guilty man by judicial and legislative fiat.  Guilty by
association.  Guilty because I was a man.  A man who did everything to
make a home for his wife and children to be.

I have another 7 months left before my economic probation ends.  I have
paid a substantial portion of my income for the last 12 years to buy my
freedom from incarceration.  And if I continue to pay the tribute for
another 7 months, I will finally be a free man.  In the event I miss even
one payment, I will be put into jail, I will not be allowed to drive a
car, my livelihood will be eliminated  and my bank accounts will be seized
by the State.

I am not on any terrorist list.  I have never been judged guilty of any
crime.  And I am not wanted for any infraction of the law.

My High Crime was becoming a father.  I never considered it a crime at
all.  I was there when my two daughters were born.  They were both
Caesarian babies, so I was the first to hold them and talk to them.  My
first words to both of them, "I love you.  I am Your Daddy, and you are
beautiful."  When the nurse placed these hysterical bundles into my arms,
my words and my feelings calmed them.  They stopped the cries and looked
and maybe even smiled at this beast of a man that cradled them in his
arms.

The world stopped when I held them both for the first time.  The only
thing I can recall from both experiences is when a doctor insisted that I
needed to let them take my daughters for their first checkup.  I will go
to my grave with the vision of those little eyes focusing for the first
time on me.  The first sight outside the womb.  Incredible.

I worked very hard to support my babies.  Education was important, and I
saved for their future.  No matter how hard I worked, and despite the
hours, I always kissed them both goodnight, even in those wee hours when
they were fast alseep.  No matter what time I arrived home.

I had moved from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to take a new job that
would create a wonderful environment for my family.  The move was a
necessity since I had just been merged out of a job.  The mother of my
children claimed she was having an extremely difficult time being away
from her family, despite the fact that she had the house she wanted in the
location she and the children loved.

One day I came home from work to see a large rental truck in my driveway.
Her male friend from Pennsylvania had flown down to North Carolina to help
her move back to live temporarily with her mother.  I was told it was for
my children.  My 10 year old and 7 year old daughters could not make the
adjustment.  My daughters were my life, and I could not bear to see them
suffer.

I was 'sentenced' in 1994.  A temporary order for custody gave her custody
of my daughters.  A battle regarding my competence as a father and the
incompetence of my children's mother had no effect.  And my subsequent
battles with solid proof that my daughters' new stepfather was a probable
threat to them, did nothing to change the course of events.

Their stepfather was the male friend who was there on a moments notice to
move my family back to Pennsylvania.  While I knew their new stepfather, I
really knew nothing about him.  He was under the same roof as my
daughters, and his past was a mystery.  What I found out about his past
led me into a crash course on pedophilia.  Suffice it to say that in the
mid 1980's, he was finally caught after numerous complaints about a man
prowling school bus stops and pleasuring himself in front of pre pubescent
girls.  He plead guilty to two separate instances involving two different
girls. And this incident lead to his divorce from his first wife, and
restrictions on visitation with his son.

This information had no impact on the court.  The court punted to a court
appointed psychologist with no background in dealing with pedophilia.  And
ordered me to pay for the psychologist.  While the psychologist stated
that this man still had unresolved issues, she pronounced him "cured"
based only on his word that he was OK.  This man was abused as a child by
his own father, and was caught in one of many high risk incidents.  As
anyone who specializes in this area will tell you, these people are never
cured.  The Center For Missing and Exploited Children was appalled when I
relayed this story to them 10 years ago.

While my daughters were living under the same roof with this man, I was
the one that could go to jail in a heartbeat.  I could never miss a
support payment, yet my ex was free to marry a man convicted of what today
would be pedophilia.  My daughters were taught that he was the victim, and
instructed tat their loving step father was being persecuted by their
biological father.  And my ex was and is still free to continue the vile
hatred against me that she has taught my daughters.  It has taken a long
time, but I have finally let go.  Those precious angels that I held in my
arms have been taught to hate me.  And believe me, they do hate me.

My daughters have not been in my home for 4 years.  There is always an
excuse.  But the real reason is that I have been painted as a terrible
person.  My payments have reinforced the hatred.  Those payments are
accountable to no one.  They are a form of welfare, but welfare without
accountability.  I would never mind giving my earnings to my daughters.
Never.

Child support is a major problem.  It is most definitely welfare.  It is
welfare with no restrictions.  And it encourages divided families.  I
would have, and still would, give my life for my daughters.  However, I
have endured over 12 years of extreme pain, e.g., having my children tell
me to my face that their new Daddy, the man convicted of masturbating in
front of little girls as bus stops, was their real father now.

The Court took the path of least resistance, and sentenced my daughters to
a life in the same house with a a man who was attracted to girls of their
age group.  I was simultaneously given probation from a modern day debtors
prison.

All I ever cared about up to that point was gone.  And I was further
sentenced to paying my tribute only to support the sexual predator living
with my babies.  My daughters are out of his target range now, and despite
the fact that they are ashamed to be associated with me, I now have the
best wife a man could ever hope for.  And I have moved on, realizing that
my daughters are lost to me forever, at least in this world.

I have kept this bottled up for the last 10 plus years.  I share it now
not for sympathy nor understanding.  But because I know I am not alone.
And my silence would be the greatest injustice.  My youngest is 18 now,
and old enough to bear the truth.  After all, she is my daughter, and she
has her father's thick hide.  As does my 21 year old.  They were deprived
of the one person in this world that put their lives before his own.  My
love for them was destroyed in their eyes by a judicial system that
pandered to their mother, no matter what.

That is the Pennsylvania court system.  Judy Mulligan, of the Allegheny
County Family Court, was the unseen judge.  And Judge Mulligan takes no
responsibility.  Per Judge Mulligan, that's the system.

I have no animosity toward Judge Mulligan.  None whatsoever.  But I want
her to think about the path of destruction the good judge created.  You
placed my daughters with a convicted pedophile and ordered that this man
was a better father to my children than a decorated member of the US Army
and licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  You ignored
his criminal record.  I spent everything I had to make things right, but
your self righteous and insulated life ignored the threat of pedophilia.
And your malfeasance deprived my children of the only person on this Earth
who refused to use them as pawns.  I am certain that my love for my
daughters was consciously used against me,  And the fact that I would not
lie under oath, something that is apparently a given in Family Court, was
the final nail in the coffin.

I will pay for Judy Mulligan's judicial ignorance and abject negligence
for 7 more months.  And perhaps Judge Mulligan's children or grandchildren
will be mentored by or housed with a pedophile some day.  After all, the
good Judge sees nothing wrong with that situation.

It is no wonder that Pittsburgh, PA is a bankrupt city.  It is bankrupt
economically now, but it has been morally bankrupt for at least the last
12 years.  Not a condition caused by its citizens, but a condition created
by elected judges.

Judy Mulligan is the poster child for judicial incompetence.  And despite
the fact that I have not followed her career, I am certain that she is
still on the bench.  And she continues to put vulnerable children at great
risk.  I am certain the good judge maintains the same standard with her
own offspring.


Jim Manion is a freelance writer, and a retired Major in the US Army
Reserves Military Police Corps, and is an Honors Graduate of the U.S. Army
Command and General Staff College. Mr. Manion now runs a small business in
the heartland after practicing law for 24 years.

[socrateaser]

.

[MYSONSDAD]

I liked it too, wish it had a better ending...


"Children learn what they live"

[onedaddy]

I would love to see the good Judge Mulligan comment on this...

[StPaulieGirl]

Yes it is.  The author puts his ordeal into clear perspective.  I especially like his remarks about the judge.

[FIRM]

Why did this "man" cave in to the system?

Why did this "man" not just refuse to play the game?

Every man, woman and child should ask themselves why they are perpetuating the system by supporting it indirectly and directly with monetary rewards.

There are ways around this.

Seek them.

Eric
//www.FIRMncp.com

[kitten]

"Seek" your way around SPARC.  

One thing we all have to remember is that the judges, the lawyers, the mediators, the psychological evaluators all work together and probably gather for drinks on occasion after work.  We have people deciding the fate of our children who think they and their families are above it, have never felt the pain of a father who has lost the right to protect his children or do not even know how it feels to love a child more than life itself because they have made other lifestyle choices.  Our children's lives are in the hands of drunks, psychopaths with LMFT after thier names, man-haters called mediators and judges that just want to get this case overwith.  
My daughters will grow up knowing that I as their mother truly has always had their best interests at heart by fostering a positive, continuous daily relationship with their father despite the fact that several court employees tried to persuade me that it would be best for me to seek a RO to protect them from the man who has always loved them with his entire being.  The same man that towards the end of our marriage, I could barely look at and couldn't stand the smell of while my daughters continued to look at him with loving eyes and breathed deep when he hugged them.  I don't love him or need him anymore, but they do and always will.  He is a good father and NO ONE can convince me otherwise.  For all the parents out there that are using your babies to hurt the other and using our corrupt courts to do so, you don't deserve to be called Mommy or Daddy, YOU don't deserve to be a parent.

[jilly]

:)

[MYSONSDAD]

Well said!

[FIRM]

What does your post have to do with ANYTHING that I posted?

Thanks,

Eric

P.S.:

I will NEVER understand WOMEN being on boards that are specifically stated to be FOR men...

P.S.S.:  

FIRM has many, many female members including an attorney that used to "work for the other side..."  It's just that women on FIRM understand the "title" of FIRM i.e., Fathers' Integrity & Rights Movement (FIRM).  They KNOW that the empasis of the substance matter will be of those that are FATHERS even though women, children, grandparents and etc. are welcomed if they believe in the rebuttable presumption of Equal Shared Parenting (ESP).

I guess that sites that promote "whatever the woman says" have their place.  I just have not seen any thus far...that are worth their weight in "salt."

Good luck,

Eric
//www.FIRMncp.com