We are posing a question a question that has rolled around for a while, it is a simple question, yet it goes unanswered.

Why do so many organization say they want “share parenting” when every state has “shared parenting”? New York was the last state to get a shared parenting law about five years ago. Is it because these organizations want you to believe that they are doing something about the problems of how we treat parents in custody situations or is it because they just want to suck you in with a feel good phrase?

Maybe is it that they just want to get you to keep the donations coming to them so they can just continue to talk about the “problem”? Or is it that they don’t really understand the problem with the laws that are currently on the books?

Ohio Family Rights does not use the term shared parenting in anyway.  We only believe in equal custody for all fit parents.  We only believe that it is the responsibility of the parents to decide how they family should be run after the parents end their personal relationship, not a third party “judge” that does not know or understand the dynamics of your family unit.

The only way to solve the problem is to stop talking and to do something about the problem and our track record shows that we have done some about it in the past and will continue to do something about it in the future until every state has a true equal custody law on the books and in effect.

The days of raising awareness have long past. As a nation we have been talking about this “problem” for close to twenty years. There is no need for more talk or awareness.

At present time, there are four proposed bills for equal custody that have commitments for introduction with the beginning of the next legislative sessions. All four have been written by us for other organizations that think the way we do and want to work to comprehensively solve the problem. Those four are only the beginning as there are more in the works at this time.

I want to you think about this, South Dakota passed a “presumption” of shared parenting bill this year. Shortly after it was passed they admitted that it will not solve the many problems they have in their law. What that really means is they did not solve the problem at all, they just perpetuated it. Is that what you want? It certainly is not an approach that has solved anything.

We have had our successes in the past, not all have been in the area that we all call the “Holy Grail”, but they have been successes. Not all have been publicly acknowledged which is fine also because we know what we did and we know that the results were right but Ohio and American families. We have learned and learned well from every success and from every failure and we know more know that we did yesterday and we will know more as we move forward.  While others are still working failed and tired methods and messages, we have refined and moved ours in a direction that is unique. That is what learning for experience is about.

 

So think about what I have said and ask yourself if you want to keep financially supporting failure or do you want to support an organization that is refining and building the case that will change family law as we know it.

We have a goal to raised $20,000 by the first of the year. These funds will be used to support the bills that we have written and the others we are working on now.

As you can clearly see we started with an impressive team of fighters; fathers who have been on the cutting edge of this movement for years. These men have more often than not been working quietly in the background with little recognition for their efforts. They are not alone and have input from others throughout the country.  The one thing that has remain constant has been their unwavering desire to get the laws changed and go home to be with their families and live in peace and quiet.

How is this going to be achieved with in a reasonable amount of time?  Our goal is a simple but one that has proven affective in all of our efforts so far. Join as many together under one voice and under one National Banner.

This does not mean that individual group should or are expected to lose their respective identities. That is not our goal. Our goal is to make available the combined voices and knowledge of every group, mothers, fathers, grandparents and children into a single organization where they can join with a unified voice in speaking to the legislators in every state of the nation. Our goal is to make each group known to everyone out there that is seeking help. Our goal is to share with you the information that we have so that you are not re-inventing the wheel out of the box.

In the near future, we will be accepting applications for individual chapters in areas that we do not presently cover. That will be a simple application and a simple process once chapters are approved for addition. Watch the site for more information as it becomes available.

If you are a group that is presently in existence, add your information to our advocates map so that anyone that visits our site can see whom to contact in their area. You just may help someone that is lost in the shuffle of the family court nightmare that will be able to pay that forward for some one else some day. The only thing we ask is that you return the favor by putting a link and a OFR banner of your site. A page with be added to our site shortly where banners of all sizes can be down loaded for use.

So often we get a call or an email from someone that is telling us about finding something that we have known about for years. That is why we have one of the larger collections of information available on the internet and that collection is growing daily. The PACE site was a simple site when Ray took over ten years a go and it has grown to one of the larger sites on the internet with a total of nearly 300 pages of information and more coming as fast as his fingers can add it.

What is it going to take to make this work – the nasty “M” word- MONEY !  With litigation that is presently being funded by individuals that have sacrificed everything to try to help all, we hope you will stepping up to help fund their work. The costs of printing and filing fees can bleed a person to death. We funded much of our work privately but please help us to continue. We have a Chip-in on our front page to show our progress in funding our current court battles.

So why not join us in our efforts to make this work for all fit mothers, fathers, grandparents and children? We must work together so that they may have the justice that they deserve and we together will put an end to the tyranny of the family court system.