For years, people have been predicting that the father's movement was
about to explode.
That explosion finally took place on December 17, 2002.
On that day, Fathers 4 Justice launched its campaign of non-violent
direct action.
Two hundred
men dressed in Santa Claus suits vowing to
"Save Father Christmas" raided the offices of the Lord Chancellor's
Department in London.
Then on Valentine's Day, fathers dressed up as Elvis Presley and paid
a visit to the London family courts, dubbed the "Heartbreak Hotel."
Their aim was to present a
20 foot
high inflatable heart to Dame
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the odious Family Division.
May 22 saw Plymouth County Court closed for an hour as two F4J members
staged a roof-top
protest wearing Tony Blair masks. The pair toted a
giant banner that named Plymouth as the UK's Worst Family Court.
In observance of Father's Day, 50 fathers, mothers and grandparents
kicked off its Summer of Discontent campaign by
occupying
the Family
Division of the High Court on June 13.
Six weeks later, 50 fathers and mothers dressed up in chemical
decontamination suits, sounded an air-raid siren, and closed off the
street surrounding the home of David Burrows, chair of a leading
lawyers' family law association.
Along the way, actor Pierce Brosnan and singer Bob Geldof joined in
the struggle for divorced fathers to gain equal access to their
children. Geldof, who had recently gone through a nasty custody battle,
lamented that unjust family laws are creating "vast wells of misery,
massive discontent, [and] an unstable society of feral children."
Three weeks ago, on October 22, hundreds of men, women and chilren
marched
through the streets of London to protest unfair policies of the
family courts. As the group reached the end of their march, they
discovered, to their considerable delight, two men dressed as Batman and
Robin atop the Royal Courts of Justice, where the family law courts
daily hand down their one-sided opinions.
Then David Chick got fed up when his ex-partner blocked him from
seeing his daughter for 8 months. So two weeks ago, he donned a
Spiderman outfit and scaled a 120-foot crane by the historic Tower
Bridge. For five days, London traffic ground to a standstill when police
blockaded the area.
Revealing the dismissive attitude that officials reserve for fathers,
London mayor
Ken
Livingstone commented that Mr. Chick "is amply
demonstrating that women do not feel they always want their partner to
have access to their children".
But many were to sympathetic to Chick's plight. Columnist
Melanie
Phillips decried the "manifold injustices" that are driving fathers over
the edge.
Over 225 years ago, American colonialists overcome a subservient
mentality, organized their resistance, and defeated the British tyranny.
In 2003, fathers around the world face a new oppression. This tyranny
cloaks its actions with the high-minded phrase "best interests of the
child" -- which in practice really means "sole interests of the mother."
So stay tuned. Because on October 20, Fathers 4 Justice issued an
40-day Ultimatum to the family courts: "enforce the right of children to
have a meaningful, loving relationship with both parents," or "face a
dramatic escalation in our campaign."
Judges, take note -- that ultimatum expires on November 30.
These fathers care deeply about their children. They will not pass
away quietly into the night.
