Another form of domestic terror
Robert Muchnick
January 25, 2002
In the midst of another of this country's weird, undeclared wars we are
endeavoring to rid the world of terrorists and tyrants who
threaten America's health and safety. While that cause is
just, it has, yet again, distracted the United States --
and the individual states in particular -- from another,
ongoing form of domestic terror and tyranny practiced by our very
own judiciary: the extirpation of one parent from a child's life via the
excuse of divorce coupled with the "child's best interest," in the
process of which many lives are destroyed at once.
Divorce affects approximately one million children each year
in the U.S. Here in Colorado, for example, Arapahoe
County District Court alone handles about 7,000
dissolution of marriage cases annually, half of which contain
litigable disputes between the parties.
The nearly ubiquitous result of these disputed parental rights
and responsibilities cases -- where each parent is forced
to "prove" to the court that he or she is the
"better" parent -- is that one parent is awarded
much or all of the parental rights and the other is granted less parenting
time and less parental authority than an aunt, uncle or teacher has.
The "losing" parent is usually stripped of any say at all in determining
his child's upbringing.
The deleterious effects on children of losing a parent are
well documented, and the lost parent in divorce is most
often the father. Children from fatherless homes
account for 63% of youth suicides and 71% of pregnant
teenagers, according to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
These children comprise a heavily disproportionate share of youth
in state institutions and those exhibiting behavioral disorders (U.S.
Dept. of Justice and Centers for Disease Control, respectively).
The routine divestiture of one parent's role in his child's
life permits, in all too many instances, the other parent
to become a tyrant and oppressor with artificial power
bestowed by a court ruling in conflict with the
Constitutional guarantee of equal protection to both parents. The child
inevitably is caught, to great detriment, in the crossfire.
One attempt to remedy this appalling situation is now in the
Colorado House of Representatives. House Bill 1190,
introduced January 15 by Rep. Bill Sinclair (R-Colo.
Springs), declares as a matter of legislative determination
that it is presumptively in the best interests of a child to have
a relationship with both parents, and that that goal is best accomplished
by imposing shared parenting in most situations, to include "a
substantial amount of time with each parent." Presumably, this declaration
stands in stark opposition to the typical arrangement of every other
weekend and Wednesday evening dinners dictated by family court judges
for the "non-custodial" parent.
There was a poster during the hippie era that stated,
"War is not healthy for children and other living
things." If there was the ineluctable grain of truth
in that cloying motto, there is a boulder of truth in the fact that
the current legislative and judicial war against the children of divorce
and their targeted parents is not healthy for them, either.
Robert Muchnick is executive director of the Denver-based
Center for Children's Justice, Inc. He can be reached at
director@childrensjustice.org or (303)722-3098.
Copyright 2002 Robert Muchnick. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted
