Well, we’re almost there. 17 days and counting to the day when parents who love their children and their country have been given an opportunity to show it. “Build it and they will come” as it is said, and now we have done exactly that, a venue for you to show your displeasure with divorce, custody and support laws which destroy parent-child relationships for both mom and dad. The lawyers reap the profits, courts provide the means, and mainstream families in America remain the victims. We all pay the price in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods and moral fiber as a nation.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Under our Constitution, drafted by the Founding Fathers, you have the right, indeed the duty, to secure reform by making your views known on the west lawn of Senate Park in our nation’s capital on April 20, 2012. However, if you think that someone is going to beg you to come, give you a free bus trip from your doorstep maybe, you are sadly mistaken. The sponsors of this march are not funded by any one, and donations have remained less than $1,000 since its inception last year. We are concerned parents victimized by the system just like you, and we’ve sacrificed enough on your behalf to make this event possible. Now it’s your turn.

Is there a problem or not? No one is listening to community gossip, the clicking keyboards or frustrated I-Phones. It takes a physical presence to send a proper message. So join us, won’t you? It’s only two weeks away, and you can make a difference. At the very least, your family and offspring will be proud of your commitments to them. Imagine the impact which you can become a part of. Contact your friends, make your travel plans, get those signs ready for your cars and trucks, and get viral on all this, for the sake of future generations if not your own. Please share this message with others.

Now, in our final countdown, we feature short stories from callers and e-mailers as promised in a recent post. We call them the “Parenting Papers”. They are intended to stimulate attendance at this month’s event because our court victims apparently believe that it’s someone else’s job to protest for them- and of course reform will not occur with this kind of lame attitude. These stories are based on real events. However, names and content have been edited to protect the sources. Our fifth story of this series, Day 17, is entitled: “Military Michaels”.

He got the nickname at ceremonies in the nation’s capital when he was awarded the Purple Heart. Dignitaries and politicians lauded him for valor and sacrifices made during the Gulf War. Reverend Michaels came from a long line of family veterans. But unlike their enlistments in the army, navy, marines and air force, he volunteered in order to provide moral service to those suffering from emotional distress caused by the bombardments of Iraqi villages. The deaths of children and innocent civilians were taking their toll on the modern day fighter, and he was there to make sure they returned in good spirits to their own families.

Reverend Michaels sustained shrapnel wounds while intervening to save soldiers from a suicide attacker. He was sent back to the states the following week. However, when he returned to his home after the awards ceremony, all he could find was a notice taped to the front door. It was a summons for divorce, and the door opened to an empty house. There was no sign of his children. Family heirlooms, pictures and even the Christmas presents he bought for his excited arrival, all gone. In years to come, he would face custody and support battles which made his injuries in Iraq pale in comparison.

In every court appearance, his absence from the children and violent experiences overseas were used against him. A judge even ordered “supervised visitation” until he could be seen by a shrink. They were all tactics devised by greedy lawyers who could care less about his father-child relationships. Apparently, primary care giving in custody determinations did not include the kind of care given to American families and children when he was out protecting them from enemies and would-be terrorists. According to his government, this was “the law” and he would face imprisonment if his support payments got any more delinquent. Fatherhood and underemployment caused by his sacrifices simply did not matter.

The lawyers he hired did him no good. If anything, they caused him to get more behind in his money obligations. So he contacted veterans groups around the country to march on Washington in the name of reform. But he learned the hard way that although he loved his country, his country did not love him. His fellow Americans were more interested in political correctness and social acceptance. In the end, there was no march, no reform and no meaningful relationship with his children. Rather than face a debtor’s prison, Reverend Michaels gave up his career and sought asylum in a foreign country. Prior to becoming a “fugitive from justice”, he tossed his Purple Heart into the Potomac River. Instead of another support payment, he mailed an inscription from a former president, Calvin Coolidge, who declared that “a country which forgets its soldiers will itself be forgotten”.