BE PROTECTIVE OF YOUR RIGHTS! Read this post and learn how to spot the way your rights are bypassed even when making progress. Someone brought up the Illinois Bill, HB5425 Setting Minimum Child Visitation Rights for Non-Custodial Parents this morning. YES, it is exciting to make progress. I write this post in an effort to remind you right after you celebrate this success, see it as only a step and nothing less. There is still much work to be done. And the next step of this work might take even greater effort now since the legislator will believe that they have done all that they need to do or all that is necessary. I dont address everything in this, but a few main points that Id like to make are the following: First of all, the word non-custodial parent should be re-classified as a dirty word. It has no place in any of these Bills unless they are talking about an unfit parent that has lost custody of their child. Second, while it may appear that policies like this are a step in the right direction, we really need to think about this. We need to be aware of the setbacks that even a perceived step in the right direction can cause and be ready to overcome those, and sometimes you even need to be ready to reject anyone using policies like only appease and not really address the underlying issue. Steps like this can create bigger barriers...because its difficult to create the momentum to get the attention of the lawmakers in the first place. Letting them water down a Bill and then act like they addressed the issue and no longer need to re-visit that issue could be devastating for a longer period of time than if you had rejected the watered down Bill in the first place. It is not okay to say that they can deprive you a little less, its still depriving and it will still allow parents and judges to think that they get to choose between one parent or the other. So sometimes these things can kill the momentum already built up, for what turns out to be a minor gain if any. Again, we dont see the final wording or what outs they will leave themselves in this Bill until it is actually finalized. If they are not setting the proper boundaries then perhaps this wont be a step at all. According to the judge in my case a while back, Extended Standard visitation was around 45% time. That was every other Thursday and then Friday after school until Monday morning and any full Friday and Monday to Tuesday mornings if the school had holidays or days off on those days. This is still unacceptable because they do not have the authority even if they give it to themselves to make these determinations of deprivation. They are still presuming that the State determines the childs best interest superior to fit parents. There is nowhere in this Bill where it states that each parent determines their childs best interest until proven unfit. And they even use the unfit language but then state that one parent even though not even declared unfit can be deprived of 15% of their time with their child. Of course, they say it the other way around, that they are presumed to get 35% time awarded. We dont know what the final wording will be if this Bill passes yet. Just be careful getting too excited yet, sometimes small steps like this can cause people to stop working on the issue and that is the danger of this. It is not the States authority to protect less than 100% of your equal time and rights which in divorce or just two parents that had a child but were never married happens to be 50/50 without a showing of unfit or a clear and present danger -- nothing less is acceptable. So while it is exciting that there is progress being made, dont stop fighting for the proper Bills to be passed. Remember, it is not the States business to determine the best interest of your child for you, only to protect each parents ability to make these determinations when the two parents no longer get along, until the State has proven that it is their business to involve themselves in anything other than protecting your rights from attack by anyone including the other parent in divorce or separation or establishing paternity. And these constitutional fundamental rights cannot be bypassed by simply creating a Bill. 50/50 is 100% of what each parent has until a State deprives you of this. Any Bill that passes less than that and doesnt require the constitutional protections is still unconstitutional and cannot stand. They mention that the court doesnt have to award this 35% time share if it is not possible for the non-residential parent to exercise that time. Regardless of whether or not you can personally exercise all of that 50/50 time yourself does not give the State the authority to deprive you of it! You have a right to designate someone to raise your child during your equal time. So if the other parent is angry with you and teaching the child negative things about you, this is reduced by the fact that you get to decide if that other parent has your child during your time. When a law only mandates 35% of the time is okay to grant or deprive the other person of their 15% of the time they have interfered with a fundamental liberty and they better show that they have met the bar to do so. Thats all Im saying. Attorney Gerhardt says that the laws were brought up to date with social science. Okay, you all should know by now that our laws should be brought up to date with the Constitution, not social science! These are good people sitting there talking to the legislators, so this is not to knock any one of them that are for and promoting the Bill. They just simply are not realizing the indoctrination and years of being mislead to think about these issues from the wrong perspectives, thats all. Thats why the Bills being passed are still not being worded properly yet.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 18:36:28 +0000
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