From: acs@dogear.spk.wa.us (C-Support Forwarder)
Newsgroups: alt.child-support
Subject: Re More legislation against deadbeat dads
Date: 10 Apr 92 14:22:32 GMT
Organization: Dog Ear'd Systems of Spokane, WA
Return-Path: <tau-ceti!adra!finger>
To: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
Cc: acs@dogear.spk.wa.us
Return-Address: adra!finger@decvax.dec.com
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  [Tad Perry tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu writes:]

> I was watching CNN on Tuesday evening and saw the last three-quarters
> of a story about a US state that is planning to take the photographs
> of it's ten worst deadbeat dads and plaster them in public places
> (such as on the sides of buses).  As far as I could tell this is
> purely punitive.  The total amount owed by these dads was a little
> over $250,000. I'd hoped there'd be something on it on this group
> today (as with the ABC piece a while ago), but there wasn't.  Does
> anybody know what state this is? (I couldn't catch it.) Mind you, this
> was not a feature. CNN was merely reporting what this state was doing
> so I don't think letters to the network demanding equal time are
> justified in this case; it's the legislators of that state that need
> to be worked on.

The story is referring to what's happening here in the People's
Republic of Massachusetts. The claim is that these guys are
deliberately avoiding the collection mechanisms through self employment
and constantly moving. On the plus side, they (reading the Globe at
least) hasn't made any of those "most men are deadbeats" claims. The
attorney general did claim that these men were "on the lam like common criminals."  

The whole thing has been treated with much fanfare and is running
parallel with the governer's declaration of a "state of emergency"
because of increasing violence against women (there was rather brutal
case over the weekend after an obviously dangerous character fell
through the cracks- no chasms- in the legal system).

Of course, $250,000 isn't really that much- According to Mass
guidelines, as NCP I'd be paying that much basic CS in just 11 years!
No, I'm not president of GM either.  

> I have mixed feelings about this odd proposal, because my own dad was
> a deadbeat to the tune of about $20,000 (70's dollars at that) but I
> can still see how this negative attitude is getting out of control to
> the point that all fathers (regardless of marital status) will be
> adversely affected.  I'm afraid Father's Day will be repealed or
> something.  Things are getting scary.

In all fairness, there are plenty of _people_ who behave pretty badly
in this area and I have no sympathy for them. On the other hand, there
are lots of men who try their best but just can't provide the
ridiculous amounts that are currently expected of them and they are
simply being lumped in with the deliberate offenders. I have to wonder
if there are any women who might have qualified for this list or is it
a men-only club.

Things are past scary. There is no public information about lawmaking
nor any organized resistance here. A lawyer I spoke to last week claims
that they just past a law raising the maximum age for "child supprt" to
23! Not a word in the papers.

Of course, attitudes are everything. People here seem genuinely amazed
that I have maintained a close relationship with my children and have
not done anything violent or just disappeared. My x2b and our judge are
not amazed- just annoyed at the intrusion.


	Alan Finger (FREE Mass. area coordinator) 
	adra!finger@decvax.dec.com