The battle between David and Goliath is being fought anew in North Dakota.

Mitch Sanderson is waging a heroic stand there against the slings and arrows of the Mitchell Sanderson, A Hero Who Needs Our Helpdivorce industry. Arrayed against Mitch is virtually the entire North Dakota government, as well as the bar associations, social workers, feminists, and all the others who have discovered how lucrative it is to take control of other people’s children. All these groups are receiving help from outside the state who realize the earth-shaking importance of what Mitch has done.

Mitch is the driving force behind the North Dakota Shared Parenting Initiative – a ballot referendum that will provide for equal parenting and child support levels at reasonable levels that do not subsidize broken homes. This summer Mitch and other parents collected sufficient signatures to place the referendum on the November ballot.

For decades now policymakers have bellyached about the “fatherhood crisis,” which they use to procure federal funds for useless government psychotherapy programs. The North Dakota Initiative is the first effective measure that will actually do something about this problem. It is no wonder the divorce industry is bringing out the big guns against him. The State Bar Association of North Dakota, the North Dakota Association of Counties, the state’s Department of Human “Services,” even the federal government are pulling out all the stops to suppress this measure. In the most appalling action yet, a federal HHS official, using his office for political purposes that are clearly improper and probably illegal, issued an ultimatum to North Dakota: Pass the initiative and we will cut off all federal funding. Such an act of federal bullying against citizens exercising participatory democracy may be unprecedented. HHS Assistant Secretary Wade Horn, to his credit, recently refused to back this threat, but state officials are ignoring him.

Mitch and the North Dakota Coalition for Families and Children have already achieved heroic feats. They collected over 17,000 signatures for the Initiative. They have attracted the attention of television, newspapers, and internet pundits like Wendy McElroy. In some cases, they have turned them from hostility to sympathy.

But they cannot stand alone much longer. It is well known that referenda are won by whoever has the most money and time to wage a media battle. Mitch and his allies are vastly outgunned. Though the public clearly favors the measure – this is clear from the speed with which they collected the signatures (and by a similar but non-binding referendum in Massachusetts that garnered over 85% of vote in 2004) – with each passing day, the divorce industry has more time to wage their propaganda onslaught against Mitchell, against the truth, and against families.

From now to Election Day, every parents’ group, every parent, every citizen in America should turn their eyes to North Dakota. Mitch and his friends are in desperate need of volunteers to help with the campaign and of money – not only to compete with the wealthy lawyers and other interests who have mobilized against the citizens of North Dakota, but perhaps even to survive.

This is no exaggeration. Mitch himself has gone into debt to pay for the campaign and is now vulnerable to arrest if he cannot meet his extortionate “child support” payments. This is only one weapon wielded by the divorce industry to silence its critics. We must hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.

On the other hand, Mitch Sanderson and his friends have already sent shock waves through the divorce industry and, thanks to them, we have an opportunity to bring this behemoth under control. The name of Mitchell Sanderson deserves to be known wherever people fight for freedom. The rest of us can help these courageous parents at no risk to ourselves. Now is the time for all parents who love their children and their country to stand up and act.

You can contact Mitch Sanderson and the North Dakota Coalition for Families and Children at info@ndspi.org. Their web site is http://www.ndspi.org.

Stephen Baskerville is President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children (www.acfc.org). His latest major article, “What God Hath Joined Together…”, is published by MovieGuide.com.

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