YOU WANT MENS RIGHTS THEN ATTACK THE FUNDING SOURCE!!!! This rally was about destroying the funding beast that dictates that NON CUSTODIAL PARENTS take a hike and pay. ALL NON CUSTODIAL PARENTS ARE NOT MEN!!!

Please get informed. I am sure that we are all smart enough to follow the money trail.

I had dinner with the two gentlemen who scaled the Lincoln Memorial. Although it was magnificent, it was a BONEHEAD decision to undertake at that time…..The timing was completely wrong and unless either of you stood in my shoes at the time, you cannot fathom the position this act put me in…..It was unthinking and it truly upstaged the more important event. It is easy to quaterback from an armchair. If you really want to impress the movement, start to do something that makes sense. No critic writes anything without having full knowledge of what they are writing about. This at best is an amatuer offering and I take no offense but I recognize it for what it truly is…. YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO TALK TO ME…..THAT IS WHAT TRUE JOURNALIST DO!!!!

Up to this point, all rallies outlining fathers have been an excercise in futility. You should never have given an eyewitness account without actually witnessing the entire event.

Jennifer, maybe you should call me to find out exactly what you are supporting because based on your post, you don’t have a clue. 616-301-1515

Minister Ron Smith

I may disagree with Bob on the importance of representing men, fathers in particular, in this movement, but we both are fighting against the same system.

What does that mean? Fathers and mothers have a right to raise their own children. I know that custody is for criminals, not children. In a free society, parents determine the care, control and nurturing their children receive. Government interference is criminal. It is a violation of the basic human rights of parents and it is an evil that reeks like barbarism.

F4J was heroic. You sir, are a coward. Our forefathers died so that your freedom of speech remains a fundamental right to speak against the tyranny of government. If you continue to believe that the government grants rights, and you continue to say what they tell you, then you will never solve this stain on our future.

In the military it is common knowledge that the most valuable asset in the arsenal is the warfighter. Our future’s most valuable asset is our children; don’t let them take them.

I did not want this to fail. I was excited about this event, drove 6 hours each way with my husband and kids to be there. I wrote to many boards announcing this rally, trying to get support for it. I had no interest in seeing it fail.

We stayed for about 2 hours. It was enough for me to get a feeling for the rally as it stood at that time. It sounds like had we stayed around for a few more hours we may have heard more father-friendly speakers. I do not think anyone needed to separate the rally from the protest-if the people in charge thought there was a connection, the rally would not have taken place. I especially do not think that separating fatherhood from this rally needed to be said either. As Dave said, it could have been done in an inclusive way, and it was not. Glenn asked for my gut reaction and I gave it to him.

I am an MRA. This means I believe that men in society are being treated unfairly and need a voice. My husband, two sons and many other men in my life are my motivation. I think children are extremly important and need to be protected, and my own opinion is that the marginalization of fathers and men in society is what is causing this problem. Trying to revamp CPS is only a band-aid in my opinion. Until fathers and men in general are seen as valuable, important members in society our children will be in danger. I feel the best way to serve and protect children is to help men.

The number one threat to families is the dismissal of fathers. I expected fatherhood to be a large issue in a family right’s rally. To hear it dismissed was difficult. The F4J guys are there for their children, and for them it was worth the putdowns to serve their children, or perhaps they didn’t even register that there was putdowns. Men in the western world are so accustumed to being insulted most don’t even hear it anymore on a conscous level. To me the cause of men is worth serving. Fathers are men. WHile men are a harder sell to the public, they still need a voice.

You essentially are saying that she wasn’t there as long as you were so that must mean that her prospective is inaccurate.

As a friend of Jen, I take exception to your marginalizing, if not downright denying her prospective. You could have written your prospective without belittling hers. I would have respected your views much more if you hadn’t done that.

TMOTS

We also realize that the goal of the event was not to ‘preach to the choir’, so it’s understandable that to reach a large audience you need to tailor your message. However, Glen had asked Jen about her impressions of the event, and so I suggested that she go with her gut reaction as an MRA and let the discourse sort it out. In this venue (online), the audience IS primarily Men’s rights activists… and she would have done a disservice if she had not been forthright in voicing her honest opinion.

By the same token… we have the luxury of not needing to walk the knife’s edge of balancing the goals of multiple disparate groups, and we know that to pull off an event like yesterday is a monumental achievement. Our observations are distinctly from a Men’s Rights perspective and should not be taken as a condemnation of the event at all, but a critique from an MRA point of view that’s intended to be read by other MRA’s.