Fathers4Justice Activists Atop Crane In Ohio
columbus, ohio, 9,29,08
Donald Tenn is a man of conviction. Since the day I met him, one thing, and one thing alone has guided his every move. Tenn is a Daddy who misses and worries about his daughter Madison every moment of every day.
Madison and Tenn are victims of Madison’s mother Shannon and the disaster called the family court system. Shannon illegally abducted Madison from California to Illinois. When she learned the law would make her return Madison, she immediately filed false allegations of domestic violence against Tenn. As I described here, not only has Madison’s mother broken the law, she’s being rewarded for her actions.
Today he took his cause to new heights. Tenn, from California, in a Spiderman suit and Paul Fisher, from Ohio, in a Batman suit, both members of Fathers4Justice, are currently atop a 100 foot crane outside the Ohio Stadium in Columbus. They’ve unfurled a 40 foot banner that says STOP THE WAR ON FATHERHOOD.
There are at least 100,000 people passing underneath on their way to the Ohio State football game.  Tenn describes at least 100 police, sheriff and SWAT officers gathering below. He adds that a police helicopter keeps buzzing very close by.
When asked to comment, John Fowler, National Coordinator for F4J said, â€These fathers have waited years for change. Their pleas have fallen of deaf ears when all they are asking for is to be able to love a raise their children. Why should children be denied the right to have two loving parents?â€
Tenn has spent the last couple of years volunteering as a board member and California coordinator for Fathers4Justice. Fathers 4 Justice originated in the UK a few years ago. Founder Matt O’Connor recently announced he was shutting down his group, again. There are now F4J branches in several countries including Canada, where family rights activists Rob Robinson (Batman) and Kris Titus (Wonderwoman) regularly make the news with similar stunts.
Describing the phone calls he receives at all hours of the day Tenn says, “We get dozens of new members every month, just from California.” “Each parent thinks their case is unique. They don’t realize that I’ve heard the same story hundreds of times.”
He says he understands that they need to get it off their chests. “And fathers aren’t the only parents who are victims,” he adds, “mothers and grandparents call me too.” It’s estimated that by 2010 one quarter of America’s noncustodial parents will be female.
Tenn says making any parent “noncustodial” is wrong. Unless they’ve been convicted of a crime or don’t want to be part of their child’s life. He even says he wants Shannon to have equal access to Madison, after she gets out of jail.
Shared parenting and shared custody are supported by over 85% of the population. Why then can’t these parents and legislators get laws passed to guarantee equal parental rights to all fit parents? The answer is very simple. There are “protective mother” groups who are financially and politically supported by feminist and domestic violence organizations.
They often use lies and debunked “facts” to convince legislators that passing these laws will hurt children. As I described here I watched as they lied under oath to derail AB1307, the 2005 California shared parenting bill. Less than 5% of divorces are high conflict. Sixty to eighty percent of all domestic violence charges are found to be unnecessary or false. Isn’t it time to have laws that fit the facts?
Most families would benefit from shared parenting. Studies show it actually reduces conflict. When confronted about the controversial nature of the demonstration Mr. Fowler replied “What would you be willing to do if a corrupt court denied you access to your children?â€
DONALD AND MADISON TENN:
source: www.jugsforjustice.org
UPDATE: Police at this point do not plan on removing the men.
VIDEO: This is video of the start of the stunt.
I'm a sun and nature loving, 50-something, laid back, forward thinking, liberal anti-feminist egalitarian, san francisco bay area native, single mom of 4 and yia yia to 2. I've been active in the equal parenting movement since 2002. Known as the purple Queen of Equality, I once blogged as the Feminist4Fathers. Find me now on sharedparentingworks.org and jugsforjustice.org. | More from Teri Stoddard
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September 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Here is the first five minutes of an interview I did with Donald Tenn and Fred H. a few years ago on the lawn of the CA State Capitol.
http://tinyurl.com/4qkpxu
September 27th, 2008 at 10:01 am
“There are at least 100,000 people passing underneath on their way to the Ohio State football game.”
Ohioans love their football.
http://tinyurl.com/3n6wds
September 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am
As always, my hats off to Donald and Paul!
JUSTICE IS COMING!
Steve McDonough
F4J MA
September 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
RAW VIDEO OF STUNT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJGi3ygZTg
September 27th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
It is good to see that a good idea catches on.
It is a shame that the F4J effort in the UK is goingthrough a problem period with ‘personalities’ getting in the way of task/action but Canada especially has taken up the running.
This effort by Don is especially heartening when one considers the divided opinion in the USA MRM after the Lincoln Memorial success. I was staggered by the (dare I say it ?) total-courage-failure attitudes of some people. (There. Restraint for you).
Many of the 100,000 spectators will have got the message.
September 27th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
[...] Teri Stoddard Fathers4Justice Activists Atop Crane In Ohio 2008-09-27 at 7:44 am · Filed under Activism, Child Support & Custody, Crime, Domestic [...]
September 27th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
What I think makes the difference is when men’s issues are just men’s issues and not associated with religion or politics.
I guess it can’t be helped because this war is decades old but is not one child important? And here we have 2.
I know that it is impossible to ask all men’s groups to care for men before they care to destroy other isms but are we not headed down a road of information?
Are not our countries already having one speaker/group represent each group?
Is there not a way to keep each individual case away from the big picture? it sure would help with funding even from companies and individuals.
NZ has the same dilemma. Either take on the whole MRM or nothing. How many have already walked away choosing nothing and just getting on with life.
These are fathers and I hope the can change one thing. The future of their families.
September 27th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
PS. I don’t really know why I said the above.
This is a wonderful thing to happen.
September 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Ray: That interview is great. The story told at the end was spot on for giving people a sense of the problem.
I’d like to know if the Ohio protest has gotten any mainstream media coverage. Generally, I think there’s a difference between the US and places like England. I said in another thread that I admire the fuller and more representative discussion that goes on in England and other places. F4J got a lot of media converage every time they did something. My expectation is that the media in the US would ignore the protest.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:03 am
One issue I have with this though – I think it’s become my signature trade-mark thing to say everywhere about everything. There’s too much focus on divorce courts. Not that there shouldn’t be, but most of the problem – the reason it’s impossible to get just results – comes from federal manipulation of family law and the billions upon billions in pork spent to create injustice (its primary purpose is pork – creating the injustice is just part of the mechanism).
When protesters explain that the problem is family court, many Americans will refer to old knowledge and general theory about how the American system is supposed to work. It then becomes to them an individual’s problem. In the system defined by our Constitution, courts are supposed to be separate and to a great extent independent from the other branches – independent of politics. So, what then are the people hearing the protest supposed to do in response to it? They aren’t lawyers involved in those cases. Their conclusion would naturally be that there’s nothing they can do other than honk in support.
People need to understand that family law is now completely politically controlled for the protests to matter politically.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:42 am
I see there is a little more info at the F4J-US site in the form of a press release from F4J.
http://www.fathers-4-justice.us/
It will be interesting to see if the Sunday morning papers, or Monday morning papers, say anything about this F4JUS protest. Most of the news the past few days has been about the upcoming presidental election.
I ran a Google search on key words, then hit “news.” So far no coverage comes up except for MND and one other blog.
September 28th, 2008 at 2:07 am
From the press release: When confronted about the controversial nature of the demonstration Mr. Fowler replied “What would you be willing to do if a corrupt court denied you access to your children?â€
There’s no information even in the press release that explains why the protest is politically relevant. Americans are led to believe that this is a protest regarding only individual cases. Supporters honk and perhaps hope these two guys catch a break in their own personal situations, but then drive on none the wiser.
A member of the general public responds in another forum:
Silly.
The case is in Illinois.
The father is from California.
So he climbs a crane in Ohio?
What judge is going to believe this guy?
September 28th, 2008 at 5:52 am
The war against fathers and men is in “America,” that includes, Illinois, California, Ohio, and 47 other states.
Often, in the case of many fathers, there are even decisions from judges in multiple states, when mom decides to move away with the child. What remains consistent, state to state, is that fathers and men have no rights where moms and women have no accountability in the same areas.
The “silly” perceptions of the general public are formed by them spending too much time immersed in America’s misandrist, gender feminized mass media.
With billions in dollars for gender feminist brainwashing of judges, prosecutors, cops and lawyers (through STOP grants funded by VAWA), the demonization of fathers and men has taken on Stalinist proportions. There’s nothing “silly” about that, IMO.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Ray,
The perception starts with the fact that people aren’t aware that family law decisions are now politically controlled. It’s so basic that fr advocates seem to think it’s not worth mentioning. But it hasn’t been explained on television or in print newspapers across the country. About the only place I see it is in a few articles at MND. How would people know if nobody tells them?
September 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am
“The perception starts with the fact that people aren’t aware that family law decisions are now politically controlled.”
Yes, mass media rarely mentions the war against fathers. Even follow up (re-edited) videos of Baldwin’s ABC 20/20 interview talk mostly about his feelings about suicide and “the infamous phone call.” Most have removed a lot of the mention about Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome, or slanted the editing to downplay it. The politics you mention appears to control our mass media as well as family law.
It did feel good to see ABC, 20/20’s 18 minute segment include Baldwin saying he knows there are other fathers out there who are victims of PAS. That was followed by video of “the truck” advocating “Equal Parenting Now.” National Coalition of Free Men, Los Angeles (NCFMLA) could be seen on the tailgate.
http://tinyurl.com/3o2hqy
Here in Los Angeles we are working hard to publicize the need for Equal Parenting, and tell how P.A. and PAS harms us all.
Despite the villifying gender feminist opposition, brave fathers and men are working hard to present facts that the mass media doesn’t address and society is generally ignorant of.
September 28th, 2008 at 9:28 am
“Despite the villifying gender feminist opposition, brave fathers and men are working hard to present facts that the mass media doesn’t address and society is generally ignorant of.”
The mass media silence of ongoing events, conducted by brave fathers in Ohio, is deafening!
September 28th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I’ve added photos of the men on the crane.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“…brave fathers and men are working hard to present facts that the mass media doesn’t address and society is generally ignorant of.â€
Thank you Teri for your hard work, and updating us. Obviously, the above should have said, “brave fathers, men, women, and even children.” My prayers are with the two protestors.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I salute you men for being fathers and risking your lives for a great cause any man who has been through family court will know the pain and suffering inflicted on them and the children in the name of what is for the benefit for the child.
Keep up the cause and my greatest respect to you all who are involved in fathers rights and undoing the wrongs of a legal system infested with Feminists.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
RE: #15
So Alec Baldwin is bringing this down to a personal level – the battle between parents – and defending his own image as a good guy who got a raw deal who doesn’t deserve to be cast as an abusive father.
I can understand that could feel good to hear someone else say it – to get some recognition that other fathers go through the same kinds of things. But except for that little emotional fun for a few minutes, how does it help fathers? Maybe a little awareness – but once again – misdirected.
There’s a minor hope that there’s a bridge in Baldwin’s book – re: the family court machine. The words are reminiscent of Stephen Baskerville’s account. But does Baldwin’s book explain what that is accurately, as Baskerville did – or create a new less informed definition that will cause confusion in the public mind?
People have spent years working to get the truth out. Is Baldwin helping or cutting the worthwhile efforts off at the pass? There is no way that I can see to reconcile his support for the Democratic Party – which has carried an anti-father plank in its platform for the past two decades and now promises to restore / fully fund all anti-father programs etc. I don’t therefore see how he can get into the truth about why fathers are hurting so much now.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:47 am
“There is no way that I can see to reconcile his support for the Democratic Party – which has carried an anti-father plank in its platform for the past two decades and now promises to restore / fully fund all anti-father programs etc.”
Agreed.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Well media attention is good, but we are wasting our time trying to educate those who oppress us. Those that support the God awful, corrupt, kidnapping and extortion racket, calling itself the family court system know that what they are doing is wrong,they just don’t give a damn!
They have all the money and power and don’t give a rats ass about right and wrong.
Now on the other hand , if we are trying to educate the general public, then that might just work. The general public is not evil or completely selfish like those that do these horrible things. They, the general public, are just trusting and gullible. They believe the “phoney facts” the GiSKER’s( government sponsored kidnapping and extortion racket) and their evil feminazi and egghead liberal media supporter go around spouting out. They, the public, never think to examine the situation. If we tell them, the real truth, they will get it. And Oh Lord, the sh** will hit the fan. You see , people are gullible and trusting, but they are not stupid. And when we expose the truth and they find out they have been lied to, and lied to, for these evil bastard to gain from it, they will go ballistic.
When this happens, we will be unstoppable. The feminazi’s and their GiSKER allies will end up on the ashheap of history. A Failed Social Engineering Experiment that well….. finally failed! A bad and evil idea that the inherantly good people finally woke up and put an end to.
We will one day be telling our grandchildren about this God awful,evil thing and it will be to them, just like stories my grandmother told me about the Great Depression.
Some bad thing that happened years ago and is a million miles away, never to hurt or affect anyone, ever again!
March 9th, 2009 at 10:05 am
[...] Illinois where Madison now resides. No response from either. Tenn and Paul Fisher, another father climbed a 175′ construction crane in Ohio last October to draw media attention to the issue. Over a well-attended Buckeye football [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 10:31 am
[...] Illinois where Madison now resides. No response from either. Tenn and Paul Fisher, another father climbed a 175′ construction crane in Ohio last October to draw media attention to the issue. Over a well-attended Buckeye football [...]