Last week, the fatherhood movement took an important step forward at the first two of five child support hearings. This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we must keep up the pressure by filling the hearing halls in Worcester and Lawrence.

For the fist time ever, those who are responsible for reviewing the child support guidelines heard the voices of non-custodial parents. Both the Boston and Brockton hearings were packed to standing-room only, indicating the depth of the discontent over the current guidelines. In the time allotted, only 53 speakers could be heard, each for three minutes, almost all of whom were non-custodial parents telling how the present child support guidelines harm their children. Quite a few second wives were heard as well, explaining how their children are made into second-class citizens by the extraordinary amounts of child support that are required in Massachusetts.

Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara, who will have the final say over any changes to the Guidelines, personally attended the Boston hearing, which, like the other hearings, have come about only because of the political pressure generated by Fathers and Families.

A handful of people were there to advocate for HIGHER child support guidelines. These people are taxpayer-supported professionals who openly discriminate against fathers--by their own admission, they will represent only mothers, not fathers, in family law actions. They are employed by the Women's Bar Association, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Greater Boston Legal Services and various domestic violence groups.

But where were the single mothers--those who, according to the paid poverty lobby, are suffering from inadequate child support? There were only one or two such single mothers there. Why? Because most single mothers know deep in their hearts that the existing guidelines are more than fair to them. There is no grass-roots constituency for raising the child support guidelines, only the paid poverty bureaucracy.

A few single mothers were there because they are not receiving court- ordered child support from their ex's. These women have a legitimate complaint in most cases, but their problem cannot be solved by raising the guidelines for those who do pay. To the contrary, a persuasive argument can be made that many of these mothers receive nothing precisely because the guidelines are so high; their ex- partners would rather disappear, so goes this argument, than subject themselves to a system that will jail them when they inevitably fall behind on an impossibly high child support order.

Call to Renewed Action

We cannot allow the authorities to look out over empty hearing halls in Worcester, Lawrence and Springfield. We must fill these halls as we filled Boston and Brockton. We must show that excessive child support is a problem all over this state, that there is a seething resentment about it, that children are harmed when their fathers are impoverished, and that fathers care deeply about the wellbeing of their children. We need YOU to come to the remaining hearings. WE ESPECIALLY NEED STEPMOTHERS AND GRANDPARENTS.

I especially urge you to attend the hearing on Wednesday evening, July 18 in Lawrence, where I believe there will be the best chance of having an opportunity to speak. Details and directions follow.

Worcester

Tuesday evening, July 17, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Worcester Courthouse
50 Harvard Street
Jury Assembly Room

Lawrence

Wednesday evening, July 18, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Fenton Judicial Center
2 Appleton Street
Courtroom 1

Springfield

Tuesday evening, July 24, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. More info in a few days.

Ned Holstein, MD, MS
President
Fathers and Families