GROUND
ZERO PLUS 1099 DAYS,--New York, NY, Tuesday,
September 14, 2004--Jason
Hatch, 33, pulled the bat's eye over the Royal security charged
with protecting Queen Elizabeth II in London, yesterday.
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There
was no violence but Batman remained on his perch to
bring attention to his cause |
Hatch,
and a friend, with a ladder, strolled across the Buckingham
Palace lawn, set up the ladder and Hatch climbed up to a perch
that set off alarms set to signal intrusions. His buddy, Dale
Pyke, wearing a Robin costume, was climbing up to join him
when British guards aimed guns at Batman's sidekick and told
him to come down or they would shoot him.
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Fathers
4 Justice unfurled a giant banner declaring United Kingdom's
"Worst Family Court" |
There
was no POP-BAAM--POW--SPLAT! Pyke complied. But Batman remained
on the precarious perch with the banner he unfurled for more
than five-and-a-half hours, drawing attention to the cause
he was promoting: fathers 4 justice, a group seeking greater
rights for fathers in child custody cases.
Fathers
4 Justice has had more than one run in with British authorities.
According to a story in the NY Times, four months ago the
group pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair with condoms filled
with purple flour from the spectator's gallery.
British
security in the House of Commons was tightened as a result,
and now a dark cloud looms over the security of the royal
family after Batman's breech.
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In July
1982, Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace |
Invading
the Queen's residence isn't something new. In 1982 Queen Elizabeth
awoke to find a man sitting on her bed. Michael Fagan talked
to the head of British royalty for a half hour before he was
arrested.
The
Metropolitan Police were under fire for allowing 'comedy terrorist'
Aaron Barshack to break into Prince William's birthday party
dressed as Osama Bin Laden in 2003. Three German tourists
were found camped out in the palace grounds.
For
people who think that "National Security" is able
to protect them from Terrorism's short and long arm, this
example of Batman in Britain should ring an alarm.
A
couple of disgruntled fathers seeking justice in the courts
peacefully illustrated the ability to infiltrate one of the
great bastions of international security.
This
breech is symbolic that any single or pair of people can slip
through just about any net designed to snare them. With six
billion people on this earth, it's hard to keep track of every
face and fingerprint, and, without the ability to shoot X-rays
and read people's minds, it may be a while before anyone's
able to stop any committed Terrorist from acting.
This
isn't disturbing news. But, for some, it is shocking to think
that the institutions one "believes" are poised
to protect them are as human as the person who forgets to
lock the door at night, or leaves the keys to the car in the
ignition, or gets enthralled in a conversation at the playground
with a friend and suddenly can't see where his or her child
is at.
Human
defects, the error factor, leaves enough cracks in the pavement
for the Beast of Terror to slither up from the bowels of the
underworld at any time.
Batman
exampled the ability to defy security, and, in Batman's mind,
to challenge what his group considers to be "domestic
court Terrorism."
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The issue
of father's rights regarding custody of children is
a worthy one |
The
issue of a father's rights regarding custody of children is
a worthy one. Inequitable custody arrangements ultimately
penalize the children, suggesting a percentage of worthiness
is greater on one side than the other by the issuance of "visitation
rights."
Courts
have historically favored the mother in custody battles, but
more recently, especially with more and more women working,
there has been a steady increase toward parity in child custody.
In
Britain, a recent ruling by a judge that allowed a mother
to sever contact with the child's father if the visitation
made them "anxious" or "depressed" provided
a wedge driven between parents and their children.
Contact
that was limited to the father also denied the children visitation
rights to grandparents and relatives on the father's side.
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Terrorism
takes many forms, and one of the most brutal is the
destruction of the family unit |
There
are, of course, cases where the child's welfare is paramount,
and there are many complexities in forming rulings that allow
recalcitrant parents to use such rulings as a club against
a former spouse for a variety of reasons.
Terrorism
takes many forms, and one of the most brutal is the destruction
of the family unit. Children are torn by divisions between
their parents, wondering who loves them the most, and often
finding that the structure of custody amounts to a "bidding
war" where one parent seeks to pit the child against
the other parent either through lavishing gifts on them, or
denigrating the other parent in the child's presence.
Plus,
there is usually another invasion into the household--a new
father or new mother and new "brothers" and "sisters,"
and new "grandparents" etc.
Children's
equity in equitable situations is like walking on eggshells.
It may be impossible not to break some.
Batman
and Robin were not trying to blow up Buckingham Palace. They
were trying to restore some reasonable order in the war of
"Domestic Terrorism."
England
and the United States are neck-in-neck in the divorce race.
In 1997 2,384,000 Americans were married. Total divorces reported
the following year were 1,163,000.
Wales,
Scotland and England reported 308,700 marriages in the same
period with 161,100 divorces according the the Office for
National Statistics.
Half
the marriages in both nations end in divorce. The average
length is around 11 years, and 20 percent of the divorces
include children under the age of five.
Ultimately,
the Terrorism of child custody can be traced back to the issue
of marriage. If people marry for reasons that do not include
the preservation and perpetuation of a family, then the odds
that divorce will continue to Terrorize children is more probable
than not.
A
Parent of Vigilance is one who decides to become one long
before marriage. The role of the Parent of Vigilance does
not commence when pregnancy occurs, for if there were some
magic transformation of a person's primary mission in life
to be the best possible parent upon conception, divorce rates
would be miniscule.
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Prior
to marriage, a man and woman need to take a Vow of Vigilance |
Prior
to marriage, both a man and woman need to take a Vow of Vigilance.
This vow should be made even before one "falls"
in love. If a man or a woman is looking for the father of
her children, or mother of his children, then the reasons
for marriage shift dramatically from the tertiary to the eternal.
If
one views the propagation of the species as the most important
gift given to humanity or any creature, and that the duty
to be a good parent overrides the individual's thirst to sate
his or her private, personal and selfish desires, then the
odds are that the children from a union of a man and woman
seeking the same goal will survive all the storms of marriage.
I
am not so sure that Batman's point is on target. If the real
issue is justice for the children, Batman may need to argue
that people shouldn't get married unless they take the Vow
of Parental Vigilance, and are willing to stand up to it when
the challenges of marriage test one's Courage, Conviction
and Right Actions.
If
the purpose of a marriage is to pave the path for the Children's
Children's Children, then the ultimate justice is not "what's
right" for the fathers or the mothers, but rather what's
right for the children, and their children.
Teaching
the children of society that marriage is a fragile institution
that allows either or both parties to exist it and then fight
over the children as though they were chattel is not an ultimate
form of justice that a true Batman would engage in.
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Batman
needs to remind the world that divorce is the Terrorist
|
However,
I do admit that Batman was never married, and, that there
were many eyebrows raised regarding his relationship with
Robin. But if Batman is about doing the right thing for the
right reasons, then the safety of the child's future emotional
security, and the future of the child's children's future
emotional security must be tantamount.
That
means that justice is not served by simply cleaving the rights
of "child ownership" and expecting that the two
halves will make a whole.
It
means that Batman needs to remind the world that divorce is
the Terrorist, not the judge or the law that tries to parcel
out the severed pieces of a child's heart between one household
and another.
If
Batman really wanted to make a point climbing the wall of
Buckingham Palace, he would have promoted why everyone should
become a Parent of Vigilance before becoming parent. And why
everyone should take a Vow of Parental Vigilance when they
reach puberty, to help reinforce that marriage is about two
people coming together to live their lives in behalf not of
their own personal rights, but for the greater rights of their
children's children's children.
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Teach
your children the Vow of Parental Vigilance |
Those
rights include the safety and stability of a family, one that
isn't shattered by selfish realizations that parenting was
a secondary reasoning for marriage, not the primary.
If
you haven't, take the Vow of Parental Vigilance.
Teach
your children the importance of it.
And,
maybe the next time Batman scales some secure edifice, he'll
bring a new banner with him....and it will say: "TAKE
THE VOW OF PARENTAL VIGILANCE! BE A PARENT OF VIGILANCE!"
2004
PARENTAL
VOW OF VIGILANCE
I VOW
to make the physical and emotional safety and security
of my children--future and current, plus all their offspring
and their offspring's offspring--my primary mission
as a Parent of Vigilance.
I VOW
to protect my progeny from physical and emotional Acts
of Terrorism that may cause them to be subject to the
Triad of Terrorism--Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
I VOW
to use the Principles of Vigilance--Courage,
Conviction and Right Actions for the Children's Children's
Children--to protect them from the grip of the Beast
of Terror.
I VOW
to teach my children how to use at least One Percent
more Courage to overpower the Beast of Terror's Fear
of the known and unknown.
I
VOW to teach them how
conjure at least One Percent more Conviction to quell
the Shadows of Intimidation that make them feel Less
Than or Better Than others.
I VOW
to impart to my children the goal of employing at least
One Percent more Right Actions designed to benefit future
generations than to surrender to the Terrorizing Thought
they are powerless to change the present for a better
future, or that they are condemned to the Ruts of Complacency
where they resign themselves that they are a nail and
the world around them a hammer.
Finally, I
VOW to place the needs
of my future and present children at least One Percent
higher than my own selfish ones so I can focus on helping
my children evolve into Parents of Vigilance.
copyright 2001-2004, VigilanceVoice.com
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