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Parents arrested in the UK / Doctor's jail hunger strike / Prison, here I come! -- non violent actions?
From: Webmaster (webmaster@AKidsRight.Org)
This is a message from a mailing list, members@kids-right.org Unsubscribe instructions at bottom of message. ====================================================================== Good People & People of Faith: This message contains some old/new "news" of people involved in what could be called non violent actions: 1. Story from the UK - parents jailed in protest quote King (Sep 2003) 2. Dr. Maurice Small in jail - his thoughts on hunger strike (1988) 3. Thanks to Kevin, Prison here I come, SOS - forcing me to jail (Sep 2003) It is one thing to talk about theory, quite another to see something in practice. The three items we print today are all pretty intense and you may agree/disagree with their actions and motivations. We have a theoretical definition of what we call "NonViolent Action" below -- your FEEDBACK is welcome. ----------- AKidsRight.Org holds up the ideal that people willing to demonstrate: Faith, Love, and Personal Sacrifice can be the means of effective social change. More specifically, that Parents can promote reform by demonstrating: 1) Faith in a loving God, 2) Love for their children, former spouses, and other "brothers and sisters", and 3) Willingness to make Personal Sacrifice, NonViolent Action allows you to demonstrate through "unambiguous physical action" the depth of your Faith and belief in your "cause." It is a positive demonstration of love given at sometimes tremendous personal cost. (http://www.AKidsRight.Org/civil_back.htm) ------------ 1. Story from the UK - parents jailed in protest quote King (Sep 2003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Submitted by: "Zorro" <kidshelp@ican.net> http://www.fathers-4-justice.org/ EVENING STAR - U.K. URL to news story -> http://tinyurl.com/meh0 September 5, 2003 18:53 "Fathers for justice vow to fight on" BY MICHAEL EMONS UNREPENTANT protesters who painted a door purple to highlight child custody laws they claim are unfair, today vowed that they will do it again. Sarah Ashford, 39, of Goldsmith Close, Bury St Edmunds, Matthew O'Connor, 36 of Water Lane, Cavendish and Shaun O'Connell, 40 of San Diego Road, Gosport, Hampshire were found guilty of causing criminal damage, at South East Suffolk Magistrates Court. The trio are members of the Fathers 4 Justice (F4J) protest group, and they admitted painting a door of the Children and Family Courts Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS) purple. However, they pleaded not guilty to the charge, as they claimed their actions were part of a peaceful protest to say that CAFCASS staff are 'under-trained', 'discriminate against fathers', and 'destroy families'. The trio said they painted the door purple as it is a colour of equality and their actions on February 5 caused £190 worth of damage to the CAFCASS building in Foundation Street, Ipswich. After a two-day trial, they each received a 12-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £63.33 compensation and £254.66 court costs. They pledged to appeal against the sentence, and to continue protesting even though they could go to prison. F4J are based in Suffolk and were formed in December last year. The group said it does not mind the punishment as this case has helped raise awareness and put it 'on the map.' There are currently more than 3,000 members, with membership having increased by at least 2,000 during the court proceedings. O'Connor said after the court case: "What happened at Ipswich was a watershed and similar protests have now happened across the country." Last week CAFCASS offices in Truro, Exeter and Cornwall were targeted but some people believed the group protested in the wrong way. F4J claim that this was the only way for the group to get any recognition, and members insist that they demonstrate in a good-natured way and with no intimidation or menace. O'Connell said: "We have tried talking but that does not work. We have to break the law to get the publicity." F4J has not ruled out painting the door purple again if it feels no action is being taken. O'Connor said: "We are talking to CAFCASS nationally but if they do not get their house in order, then we will be back again until justice is done. I am prepared to go to prison if push comes to shove. "I have a duty to protect my children and make sure the law in this country is changed." "As Martin Luther King said, 'At first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Nobody from CAFCASS was available for comment. --------------------------- Following is a follow up email from the Group OPEN LETTER 10 September 2003 40 Day Ultimatum On behalf of Fathers 4 Justice I hereby serve notice of our intention to step up our campaign of non-violent direct action against the UK `s Family Courts from Monday 20 October 2003. We now have thousands of supporters who are prepared to embrace civil disobedience to highlight the epidemic of mass fatherlessness in the UK. Every day 100 children lose full or partial contact with their fathers as a direct result of the Family Courts' failure to enforce their own orders Our message is clear: enforce the will of Parliament; enforce Court Orders that are continually broken by recalcitrant mothers; enforce the right of children have to a meaningful, loving relationship with both parents as outlined in the 1989 Children's Act or face a dramatic escalation in our campaign. If our demands are not met within 40 days we will launch an unprecedented "rising" against every court in the UK that continues to fail to act in the best interests of our children. Yours sincerely Glen Poole Director of Ultimatums Fathers 4 Justice 2. Dr. Maurice Small in jail - his thoughts on hunger strike (1988) ------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Submitted by: Roger Eldridge <eldridgeandco@eircom.net> During the day there is always someone to tell you what to do or where to go but late at night in the darkness things are easier. Then there is a quietness and feeling of being alone. I can stare out at the two stars through the reinforced and barred window that is about the size of a large single room air conditioner. Ha! Air conditioning! In this eight by eight sealed cubicle on this hot sweaty July night, that's the biggest ironic joke going. There are vents for central heating/air conditioning but of course they don't work. And there are no fans. The only ventilation comes form the fact that the thick locked steel door that blocks the way to an equally stuffy day room doesn't quite reach the floor; there is a quarter inch space. And yet I can imagine a cool soothing breeze coming from underneath the door as my mind reaches for the stars. Laying on the top of my bunk I can hear my roommate's rhythmic breathing punctuated by occasional snores enhancing the oppressive closeness of the cell. Yet there is an inner calmness and freedom as my mind wanders over what has happened today. I can relax; today I have finished my Psychological Will! Whatever happens now I can rest easy. l have put on paper what is deepest in my heart, what needs to be said to my children, my parents, and my friends should I be no more. I have been in jail and on a hunger strike for 11 days now - no food just two cups of water per day. There is an undeniable possibility that I may not make it out of here alive. By writing my Psychological Will I have acknowledged and faced up to this contingency. I have made peace with my god and hence rest easy in his hands. Laying there the images of the events and decisions that have brought me to this point flash through my mind. I see my children being denied access to me and the marital master ordering visitation but his resolute refusal to order sanctions against Sandra (my ex-wife) for continually violating his orders. There is the shame and the guilt and the impotence and the self-disgust. If you allow your children to be involuntarily taken away from you, if you don't resist this injustice by every means available to you, if you don't force the court to hear you, how can you look yourself in the face, maintain your dignity, or be a man? I remember how over an agonizing period of two years the plan slowly took form. Force them to put you in jail by not paying child support and arguing "NO SEE NO PAY", then hit them with everything you have. Make the system choke on your incarceration by publicly going on a hunger strike until you are reunited with your children. Doubts as to whether Fathers United and I could generate enough publicity to pull this off surfaced. Would it be just a flash in the pan quickly forgotten? So also I wondered whether my psychological preparation ( from Kennedy's Profiles in Courage to Ellie Wissell's Soul's on Fire to Mahatma Gandi's My Life and including meditation, self-hypnosis, guided imagery, and biofeedback) was sufficient. Would my determination, my will power falter when faced with extreme weakness, the likelihood of serious damage to my body or death. These doubts are silenced as I remember why I decided to do what I did. I get in touch with the demeaning and derogatory feelings of self-hatred and the self-disgust I felt because I was allowing my children to be taken away from me. I remember acknowledging that I couldn't continue to live that way. Better to risk injury and even death fighting for what you believe in then to cowardly go along with the system and thereby voluntarily give up the very things that make life worthwhile - your children, your dignity, your self-respect. Like a rape victim I knew I could not live with myself unless I fought back. And now by god I was and it was good! Though physically weak from hunger I felt a personal strength well up in me like none I had ever known before. Though incarcerated I felt unbounded personal freedom - I was in charge of my own destiny, I was calling the shots. Though in the state of social disgrace by being in jail I felt intense personal pride - more than I had felt in a long time. I was a hero in the eyes of those who mattered most to me and most importantly I was a hero in my own eyes. Surprisingly, the most difficult thing about being in jail is the boredom. The same routine, the same cell and day room, the same people with only occasional minor variations repeated day in and day out unchanging. At first I attempted to deal with the boredom by sleeping more but with only limited success. There is only so much time you can spend sleeping in a day. Then I tried reading. The jail library, meager as it was, had some books that with an effort I could become interested in reading. Unfortunately, in my weakened state from being on a hunger strike, reading for me was such an arduous task that I could engage in it for only an hour or two a day and this time had to be spent staying in touch with my mentors - Kennedy, Wiessell, and Gandi. So almost by default I turned to meditation/self-hypnosis and this master failed me not. As I began spending more and more time meditating my skill and ability began to grow. And so it was that on this night feeling competent because I had completed my Psychological Will and confident in my mental abilities because of the large amount of practice I decided to attempt what had heretofore been impossible for me. My body runs on continual overheat. The experience of being cold is something I have to imagine, guess at; I can't remember ever feeling so. Why I remember getting uncomfortable hot and overheating while night skiing, in twenty below zero weather no less. I certainly by mental effort alone had never been able to feel cool dry and comfortable on such a hot muggy distressing summer night as this. No matter what I try my body knows better and sweats profusely. I am forced to put up with the physical discomfort of overheating as best I can. Thus the stage was set. Could I now accomplish for me the impossible - be cool and dry during this heat wave when it cooled off to 85 degrees during the night with the humidity being in the nineties. And do this in a cell which is about the size of a large walk in closet with no ventilation. As I have practiced so often in the recent past I focus my mind and then roll all my strength up into a ball and with all my might hurl myself against the iron gates of disbelief. I experience the impact - the grating sound of the shifting of the tectonic plates of my mind - and then the calm silence returns. Suddenly I fell myself twitch. Was that a shiver? Yes it was! As I luxuriate in the feeling of being chilly I slowly pull the sheet over me and drift off into a very deep relaxing sleep. When I awake in the morning I am still cool and comfortable. For the rest of my stay in jail, no matter what the actual conditions were, heat and humidity were never again a problem. For me that was the turning point, a sign. I was centered and fully in touch with my essence, my inner glow. I knew from then on that I could not be defeated - that I had whatever I needed to win. It became obvious to my jailers - from the warden to the prisoner trustees - , many of whom were not to secretively wishing me well, that my resolve to continue my hunger strike was increasing rather than waning. I was there for the duration and could not be swayed from my purpose. The publicity (radio, television, and newspaper coverage of my plight) helped, but it was the inner glow that was decisive. What I felt was expansive and infectious to the people around me. For many of the prisoners I may well have been the first person that really listened to them and it appeared to help. I became the proverbial jail house teacher and lawyer helping my fellow prisoners to write letters and motions. I began holding impromptu classes on such things as computer literacy ( the prison school had an Apple II computer just collecting dust because nobody knew how to run it) and meditation/relaxation training ( one guy figured out that this would be a great way to learn how to "beat the lie detector test"). Even some of the guards began 'monitoring' some of these sessions, presumably to make sure that there wasn't any problem. In short by finding my own center and reaching out to those around me I was able to transform my time in jail into a rich meaningful and satisfying experience. Thus when my lawyer informed me that I had a hearing the next day in which the court would release me from jail and that the publicity had broken my ex-wife's will to prevent my children from being with me there were some mixed feelings. Like a decorated combat veteran who has just received a medical discharge because of some minor injury I knew that I was leaving something important behind. After almost a month of being on a hunger strike I was released from jail. Shortly thereafter I was reunited with my children. As my son put it "I don't fully understand what happened but I know you are a hero dad and I love you!". The full impact and meaning of this experience is only beginning to become clear to me now, more than two years latter. I am a very ordinary person. In my time of trial I did only what anyone is capable of. With the help of my friends, both in person and on paper, I dug deeply within myself and found the courage and strength to rise to the occasion, stand tall, and do what I could. Not only that, I beat the system at its own game - I stepped beyond their ability to threaten, coerce, and extort compliance with immoral, sexist, and unfair court orders. Like the Sword of Damocles, the trump card that the judges and marital masters of our courts hold over most divorced fathers is the threat of jail. My experience has taught me that my self-respect and dignity are well worth the price of missing a few meals and taking an enforced vacation at state expense. Having squarely faced the possibility of my own demise I can with equanimity face the contingencies of my everyday life. Jail is still something to be avoided but gone is the irrational paranoid fear that jail is something that MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS . I can no longer be manipulated or coerced to do things against my will by the threat of jail. The extortionists threats now fall on deaf ears. So too has my experience taught me the value of reaching out to and helping the people around me. Just as giving what I could transformed the demeaning ugliness of jail into the richly satisfying and rewarding experience that it was, so too has this giving transformed my current days into dances of delight overflowing with joy, meaning, and purpose. Ironically I had to be incarcerated inorder to be released from the far more restrictive psychological jail of my fears; I had to face death squarely inorder to appreciate how much I love life and my fellow travelers. To you the reader I bid you well and urge you to join me in my noble quest. 3. Thanks to Kevin, Prison here I come, SOS - forcing me to jail ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Linda Ritlinger <babyjumbo66@msn.com> http://lindaritlinger.tripod.com/ > In trying to communicate with my ex-husband in regards to our son > Corey, he is accusing me of harassing him. He has vowed and declared > to initiate the suspended sentence against me and transform it into a > prison sentence for being no more than an advocate for my son Corey. > Where Corey is sent to me with no clothes for his visits with me, in > clothes that I wouldn't use for dust rags, and with shoes that are > literally falling apart, I try to communicate my displeasure at his > manipulating the situation in this manner to meet his goal of > destroying me only so that I won't see Corey ever again. > If I go to jail, as I ultimately will, my life will be over. I will > loose my job, my home, my car, and everything that I have worked for. > There will be no one to be Corey's advocate, and I won't get to see my > son or my family again. If you know of anyone that can help me, since > I can't afford an attorney and fall into that bracket that I make to > much to qualify for legal aid, I really need someone to come forward > and be my advocate and on behalf of my son and family of which this > fight has financially destroyed all of them prior to me, VERY sorry to hear what is happening and the struggle you are caught in. You email address seems familiar and I'm not sure if you were ever on our mailing list or had emailed me before? Linda, I share many of your same concerns, and I have spent time in Jail over my son Domenic. The time in Jail was hardly a negative, but probably one of the most positive things I have done and continue to do. It affirmed by Faith that good things can and will happen. I found support from people I never knew and once when I was literally going to lose all the furniture/property in my home -- my neighbors saved my stuff for me. I don't approve of that the Lawyers, Judges, evaluators, and my former spouse have done. Some of things they did were wrong (and I have to be real and say there are some things I could have also done better.) But are they "bad" or "evil" people, no. I assume your former husband took advantage of what our "system" of family law allows -- a lot of people do (mine did also). The problem is the "system" that WE have allowed to come into being. From your message (and website) your anger is overwhelming, and it may also bring despair. I encourage you to keep Faith and keep trying to be an "equal" parent in your son's life, no matter what the system tries to do. But be positive and use love. Things may still "stink" -- but you will have done everything you can and leave a positive history for your son as he grows older. ------------------------ Webmaster@AKidsRight.Org ================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members
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