JOHN S. MARTINEZ FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE OF CONNECTICUT CONDUCTS A WAR AGAINST WOMEN!

The John S. Martinez Fatherhood Initiative of Connecticut is on its twelfth year of operation. Thus, for twelve years this Initiative has overwhelmed the State of Connecticut with an onslaught of gender biased (against women), discriminatory ideologies and policies which have had a far reaching effect on every agency of State government in Connecticut, turning each one into a bastion of male privilege.  This is most particularly true in Family Court. 

What this adds up to an outright War on Women intended to deny them their constitutional rights, their due process rights, to deny them their economic rights, and most devastating to deny them the right to care for their children in custody switching schemes that transfer custody from fit mothers to fathers with criminal backgrounds or histories of domestic violence towards women.  In the past decade, if you are a woman, you have been at risk of having your life and that of your children viciously destroyed and taken apart by the Family Court system here in Connecticut, and many of you have lived through that experience.
 

In a previous blog, I spoke about the broad range of state agencies involved in this Fatherhood Initiative scam.  Specifically, I spoke about a Memorandum of Understanding which I'd just obtained indicating that fatherhood funding provides millions of additional dollars for fatherhood programs in Connecticut operated by not only the Department of Social Services, but also by the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Correction, the Department of Labor, the Department of Mental health and Addiction Services, the Department of Public health, the State Department of Education, the Judicial Branch Court Support Services Division, and the Judicial Branch Support Enforcement Services. 

And what do they want to achieve with these extended relationships between state government agencies?  They want to "[infuse] father-friendly principles and practices into existing systems."  Well, you can't be more outright than that! Further, they wish "to support and promote the positive interaction of fathers with their children understanding that fathers are critical forces in their children's lives and that they must be acknowledged and assisted with the important role they play." 

In general, I would agree that fathers are very important, so I am not arguing with that.  What I am arguing with is the extremist position this Fatherhood Initiative takes.  They don't just mean being supportive of fathers.  They mean reducing and frequently eliminating mothers, and replacing them with fathers.  In other words,  this Initiative promotes the concept that fathers are so essential to the lives of children that we can afford to push mothers aside, concentrate all the financial and strategic resources of the federal and state government on fathers, and then use the Family Court to steal children from mothers and transfer custody to fathers. 

And don't assume this is just happening solely with low income fathers, or with the 50% or so of men in this program who are coming from jails.  The Fatherhood Initiative provides services to fathers in this program "regardless of their marital and financial status."  The result is a policy of promoting and giving significant legal and strategic advantages to fathers throughout all State agencies, most particularly in the Judicial Branch. 

This is outright discrimination against women. 

Not only is it discrimination, it is the statewide institutionalization of a patriarchal attitude that will not tolerate  or allow any woman, any mother, to conduct her family life with her children without a man in charge of her and dictating her every move. So if they can't undertake a custody switching deal outright, Family Court seeks to achieve these results by policies such as placing a mother under the supervision of a family therapist or parent manager who is essentially under orders to bow to the wishes of the noncustodial father. 

Another way it does so is by placing the children in the care of the Mother, but putting all decision making responsibilities in the hands of the Father.  Thus, the Mother is caring for all the children's emotional and physical needs, but is not allowed to make any determinations regarding the nature of those needs. 

I am sure that people who look at the website for the Fatherhood Initiative will challenge these statements and point out that the Fatherhood Initiative supports Families.  Sure they do, as long as a Father is in charge of it.  And every once in a while the website throws in a reference to mothers such as in the final paragraph of the "Welcome" page, "We hope you find this website useful as you continue your commitment to Connecticut's children and their fathers and mothers." 

But make no mistake regarding the fundamental message of the Fatherhood Initiative. Basically, they are saying that if children do not have their Fathers, they have no one.  The Fatherhood Initiative essentially eliminates mothers entirely from the equation. 

If you doubt what I am saying, just take a look at the two Fatherhood Initiative public service announcements  which they have posted on their website.  The first one entitled "Be A Driving Force" films a young boy sitting in the back seat of a car addressing his Dad with a broad range of questions about life.  We see this child from different angles.  At the end of the clip, the camera finally focuses on the wheel of the car.  The big surprise is that no one is sitting at the wheel.  The implication is that if Dad isn't there, no one is there. 

I guess Mom counts for zero from the perspective of the Fatherhood Initiative. 

The second one is entitled "Whose Got the Wheel?"  It shows a young girl sitting in the driver's seat of a car driving  zig zag along the road.  She is clearly too small to press the gas pedal or the brake, and she is too small to see out the window shield of the car.  So essentially she is driving blind.  As the clip begins, the announcer intones, "When you're not there, whose got the wheel?" and finishes with  "A child alone on the road of life could impact us all."  Alone?  A child living with her mother is alone?  In whose world is that true?  Only in the kind of Man's World where a mother counts for nothing.  The whole focus is on Fathers and Families, as if mother doesn't exist. 

If you want to see these public service announcements for yourself, check out the following link:   

http://www.ct.gov/fatherhood/cwp/view.asp?Q=491440&A=4113

Along with these public service announcements, there is a more lengthy video presentation entitled "Promoting Responsible Fatherhood" which is just as offensive.  To view this presentation, click on the link below:

http://www.ct.gov/fatherhood/cwp/view.asp?Q=481930&A=4122

In this presentation, you have three fathers, all of whom have criminal backgrounds.  You recognize this because the men talk about it and also some of the footage shows them visiting with their children in a prison setting. 

 

I can't tell you the names of these men because they do not give them on camera.  However, the first guy says of himself that before entering the wonderful Father Initiative program, "I couldn't even raise a plant.  I was having a hard time raising myself." 

 

Each one of them says in succession, "I sold drugs", "I was addicted to drugs."  "I messed with drugs and alcohol." 

 

Plant guy says he can control his anger better now. 

 

Every once and a while the camera pans over to the mother who sits there looking like a deer caught in the headlights. 

 

Another one of the men acknowledged, "My record with my wife was just abusive."  Then he goes on to state, "To go from not seeing her [his little girl] to having her full time is amazing!"  I'm sure it is!  And I can't help wondering how that happened!  Perhaps through another custody switching scam! 

 

Then the director asks the guy to give his little girl a hug and kiss, and the man proceeds to give the little girl a kiss on the mouth.  How creepy is that! 

 

These video presentations show a heinous disregard for mothers as well as an attitude that no matter how criminal, how drug and alcohol addicted, or how abusive a man is, since he is the father he has the exclusive right to access bountiful financial and systemwide resources funded by both the federal and state governments so that he can shove the mother aside and take her place. 

 

No matter how abusive and criminal, how potentially dangerous he may be to his children, fathers, according to the Fatherhood Initiative, have an absolute right to access their children, and mothers just better fall into line and walk ten steps behind such fathers or they will be punished and have been punished. 

 

If women ever thought the 50s was bad, or life before women received the right to vote, try living in Connecticut right now under the shadow of the Fatherhood Initiative.  It is much, much worse.  Make no mistake, women are under attack here in Connecticut and throughout this nation. 

 

Father's rights fanatics have infiltrated every level of government, have made friends with the rich and powerful, and have accessed almost unlimited financial and social resources to achieve their goals, unleashing a perfect storm in the lives of a multitude of innocent women and children throughout the State of Connecticut.