The Bad AND the Good

Well, if you have read my blog at all over time you know that I am absolutely against the "little things" that smack of government monitoring.
As most have probably heard the rules for passports have changed and ALL travelers leaving the U.S (or entering it) need to now have one. Of course we can all see how that could potentially lead to abuse with the wrong power structure in place. And it is our responsibility in a Democracy to keep the little things from building into large things---which sometimes can take years and years to come to an "abusive head".

However---one golden lining that seems to have come about from the desire of the government to document all people with passports is the collection of child support.

Here is the article.

Now I will tell you a bit about myself that has to do with this situation. Not only was my mother a women who raised a child alone, but my father refused to pay child support. He told my mother he would pay it if she would not go to college. It took my mother fifteen years and the death of my grandfather to be able to "attach" onto the money my father inherited and get her fair share.

Fast forward. My daughter, who has been raised almost exclusively by my current LONG TERM husband :-D had her biological father try to avoid his "fair share" at one time. We had to take him to court to get it. In his case he did actually pay---but pretended that he made far far FAR less than he did. We had lowered it when he had a few health problems on the condition he would pay correctly when all was well again. Well, let's just say he didn't follow his end of the agreement as well as I did mine. He also let my current husband pay for plane tickets, medical and dental and many other things too. Bum. By the way---the bum worked in the family business along with all the other members of his family.
To give credit where credit is do---he did pay every month and I always knew I was lucky compared to many women who got nothing. Nada. Zippo.

As I read the article the part where they talk of the man who "borrows" $50,000 from his parents really got me. Both my own grandparents knew of my father's lack of payment AND my daughter grandparents (who are very very wealthy) also knew. Neither set did one thing to help. They didn't "disown" their sons, nor did they offer a bit of financial help their selves.
Now I decided long ago that if my son (or daughter) did that to their children---not only would I not speak to them until they corrected the situation but I also would not allow them to be in my will. I would also do what I could to help. Just the simple fact of buying school & summer clothing and shoes makes a huge impact on the ability of the family to function on lower amounts of money. Helping with dental and medical care also helps immensely.
WHY does society allow men (and some women though men are the majority) get away with this? We as neighbors, friends, family, bosses and co workers should tell these people that we won't tolerate this. These are CHILDREN we are speaking of----humans who do not have the ability to change their situation. I ask you that the next time you hear of this type of situation that you say or do something to show that you don't agree with this. I know it's "socially hard" to speak out. I also know that men talk about it all the time---"locker room talk" so to speak. So, the next time you hear this kind of chatter----say something to these dead beats please. They deserve an ear full. Bums.

Everyone have a great rest of the week. I will be taking some special pictures over the next few days and look forward to showing them to you. It will be about a week though so here's to GOOD WEATHER for all during that time :-D Rain rain rain rain for me!!!! Please?