Free Leigh

Fathers march for the right to see their children

June 10^th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) A group of about 600 men marched in La Sabana over the weekend, demanding the right to see their children.

According to a spokesperson for the group, the group’s aim is to raise awareness amongst the population and the authorities that fathers’ rights are being denied. The group claims that women often abuse the legal system by filing false charges against their partners in order to deny men visitation of their children.

Read the rest at http://insidecostarica.com/2013/06/10/fathers-march-for-the-right-to-see-their-children/

Dad never gives bad advice: Sage wisdom from fathers who weren't our own

KALAMAZOO, MI – Dad never gives bad advice.

Ask him. He’ll tell you so.

Even when you know it's wrong, you learn something.

But more times than not, you find yourself down the road saying, “Dad was right.”

Those lucky enough to have two loving parents may notice that Mom is the undisputed ruler and trumpeter of the countless things everyone needs to know to evolve from childhood to become a young adult.

Advice and life lessons from Dad seem to fit in the gaps of that and other learning as you get older. It's provided while you’re passing through the living room, while you’re preening in a new outfit, just before you start the engine, on the drive to practice, after everyone is already angry, and just before you start to climb (up a tree or up the corporate ladder).

Read the rest at http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/06/dad_never_gives_bad_advice_sag.html

Walsh: For Father's Day, support paid family leave

The best thing we can give dads this Father's Day is support for paid family leave.

"Take Time to Be a Dad Today!" exhorts a nationwide public service announcement promoting fathers' involvement with their children. But if the U.S. government really wants to promote fathers' involvement, it should adopt a proven policy: paid family leave.

Around the world, countries have for decades (in some cases for more than a century) had laws that guarantee paid, job-protected leave from work to care for new children or seriously ill family members. A new book called "Children's Chances," published by Harvard University Press, shows that 180 countries now guarantee paid maternity leave under law, and at least 81 guarantee paid leave for fathers upon birth or adoption of a child. The United States is not one of those countries.

Read the rest at http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/walsh-for-father-s-day-support-paid-family-leave-1.5483213

Paid leave lets dads build parenting foundation

When Joe Schroeder became a father in February, he did something a lot of working men in the United States only dream of: He took off from work for three months to stay home with his wife and newborn daughter, Alma Lucette.

It was a "blissful" period, he said. He cooked breakfast and dinner nearly every day, something he never does when he's working. He perfected his diaper-changing technique. He took long walks with his wife and daughter around their home of Greensboro, North Carolina, occasionally stopping for lunch.

Best of all, he got to spend hours holding his daughter and getting to know her without pressure to be anywhere else in the world.

"I wouldn't say it was like a vacation; it was all we could do to keep up with having a brand new baby. But I can't imagine doing it any other way," he said.

His experience is far from the norm in the United States, which,unlike most countries in the world, does not provide paid leave for mothers or fathers around the birth or adoption of a child. The nonprofit Schroeder works for falls into a minority of just 11.4% of workplaces in the United States that provides paid leave for its employees, according to Department of Labor statistics.

Read the rest at http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/living/fathers-day-paternity-leave/?hpt=hp_c4

Shaker Heights teen urges father's release from Chinese prison

CLEVELAND - A northeast Ohio teen whose father is imprisoned in China wants President Barack Obama and members of Congress to seek his release.

Lisa Peng, 16, of the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, traveled to Washington this past week to discuss her father's case with members of Congress. Peng also participated in a news conference organized by about 30 human rights groups to urge the president to seek the release of her father and others they say are political prisoners, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported..

Peng says she hasn't seen her father since her seventh birthday party in 2003, but is optimistic.

"I feel nothing but hopeful at this point," she said. Chinese President Xi Jinping.

She had urged the president at his meetings Friday and Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping to seek the release of her father and 15 other people the human rights coalition says are political prisoners in Chinese prisons. Senior White House officials had previously said that Obama's discussions with Xi Jinping would include human rights issues as well as economic and military security matters.

A message was left at the White House media affairs office Saturday. There was no answer to calls Saturday to the Chinese embassy in Washington.

Peng says her father, Peng Ming, now 56, was captured in Burma by Chinese agents and sent to prisons where he was beaten and denied medical treatment for a heart attack and kidney stones.

"My father is very hopeful despite almost a decade without medical care," said the high school student who says she communicates with her father in Xian Ning Prison through letters relayed by an uncle in China.

Abortion and fatherhood -- a man's take

A dear friend of mine recently confessed to me that he was the father of one living daughter and four deceased children. The four were aborted, three with his consent and one without. My friend said the pain of those deaths is something he copes with on a daily basis. “The guilt and pain can be overwhelming,” he said.

Another friend still can’t hold back tears, even after 20 years, when he shares that he took his then-girlfriend to Planned Parenthood to erase the “mistake” they made a few months before their wedding. Now married for two decades and the parent of four other beautiful children, he recounts how his marriage was difficult and tumultuous for years until they sought counseling. The root of their conflict and strife? The abortion.

As we approach Father’s Day once again, more and more men are realizing the impact abortion has not only had on women, but also on themselves. And the impact is anything but positive.

Abortion didn’t empower women. It empowered men.

What’s going on here? Abortion is a women’s issue and has nothing to do with men, right? Why are men struggling with the loss of their aborted children?

Because, despite what the law says, fathers are fathers from conception, not from birth.

The landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, effectively stripped the father of all legal rights regarding his unborn child. Before that decision, men were fathers from the day their child came into being, at conception.

Chelsea Clinton eyes international health schemes in father's foundation, advocates gay rights

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Chelsea Clinton says she plans to become increasingly involved in the international health projects of her father's foundation and to speak out for gay rights.

The only child of former President Bill Clinton told The Associated Press that her focus will be on the Clinton Foundation's work in various countries, especially linked to health.

Clinton said Tuesday on the sidelines of a women's conference in Malaysia that she hopes to return to Southeast Asia, specifically Myanmar, where the foundation will work with local authorities to distribute medicine and health products, including HIV drugs and child vaccines, at cheaper prices.

Friday, June 14, 2013