The Political Thing
by Denise Sawicki on August 14, 2006

The political thing I hinted at in my first blog entry is over for now. The signatures have been safely delivered to Bismarck. Anyway, here it is, the North Dakota Shared Parenting Initiative, at http://ndspi.org. I'm intentionally not putting a direct link. I have to confess I was worried. After all this talk of car bombs and shootings and government roadblocks as possible measures that could be taken to keep this thing from getting on the ballot, I was truly scared that something would happen. My husband and his brother were along for the ride to deliver the signatures, and no, a helicopter did not descend from the sky to block their progress. (Though a helicopter *did* in fact land on the road in front of me on my way to Darrell's family's 4th of July party, for reasons I do not know). I couldn't go on the trip to Bismarck, as I have a regular job. Anyway there are two things I can't really understand about this thing: 1. Why it is considered so controversial, and 2. Why so much of the responsibility for getting it on the ballot has fallen on Darrell and Darrin (and me, if only in a monetary sense). We don't have any children. There are so many men with children who want custody who could have helped more. Oh well. Now we just have to wait and see if it does in fact get on the ballot. There are 17,000 signatures and we only need 13,000, so it should, but you never know.
Men's rights is a pretty touchy subject to a lot of people. Perhaps I'm seen as a traitor to womankind because I don't see the problem with almost anything that people like Warren Farrell are saying. I've never felt oppressed. If anything I'm somewhat embarrassed by the fact that my university felt the need to offer me special summer jobs because I was a "woman or minority" in a scientific field. I could go on, but I've already said more political and controversial things than I really am comfortable with. Sorry to be so scatterbrained.
Two Replies to The Political Thing
Denise Sawicki | August 17, 2006
No, it would default to joint custody only if 1. Both parents want custody and 2. Both parents are deemed fit
Prayer for the Paranoid
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Flood
So... not sure exactly why I live in this ridiculous state of North Dakota. I can tell myself that we're better off than California much of the time but who's to say? Go »
Now I remember why I live in North Dakota
It got hot all of a sudden the last few days, or what passes for hot in ND in early April (50s). It's like a spring break video out there, people prancing around in bikinis yelling "woo"... OK not quite but there is a marked change in demeanor. Go »
My weekend
Hmm well I hope this post is appearing in my blog, maybe I am a bit confused by the changes. I was worried we would have a bad weekend, because we had no DVDs from Netflix or the library, and our AC isn't working and it's been really hot. But finally the weekend was saved by the ultra quick arrival on Saturday of Sims 2 which I ordered Thursday... Go »
Crawlspace
Darrell just ordered an Atari on ebay. It just felt good to get annoyed with my mom first :) The guys are so excited looking over all the additional Atari games they could buy. I know it's kind of stupid to be buying that kind of thing instead of the hugely complex games that exist now, but Darrell said he wants the crawlspace to be a fun place without the kind of long, complicated game that can cause painful obsessions. Go »
Frustrated
I just get so frustrated. I want my husband to be happy but the things he's decided will make him happy are completely out of our control (success at music). I wish something good would happen for him finally. Go »
Jackie Mason | August 17, 2006
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