Déjà vu,
II I’d heard it
before from a man I’d trusted and campaigned for. For three years I endured the
crippling status of being a non-custodial parent to my two wonderful daughters.
To maintain my sanity, I threw myself into the politics of legislating a more
just way of meting out custody. Hope came from State Senator Mark Early, a
champion of our cause. [Mark Earley - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Mark Lawrence Earley (born July 26,
1954) is an American politician. As a member of the Republican Party, he was
elected to the Virginia State Senate (1988–1998 ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Earley - ]
Or so I thought. Many of us energetically endorsed his
candidacy for Attorney General. Patiently, we waited for him to wield the clout
of that office in our behalf; he believed in our motto: Equal Parents, Equal
Time. Instead, after his election, we were told, “I can do so much more when
I’m elected Governor.”
Our enthusiasm waned; we were losing our children. He lost
the election.
Although I felt as if I’d wasted hundreds of hours, I
learned many valuable lessons about politics and politicians at the same time I
was learning survival skills as a parent forced to cling to his mantle of
fatherhood.
Indeed, I learned to fight and sometimes win despite
stacked odds. When appointed to the panel to review child support guidelines,
only two of us were non-custodial panelists. At least fifteen were not. [[PDF] Appetite for family destruction
Adobe PDF The
words are from the minority report of Barry Koplen, the lone
representative of parents paying court-ordered child support. A full-time
clothier, Mr. Koplen was ...
Of course, being Jewish had prepared me for lopsided odds
(no more than .02% of the world’s population are Jews). Cheering for David
against Goliath has been a standard since childhood.
However, as a Jewish adult, I fervently care about Israel’s
being so outnumbered; realistically, that country needs a reliable ally. For
all the right reasons, only America can fill that role.
Perhaps the most important reason is that no other country
in the Middle East shares the values that constitute the foundation of our
culture. Although I don’t mean to offend, I was shocked that President Obama
chose to bow to the king of Saudi Arabia. [OBAMA BOWS TO SAUDI KING | Weekly World News
LONDON –
News outlets are in an uproar today that President Obama bowed to
Saudi King Abdullah. The President insists he was just picking up a
quarter. During ...
weeklyworldnews.com/politics/7330/obama-bows-to-saudi-king - ]
Instead, why didn’t he bow to a true world leader like
Netanyahu rather than making him leave via a back door? [Netanyahu to be let in through the front door of the White House Netanyahu to be let in through the front door
of the White House ... This time, Netanyahu won't have to
go in the back door and will at ...
israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2010/05/netanyahu-to-be-let-in... - ]
Better yet, why didn’t our President, in all of his term,
insist that Palestinian negotiators and neighboring Muslim countries stop referring
to Israel as either the Zionist Entity or the Zionist enemy? Plainly stated,
Obama could have long ago insisted, “That country has a name. Call it Israel.”
But he never has.
Sadly, that may be indicative of a consistency that’s hard
for President Obama to deny. In the following article, [ Romney vs. Obama vis-à-vis Israel by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
September 4, 2012http://www.danielpipes.org/11929/romney-obama-israel] Daniel Pipes
writes:
… revealing is what Ali Abunimah, a Chicago-based anti-Israel extremist, wrote about his last
conversation with Obama in early 2004, as the latter was in the midst of a
primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. Abunimah
wrote that Obama warmly greeted him and then added: "Hey, I'm sorry I
haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary
race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front." More:
referring to Abunimah's attacks on Israel in the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere, Obama encouraged him with
"Keep up the good work!"
Each time I read that, I
remember Mark Early; I wonder whether the Israelis feel now the way I did then.
Like them, I learned that I’d better be able to fight my battles alone until I’d
found friends who proved themselves reliable.
Many years later, those
friendships still hold. Pipes may have had similar thoughts when he remarked
parenthetically (“…In
contrast, Romney has been friends with Binyamin Netanyahu since 1976.”).
Years ago, regarding my
children’s well-being, I couldn’t afford to guess who would support me in my
fight for equal parenting rights. After hearing the many unanswered threats of
annihilation by Iran’s Ahmadinejad, I’m thinking that many Israelis may feel
the same about who, in America, really shares their most important concerns.
B. Koplen 9/5/12
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