I have read your letter to Mr. Karl Denninger ( A Father's Rights Activist on the internet at childrens-justic.org ) dated January 6th, 2000.

You mentioned a few steps you would take to "Promote Responsible Fatherhood and Strengthen Families" but didn't mention how you would positively reinforce or encourage this. Most all of your key points are a negative (or punitive) way of encouraging Dad's to pay cash to the Moms. This is not the primary problem. Even if it was, you can catch more bee's with honey than vinegar!

I am behind on my child support. I was paying despite the fact that my civil rights was violated by a North Carolina District Court Judge, and was current. Even though North Carolina State Law allows for the seizure of dad's assets, the Judge would not give me credit for keeping my children for over 60 days in the summer, since I live 850 miles away in Louisiana. He would not give me any credit medical insurance, medical bills paid but not covered by insurance, dental bills, child cares expenses, a personal computer given at the request of my ex-wife, nor credit for half the equity in the previous marital home even though I was signing it over to her (equity was worth over $20,000.00 and I only owed $4,000.00). There was even a Federal Income Tax Off-set of $1,400.00 that was taken and lost that I could not get credit for. I was thrown in jail with criminal felons for 30 days in civil contempt. I ate sandwiches, couldn't use the phone, and my personal business that I run in Louisiana suffered severely. My current wife and our twin boys also suffered.

The state laws in general, and more directly the Federal Guidelines are absurd, unjust, and are a direct attack on many rights that hundreds of thousands died for in the history of the United States.

Mr. Vice President, I am an honorably discharged Air Force E-5, decorated, and had a top secret security clearance. I have had no criminal record. But I found myself in the jail because of Laws and Guidelines that you and many other "up there" support and passed. There has never been laws that made not paying a bill a crime until the last decade other than the IRS's. Even what we [dads] owe in taxes are not allowed to off-set current child support amounts. We don't get any deductions on the money we pay for child support. The moms get free legal intervention and we can't afford any so we are hand-cuffed both literally and figuratively. Disposable income now is defined as gross income. I understand that Robert Williams provided Congress with statistics for child support pay tables, but when one looks at the data he used, it is based on fiction. His numbers are derived from what married families spend in total, not what they spend on their children or modified to include the added expense of maintaining two households in a divorced situation.

You have to really care about our Nation's children, take some time, interview some "deadbeat dads" and study their problems, only then will you begin to see the severity of defect in our Laws.

I cannot vote for a presidential candidate that supports a monetary incentive to mom's who want keep dad's pocket book, but not his bed. There is no fundamental Christian principle that is supported by this concept. Dad's should take care of their children, but the Nation and States should not provoke contempt. We are now a nation of debtor's prison for dad's. This is not good for our kids. You don't have to force us to take care of them, just empower us to do so as we see fit. Child support should only be for dad's who refuse to take care of them on their own, proven in court, with high standards of evidence.

In closing, I want to point out that every war in the history of our planet, has been because of the feelings that dad's have for their children. Every war, every battle, was ultimately fought for children, not for the people in battle. These laws provoke the most profound feelings deep in the heart of men. More force, as you suggest, will equal more resistance, and at some point, that resistance will turn to a horrible form of civil war. I am not a leader of a group, nor making any threats, but rather just pointing out history repeats itself. We need a morally sound solution that is acceptable by dads as well as moms. Dads have to submit and obey, not just submit by force. Mr. Vice President, you are Vice President because Americans submitted and obeyed the laws of elections, even though many may not have voted for you, but we agreed the process was fair. We have to make a fair process for moms and dads alike, only then will our children's best interest be secured.

Most Respectfully

Dwayne P. Shrum US Citizen, Registered Voter, Air Force Veteran, & Christian Dad