One Wisconsin father says the Wisconsin Family Court System discriminates against dads. Peter Kerr is back home resting his feet in southeastern Wisconsin, just in time for the Labor Day Weekend, after having walked 800 miles across the state since the day after Father's Day. "I wanted to know why kids and dads weren't getting together more than they are now. So I thought let's go out into Wisconsin, let's walk on a grassroots plain and let's ask the people 'have you seen your kids and if not, why not?'"
Kerr observes there are a lot of teenage pregnancies, high school dropouts, and youth suicide. He says many of those kids come from fatherless homes for many reasons, but a failed court system should not be one of them. "You know what? The vast majority of dads actually want to participate with their kids and the vast majority are being held back by family courts giving them visitation orders every second weekend with their kids. That's just not really good for our kids and it's not good for the dads and it's not good for tomorrow's society."
The man who recently moved to Grafton from Australia says he met a lot of nice people along his journey, endured 100-degree temperatures, enjoyed deer sightings, passed acres of corn, and even witnessed people getting their morning paper in their underwear. Kerr says he thinks, "a father's love is the same caliber as a mother's love for their children and a father's pain in the absence of their child is not less than a mother's pain in the absence of their child."
NOTE:
By the way, Kerr took weekends off during the trek to be with his young daughter. Sadly, his own father died Saturday, which, ironically, was father's day in Australia.
Related web sites:
Walk for Children
kerr1va090206.mp3 (706k)