Our group, "Protective Mothers Alliance", has launched a gold ribbon campaign in an effort to reunite protective mothers and their children who have been separated by family court.
We invite all advocates and their allies around the globe to wear gold ribbons and to tie gold ribbons around trees, to symbolize the effort that protective mo thers and their allies are making to reunite children with their moms.
Please join us in supporting this campaign.
We will not stop, until family court stops destroying the relationships between fit mothers and their children!
"The beautiful memories that we have of our beloved children are golden and can NEVER be erased form our hearts and minds."
"Under the Microscope" -- Who is Lundy Bancroft?
“Inside The Actors Studio” with host James Lipton is known for a list of questions which he poses to each of his guests at the end of the interview. Lipton believes that these questions offer the listener an open window into the souls of his guests. He often mentions that this list was birthed by French novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922). Proust did not actually create the questionnaire in which his name is attached, yet he did answer famously two versions of it, once at the age of thirteen and then again at age twenty. This served to make the list famous, but in fact the original author is unknown.
We at PMA believe that all protective mothers and advocates are modern day heroes. With this in mind, each issue of GOT will feature an advocate "Under the Microscope" interview, James Lipton style. So in keeping with the actors studio tradition, Janice interviewed her fellow co-director Lundy in which the following conversation ensued:
J: "What is your favorite word?"
L: "Justice."
J: "What is your least favorite word?"
L: "Bigot."
J: "What turns you on creatively, spiritually and emotionally?"
L: "Nature."
J: "Nice! … What turns you off?"
L: "Machines, concrete and technology."
J: "What sound or noise do you love?"
L: "Birds singing."
J: "What sound or noise do you hate?"
L: "Chainsaws. How about you?"
J: "We are really close on this one; jackhammers… What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?"
L: "Professional baseball player."
J: "Wow, you would get along great with my family. They are all die-hard Yankee fans… What profession would you not like to do?"
L: "Sales."
J: "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?"
L: "Let's have fun."
J: "What is your favorite color?"
L: "Burgundy."
J: "What is your favorite food?"
L: "Yogurt."
J: "If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?"
L: "Yosemite Valley."
J: "Beautiful, I've been there several times too… What is your dream vacation?"
L: "Backpacking in King's Canyon National Park."
J: "If you had a magic wand to do anything with, how would you use it?"
L: "Wipe oppression and discrimination from the Earth."
J: "Why did you begin this journey as an advocate?"
L: "Because I could not bear to watch loving mothers have their children taken form them due to trying to protect them."
J: "What motivates you?"
L: "Seeing the good in people."
J: "Thank you very much Lundy for allowing us to take a tiny peek into your soul and put you "Under The Microscope.”
L: "You're welcome. It was fun."
Lundy Bancroft, co-director of PMA, is an author, workshop leader, and activist on trauma, abuse and healing. He offers dramatically new paths to understanding the emotional injuries we suffer, their lasting effects, and how best to get ourselves free. Lundy appears frequently as a public speaker and trainer, and as a leader of weekend retreats. Lundy's activist work is devoted to recovering the custody rights of protective mothers and their children in family court litigation across the continent.
Be sure to join us next time when we put Attorney Richard Ducote "Under the Microscope"! If you have any questions you would like to ask Richard, email us at lb.jlpma@gmail.com .
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.
PMA Looks at the News
And so many in society still ask "Why did she stay?" Too many Moms are faced with domestic violence. Too many have to face the decision of whether they should stay and deal with the abuse to themselves and/or their children, or leave. Many know that if they leave, the abuser can fight for custody of the children, manipulating and lying in court to do so, using the courts to continue his cycle of abuse. Others that are lucky enough to retain custody of their children still have to face the manipulation and control that the abuser exerts through the children. As shown by the news article below, a Protective Order does not mean that the victim is protected from abuse. Here, a woman had full custody of her children and the abusive man had only visitation, yet things went totally out of control.
Too many times we've heard, "Just because he abused you doesn't mean he isn't a good Father." Where are the boundary lines? Speak to any victim that must continue to deal with her abuser through her children, hear about the abuse that the children continue to suffer, hear about the lies and manipulations that the victim must combat to continue to retain custody of her children, and with that fuller picture of the situation you will lose the temptation to ask, "Why did she stay?" In the news story below, you will see how the kind of case that is classified as a “family issue” can lead to the killing of a police officer that tried to protect a child. Our hearts and prayers go to the family of Officer Joshua Miller; he is truly a hero.
Police: Officers rescued boy during Pa. gun battle
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press Wr iter - Mon Jun 8, 6:46 pm ET
SWIFTWATER, Pa - Police officers in northeastern Pennsylvania recued a 9-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by his father as a fatal gun battle erupted between the man and state troopers, authorities said Monday.
After arguing with his estranged wife during a custody exchange, Daniel Autenrieth kidnapped his son at gunpoint, then led police on a 40-mile high-speed chase that ended with a crash and an exchange of gunfire, state police commissioner Col. Frank Pawlowski said. Autenrieth and a state trooper were killed.
"I can't begin to describe the hurt and sorrow being experienced by the Pennsylvania state police," Pawlowski told a somber news conference at the Swiftwater barracks, the trooper's home base. "What happened yesterday is nothing short of an American tragedy."
The chase Sunday night began outside Easton, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia, and ended just east of Tobyhanna in the Pocono Mountains when troopers purposely bumped Autenrieth's car, causing it to spin into a guard rail along state Route 611. As Troopers Joshua Miller, 34, and Robert Lombardo, 35, rushed the driver's side, Autenrieth took out a handgun and fired three shots from close range, police said. Though both troopers were hit, they returned fire, striking Autenrieth eight times. As the troopers and Autenrieth traded fire, two other officers plucked the boy from the front passenger seat of the car. The boy escaped injury. Autenrieth, 31, died at the scene. Miller, a Marine veteran who joined the force in 2002, was shot in the neck and thigh and was rushed to a hospital near Allentown, where he died of his wounds. Lombardo was treated for a gunshot wound and was released.
Miller was married with three children. Lombardo has been with the state police for five years. Both troopers are from Pittston. Outside the Swiftwater barracks Monday, about two dozen troopers, state police personnel and police officers from other departments lined busy Route 611, standing at attention and saluting as a convoy of police cruises and a police helicopter went past, escorting a hearse carrying Miller's body to a funeral home in Pittson.
Pawlowski called Miller "a hero." “An individual embroiled in a domestic dispute for some reason chose to escalate the violence, and it ended with a hero losing his life, a wife losing her husband and three children losing a loving father," Pawlowski said. [Editor’s note: Notice how the police commissioner praises a man who kidnapped his son and killed a police officer by calling him a “loving father,” and attributes his violence to the escalation of a domestic dispute, rather than to the father’s horrific violence. And he doesn’t mention that the mother had already needed to get a protective order against him.
Police were trying to figure out what set off Autenrieth, who was supposed to drop off his three children curbside at his estranged wife's townhouse Sunday night. Instead, he went into the house in Nazareth -- ignoring a May 18 protection-from-abuse order that forbade it -- and began arguing with her. A neighbor, Alrene Benginia, said she heard the couple screaming at each other. By the time she got outside to investigate, police had arrived but Autenrieth and his son were gone. "He has my son! He has a gun!" screamed the wife, Susan Autenrieth, according to Benginia.
Police immediately took off in pursuit and soon caught up to the suspect. The chase lasted more than 30 minutes and involved nine police cruises as Daniel Autenrieth threaded busy intersections and floored it on major highways, authorities said. "It was just sheer havoc out along the roadway," Pawlowski said. "It was an extremely dangerous situation."
Police said they are investigating how Autenrieth got the gun. Because he was subject to a protective-from-abuse order, he was not permitted to have one.
No one answered the door Monday at the home. Susan Autenrieth's landlord, Jay Orwig, said she moved to the townhouse with her three children in February. Her husband, who lived in nearby Palmer Township, "obviously wasn't thinking about the children at all," he said. Susan Autenrieth's next-door neighbor, Rachel Lilly, said she met Daniel Autenrieth once, when her children and his children played together at a community park. She said he seemed normal. "I feel so bad for all the children of the families involved, especially the children of the trooper," Lilly said. Susan Autenrieth, she said, is "a sweet lady who doesn't deserve this."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_re_us/us_troopers_shot
Hero-Shero of the Month
PMA is excited by the addition of Jennifer Collins! She and Karli Singer will be co-directing "Hear Us Now", a chapter of PMA, designed to bring out the voice of adult children who have suffered because of "court abuse.” These young advocates want the world to know the pain and suffering caused by separating children and their Protective Mothers.
Karli and Jennifer met at the Battered Mothers' Custody Conference earlier this year. Jennifer had attended the conference to share her experiences with others in attendance. Jennifer had recently returned to the U.S. from the Netherlands where she, her mother and brother, had escaped to find refuge. Holly Collins, Jennifer's Mother, was determined that her children would escape abuse and that they would be protected. Holly fled with her two children after custody was given to their abusive father. They found safety in the Netherlands. However, because of insufficient documentation, Holly and her children spent several years in refugee camps. During this time the FBI found them and demanded that the Netherlands turn them over to the U.S. authorities, so she could be charged with kidnapping. But after conducting their own investigation, authorities in the Netherlands granted the family asylum due to the substantial evidence of abuse.
Finally, in 2008, with the help of advocates in the U.S., Holly was cleared of charges.
For more information: http://americanchildrenunderground.blogspot.com/
Now that Jennifer is over eighteen, she has begun to speak out about her abuse and the broken family court system. She has risen above the intense attacks by father supremacists and continues to find her voice, speak the truth, and be a powerful advocate for change. Jennifer's strength is admirable. She is a welcome edition to the PMA team and we are excited to have her on board!
To see more about the plight of Jennifer and her Mother, please watch this news release video...
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