NPO Blog Archive

Ned Holstein meets with Florida Department of Children and Families Regional Administrator Gilda Ferradaz on October 24 in Miami.

Ned Holstein Meets with Cuban Father Rafael Izquierdo in Miami on October 24.

Background: In October I partnered with Dr. Ned Holstein and Fathers & Families in a campaign to protest Florida Department of Children & Families’ actions in the “Elian Gonzalez II” case in Miami. In that case, Rafael Izquierdo, a fit, loving father, faced numerous obstacles to reunite with his 6-year-old daughter.

The case pitted Izquierdo against wealthy Cuban-American foster parents Joe Cubas, a well-known sports agent, and his wife Maria. In 2005 Elena Perez, Izquierdo’s ex, brought the girl to Miami from Cuba. DCF removed the girl and her half-brother from her mother’s custody in 2006, after an investigation found that the woman’s mental illness rendered her an unfit parent. The girl was placed with the Cubas family, and Izquierdo came to the US to bring his daughter home.

Rather than allowing Izquierdo to take his girl home, DCF hired 19 lawyers and spent over $250,000 to oppose their reunification, and even continued to resist after an exhaustive hearing in a Miami court determined that Izquierdo is a fit and committed father.

When we launched our campaign to protest this injustice, several thousand of you answered our call to action, and our protest was covered or cited in hundreds of newspapers, including by the Associated Press, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, and many others.

In our letters and faxes to Florida DCF, we asked that they contact Dr. Holstein. DCF, to its credit, did so and agreed to meet. In the photo above left, Dr. Holstein shakes hands with Gilda Ferradaz, head of DCF’s Miami division. Dr. Holstein met with Ferradaz, Mary Cagle, DCF’s Director of Child Welfare Legal Services, and other DCF officials. In the photo above right, Dr. Holstein meets with Izquierdo, who he describes as a “warm, composed, dignified man who clearly loves his daughter.”

To learn more about the case and our campaign, click here.

A settlement has been reached in the Elian Gonzalez II case which gives embattled Cuban father Rafael Izquierdo sole custody of his young daughter. According to the Associated Press’ Cuban father gets custody in settlement (11/30/07):

“A Cuban farmer would get sole custody of his 6-year-old daughter under a settlement reached Wednesday in a lengthy court battle involving the girl’s U.S. foster parents and state officials…Under the settlement, Rafael Izquierdo and his daughter would remain in the United States [until the girl is seven] and the foster parents – former baseball players’ agent Joe Cubas and his wife, Maria – would get regular visits from the girl…

“Beyond that, Izquierdo would have no parental restrictions and could eventually return to Cuba…The agreement is subject to approval by Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jeri Cohen, who has scheduled a hearing Tuesday.”

Ira Kurzban, Izquierdo’s attorney, thanked Fathers & Families for its efforts on Izquierdo’s behalf, saying that the campaign and media attention “played an important role in the case.” I thank and commend Dr. Holstein for his excellent work in Florida.

I also thank the thousands of you who wrote or called Florida DCF. After Dr. Holstein met with DCF, he told me that the DCF officials had brought in “stacks and stacks” of letters and faxes they had received from protesters, and faxes were coming in continuously during their meeting. Holstein explains:

“We are proud to have played a role in bringing about this proposed settlement…Rafael came through for his daughter like a great father–surmounting obstacles as a poor farmer in Cuba to come to her aid in Florida…He deserves a medal of honor.’

Izquierdo is very happy with the settlement, and we believe that it is good for all parties. While I do believe that Izquierdo should have the right to take his daughter with him back to Cuba tomorrow if he chooses, the agreement is a better alternative. It still allows Izquierdo to return to Cuba when the girl is seven if he elects to, yet it also allows the girl to maintain her relationship with the Cubas family.

Despite the Cubas’ misguided custody bid, they do deserve credit for caring for the girl when the girl’s mother came apart and Izquierdo was still in Cuba. The agreement also allows the girl to maintain her relationship with her half-brother–the girl will be visiting him and the Cubases every other weekend.

Campaigns and victories cost money–to make a tax-deductible donation to Fathers & Families to help defray our campaign’s expenses, click here or contact Dr. Holstein directly at 617.542.9300 or nedholstein@fathersandfamilies.org.

Background: We’ve done several protests against ads which portray men and fathers as clowns–see Campaign Against Anti-Father Verizon Commercial, Campaign Against Anti-Male Advertising, Campaign Against Detroit News ‘Get Her a Gift or She”ll Give You a Black Eye” Ad and Portable On Demand Storage Decides to Remove Anti-Male Ad in Face of Protests. To learn more about the problems with the way men are portrayed in advertising, click here. Brandweek editor Todd Wasserman discussed the problem of ‘Dad as Idiot’
advertising in his recent column The Surviving Dads Of Ads (Brandweek Magazine, 11/12/07), writing, “It”s hard to argue that guys like Sacks don”t have a point”. Today the editor of Brandweek wrote that Wasserman’s column “drew a very heavy outpouring of letters, nearly all in agreement,” and the magazine reprinted a dozen of them in its letters section. Lori Clayton of South Fulton, Tennessee wrote: “As a mom, we agree with you. Fathers should have rights too. I am a mother, a wife , a daughter and a grandmother. And I have seen the way men are being treated these days; makes me sick to know that men are being treated so horribly. Step back a moment, and just think: how would you feel if this was your Dad, your brother or your son or grandson?” Akshaya Patel of Marlboro, New Jersey wrote a letter titled “Ads Do Impact the Very Young”: “I enjoyed reading your article about the negative portrayal of men in the media. I am a father of a 5-year-old boy and I can tell you that advertising impacts his perception of the world much more profoundly than adults may realize. “Last year I severed my relationship with Fidelity Investment because I was appalled at the way they portrayed men in their advertising. I became politically aware during the years of anti-apartheid divestment and it has stuck with me. “My son has learned to use Tivo and he skips through the advertising these days so I suppose this may become a nonissue in my home. Nonetheless the corporate community speaks to the masses through advertising and they have to maintain a gender neutral balance in their message.” Eric Tarkington of Atlanta, Georgia wrote: “Critics who say ‘enough dumping on dad already!’ are not alone–far from it, if anybody has a bizarre attitude about this, it’s the disconnected ad man sector, not the growing annoyed sector of the public. I have some sympathy for ad writers. You need the good feelings from a gag to become associated with your product or service. Somebody is always the butt of any joke, and political correctness says you won’t make it a her. Besides, you don’t have to be careful dumping on dad in this society. Or do you? People are getting annoyed, and your customers probably shouldn’t look bizarre to you…” To read all the letters, click here. Brandweek Magazine’s letters section can be reached at feedback@brandweek.com.

“What has he done to wear so many scars? Has he changed the course of rivers? Has he polluted the moon and stars?”–Bob Dylan

Convicted Texas ‘Murder by Mercedes’ Killer Clara Harris, her attorneys and her supporters have been largely successful in concealing the true nature of Clara’s crime. Whereas Clara has successfully portrayed herself as the innocent victim of a philandering husband, in reality David Harris was killed while trying to exit a bad and possibly abusive marriage. Clara’s defenders also ignore the fact that considerable evidence was presented that Clara–who played the crying, betrayed wife–was also having an affair at the end of their marriage.

In my co-authored column Suppose roles had been reversed in Harris case–Murdered dad deserves sympathy being shown Clara (Houston Chronicle, 1/27/07) I wrote:

“While many see the Clara Harris case as one of love and betrayal, it is in fact a garden-variety domestic homicide. Clara Harris is no better than high-profile wife-killer Scott Peterson. Perhaps Clara is even worse — at least Peterson spared us the crocodile tears.”

To learn more, also see my column In Defense of David Harris (LewRockwell.com, 3/4/03), or click here.

I sometimes get hate mail from Clara’s defenders and/or the operators of the website www.claraharris.org/. Recently a woman identified as “April” wrote:

“[David Harris] said [the affair] was over and wanted to meet with Clara to reconcile. Then he did this adulterous deed at their HONEYMOON hotel?!

“Bullshit Glenn….go drink ANOTHER mug of that Kool-Aid. He made a vow. They had children. He lied multiple times……………….

“He had it coming. It was too quick for my liking.

“FREE CLARA HARRIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“The capacity to love is a vital, rich and all-consuming function…you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out…”–Rod Serling

Hero father Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes gave up his attempt to come to the United States and instead turned himself over to the Border Patrol, all to save the life of a injured nine-year-old American boy. Cordova found the boy wandering in the Arizona desert after the boy’s mother was killed in a car crash on Thanksgiving Day. Cordova, who was promptly deported, said:

“I am a father of four children. For that, I stayed. I never could have left him. Never.”

Cordova and the boy are pictured. According to the Associated Press:

“The 26-year-old bricklayer was two days into his walk and about 50 miles from Tucson when he saw the boy, who had walked away from the crash…Christopher had scrapes on his leg and was dressed in shorts despite the desert cold. The boy had his dog with him and was holding a side mirror from the wrecked van.

“Neither Cordova nor Christopher spoke the other’s language, but the boy took the migrant to the edge of a canyon and showed him the accident site…

“‘I felt frustrated and sad because I couldn’t do anything for the mother,’ Cordova said. ‘And I didn’t know how to console the boy, so I just sat next to him.'”

“Cordova gave the boy the sweater he was wearing, climbed down to the van, and found chocolate and cookies to feed him.

“He then built a bonfire, and the two hunkered down. The boy slept most of the night; Cordova kept watch and tended the fire [which he hoped the Border Patrol would see]. Fourteen hours later, a group of hunters found the pair and called for help. U.S. Border Patrol agents took Cordova into custody, and Christopher was flown to a hospital in Tucson.”

The story is Illegal immigrant ‘never” thought to leave boy: Man comforted child after mom died in Arizona desert crash, officials say (Associated Press, 11/28/07), and be sure to watch the MSNBC video on the same page.

According to the story, the Mexican consulate in Nogales is “working to obtain a short-term visa for Cordova so he can come to Arizona and be recognized for his actions.” I think instead the US government should send him a legal permanent Visa and invite this hero to come to the US. I have a nine-year-old child and am grateful that, were she ever in a desperate strait, there are men like Cordova out there who are willing to make sacrifices like this in order to help a child.

The drawing above was taken from Kara Bishop’s www.postcardsfromsplitsville.com. Bishop works with Children of Divorce, a class run by Tucson, Arizona-based Divorce Recovery. The class did an art project that included “sending away” the frustrations of divorce. The website is a place where Kara says “children can share their divorce-related feelings anonymously and parents can get a new perspective on how this life-changing experience impacts their children”s lives.”

To learn more, click here. Kara can be reached at Kara@PostcardsfromSplitsville.com.