Posted on 12/05/2004 2:12:43 AM PST by jocon307
David Washington's 18-month fight for his daughter ended on a New Jersey tarmac last night, as the New York man and his child, Charlotte, finally touched down, safe and sound, on American soil. The 4-year-old's French mother, Sophie Maumousseau, kidnapped the girl in 2003 and spirited her to a French village, where locals backed their compatriot and battled fiercely to keep hold of the stolen child.
The joyful dad was exhausted after the flight, but happy that a French court finally coerced Charlotte's mother into handing over the girl.
"I feel good," he told The Post. "It feels good to be on American soil. It's unreal."
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The ordeal has taken a financial as well as emotional toll on the dad. He was forced to take a months-long leave of absence from his job while staying in France.
That, plus his legal fees and expenses, cost him well over $100,000 and forced him to max out his credit cards and borrow money from family and friends.
A group of his friends and co-workers from Verizon set up the Charlotte Washington Recovery Fund to help him make ends meet.
The fund, which accepts donations at P.O. Box 1416, N.Y., N.Y. 10018, has raised about $4,500 so far from Post readers and Washington's co-workers.
{snip}
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
This child was used and abused by many French as a politcal pawn. They saw her as a "symbol of standing up to the beast of America."
What they did was shameful.
The French shielded and protected Ira Einhorn, the murderer of Holly Maddux for years way too long before he was finally extradited. They would probably give Mumia a penthouse on the Champs Elysee and all the champagne he could drink just to spite America.
Why can't parents who love a child share equally in the child's life?
I would suggest that the 'share equally' concept is impossible to obtain and in reality when parents divorce the 'joint custody' and 'parenting plans' touted by socialists and embraced by the family courts are but another sham concocted by liberal social engineers.
It is ironic that the liberals who tout the doctrine of "Separate But Equal" being inherently unequal and discriminatory in their 'social justice' endeavors have the moxy to suggest children suffer no effect from divorce due to loss of a parent' presence because the impact is negated by "Separate But Equal" custody measures.
I know a bit about this law, having friends affected by it.
The deal is this, once an international couple chooses a country to live in, that's the one who's laws prevail. Once she decided to take her child, even if that child had been BORN in France, and IS French, the mother had no right to single-handedly kidnap her. There are procedures, let's say if the husband is a dangerous etc. man, but the majority of the cases turn around a regretful situation, but France and the US both agree to the mutual rules on this one.
The moral of this story is Don't Marry Nationals of Other Counries, Or If You Do, Don't Have Children.
The law treats children like real estate and the courts fight endlessly over who has clear title to the property; large numbers of parents who had their children as trophies or because their timetable said they were due for children now, or for other stupid reasons, never seem to look at the children as human beings with a separate existence. Adoption has become a nightmare in this regard, as people come back three years after giving up their child and demand that it be returned, and too often the court tears the child from the only family it has ever known and slams it back into the arms of someone who did nothing but give birth.
Law regarding children is mired in the 19th century and needs serious updating, but even more do parents need to stop regarding children as real estate.
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