And the winner of the 2005 Award for
Political Incorrectness is...(pan
of vast audience with expectant expressions)...
Phyllis Schlafly. This past year Mrs.
Schlafly took on the federal government's
deepening alliance with radical feminism.
In the process she debunked many of
the Left´s pet explanations for family
break-down. To do justice to Schlafly´s
contributions, I have quoted from
several of her columns.
In January she started off the year
with a column about "Children
Made Fatherless by Family Courts."
The article revealed that "fathers
are systematically discriminated against
by family courts which nearly always
award physical custody to the mother
even when the father has committed
no fault."
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/jan05/05-01-12.html
Schlafly continued in the same vein
in her February column about the "Fatherphobia
of Family Courts." In that article
she took divorce courts to task for
ignoring a "mountain of social
science research" by failing
to award joint physical custody to
fathers.
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/feb05/05-02-02.html
In March she highlighted the plight
of National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly
who was called up for service in Iraq.
Upon completion of his tour of duty,
McNeilly was greeted with the news
that a family court, during his absence
and without his knowledge, had awarded
full custody of his 10-year-old son
to his mother.
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/mar05/05-03-02.html
In May she turned up the heat, exposing
how "Federal Incentives Make
Children Fatherless." Schlafly
warned, "Follow the money. The
less time that non-custodial parents
(usually fathers) are permitted to
be with their children, the more child
support they must pay into the state
fund, and the higher the federal bonus
to the states for collecting the money."
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/may05/05-05-11.html
Mrs. Schlafly doesn't mince words,
does she? And it only gets better.
In her June column on "How to
Celebrate Father's Day," Schlafly
took aim at the feminist Big Lie:
"For 30 years, feminist organizations
and writers have propagated the myth
that women are victims of an oppressive
patriarchal society and that marriage
is an inherently abusive institution
that makes wives second-class citizens."
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/june05/05-06-15.html
Then beginning in July, Schlafly took
on the hotly-debated Violence Against
Women Act (VAWA) which came up before
Congress this past fall for a five-year
renewal.
In "Time to Defund Feminist Pork,"
Schlafly wondered why the US Congress
funnels "a billion dollars a
year of taxpayers' money into the
hands of radical feminists who use
it to preach their anti-marriage and
anti-male ideology, promote divorce,
corrupt the family court system, and
engage in liberal political advocacy."
www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/july05/05-07-20.html
Mrs. Schlafly´s pièce de resistance
came in October. While our elected
officials were buckling under the
feminist intimidation tactics, Schlafly
released an exposé with the sizzling
title, "Time to Defund Feminist
Pork - the Hate-Men Law.
" First Schlafly ridiculed the
feminist urban legends such as "a
woman is beaten every 15 seconds"
and Super Bowl Sunday is the "biggest
day of the year of violence against
women." She deplored how VAWA
rides "roughshod over the constitutional
rights of men."
Schlafly then scolded our elected
officials in Washington: "Shame
on Members of Congress who lack the
courage to stand up to feminist outrages."
www.eagleforum.org/psr/2005/oct05/psroct05.html
For 30 years the Leftists have waged
a tenacious assault on society's bedrock
institutions, including fatherhood
and families. As the rest of us silently
stood by, feminists branded dads with
epithets such as deadbeat, abuser,
and patriarchal oppressor.
And now Phyllis Schlafly has shed
the light of truth on their evil scheme.