A Father's Day quiz

This is a pop quiz about words. What famous father's-rights activist uttered these words: "We know the statistics -- that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves because a father was not in the home."?

OK, it was a trick question. It was not a father's-rights activist. Presidential candidate Barack Obama said it during last year's Father's Day speech.

Question: Who said this? "We have long recognized that a parent's interests in the nurture, upbringing, companionship, care and custody of children are generally protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment," and "The interest of parents in the care, custody and control of their children -- is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court." Answer: The United States Supreme Court.

Question: What reasonable person could reject these words? "We want the government and courts to recognize that the love and companionship of one's own child -- and for a child, the love, companionship and nurturing guidance of both parents on an equal basis -- are fundamental human rights of the highest order to be protected in our courts whenever possible, and that the love and guidance of both parents are equally important

Answer: No reasonable person would reject these words, because they are self-evident truths regarding our most sacred freedoms and core values that give us meaning to life. Yet on June 6, in the city of Springfield, these words were rejected as an amendment to the Preamble of the Massachusetts Democratic Platform when I as delegate tried to introduce it.

Question: Why do these words, introduced as an amendment to the "Justice and Civil Rights" section of the Massachusetts Democratic platform, sound familiar?

"Massachusetts Democrats support ... shared parenting legislation so that the best interests of children are protected in child custody disputes by giving children equal access to both parents, unless one parent is unfit or it is unworkable through no fault of the other parent."

Answer: Very similar language was put to you, the voters, in 2004, when you voted for shared parenting by an 87 percent margin. You voters must have gotten it all wrong, though. This language was also rejected in Springfield at the convention when I introduced it as an amendment.

Question: Who said these words? "The voters very often get it wrong." Answer: A delegate at the Springfield convention speaking in opposition to the shared parenting amendment.

Shared parenting is a rebuttable presumption that there should be joint physical custody in child custody disputes, which may be rebutted by evidence that one of the parents is unfit or that is not workable through no fault of the parent. By way of just one of many possible scenarios, if a parent is abusive or neglectful, the presumption of joint custody would be rebutted. It does not end case-by-case analysis, and nothing is automatic. Nor does it end a court's effort to determine what is in the best interest of the child.

Question: Who said this, with respect to shared parenting? "I support that presumption. ... It seems right to me." Answer: Gov. Deval Patrick at a town meeting at Pittsfield High School.

Question: Where did these words come from? "A probate and family court's finding by a preponderance of the evidence, that a pattern ... of abuse has occurred shall create a rebuttable presumption that it is not in the best interests of the child to be placed in sole custody, shared legal custody or shared physical custody with the abusive parent."

Answer: These words creating a rebuttable presumption in child custody disputes -- like the ones our opponents argued at the Springfield convention would "unnecessarily tie the hand of judges" and unwisely "take away their discretion that they need to protect children" -- are actually the current law. These words come from a Massachusetts statute and have been the law since 1998. It has not created a problem.

Question: Who said this? "We have too many high-sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them." Answer: Abigail Adams in 1774.

Now is the time for words to be actions instead of empty rhetoric. Now is the time to enact shared parenting into law.

Rinaldo Del Gallo III, of Pittsfield, is a spokesperson for the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition, a practicing family law attorney and a freelance columnist.