NOW & Education
April 24, 1997
Gentlemen,
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the "SC Survey" and to those who provided the numerous encouraging comments.
The National Organization of Women (NOW) is the political force behind a Supreme Court decision which has no hope of benefiting women as a group and which we know, from the survey, is certain to destroy a key, valid, proven, and important benefit to men (which in turn works to the detriment of women). There is not a trace of valid statistical evidence that suggests that women as a group have benefited or ever will benefit from the creation of NOW, and there is much evidence to suggest that their status has been seriously diminished since its formation. Whether or not we place the blame directly on NOW, it is certain that women, and men also, did not benefit as SAT scores dropped 77 points leaving the US in 27th out of 31 nations in math scores, the murder rate tripled, the divorce rate doubled while the marriage rate dropped, the incarceration rate quadrupled, US GDP per capita plunged from a solid first place in the world to a shaky 14th place, personal savings plunged to less than 2%, the public debt mushroomed to $5 Trillion, abortions increased to more than 1.6 million per year and still illegitimacy increased five fold, and the percent of children living without a father in their home increased from 12% to 39%. The overall satisfaction level of the American woman is lower than ever.
Most women are anti-feminist. Eastern feminist universities are shocked to discover that four out five women entering the universities are anti-feminist. Concerned women insist that 90-98% of their circle of friends are vigorously anti-feminist. The 85% of North Americans who are Christians disagree with the destructive agenda represented by their attached "Resolution". NOW's membership plunged from one million members to 250,000 today, less than a tenth of a percent (0.1%) of the US population. It is a radical group with limited popular support which undermines the Constitution, religion, and basic human rights through chronic media and political support, and is thus a very dangerous force.
NOW vowed to defeat Proposition 209 (to end affirmative action in California), and to have "thousands of affirmative action supporters marching in opposition to Proposition 209" at a California university. Only 3 supporters showed up. But the media was there to present the party line, and TV coverage gave the impression that thousands of students were marching in support of NOW, even though the students in the background were merely walking by on the way to their classrooms. California voters went to the polls believing that this was a real demonstration and that affirmative action and NOW were widely publicly supported, only to issue a powerful mandate to NOW by passing Proposition 209 by a two thirds majority vote.
NOW openly supports the filing of false accusations of domestic and child abuse. It is openly anti-family and anti-fatherhood. It openly supports the current 92% rate of mother custody of children of divorce wherein the US was propelled to the cataclysmic status as the nation with the world's highest divorce rate. It clearly played the key role in this social pathology and has no stated plans to correct it.
This cannot in any way be considered to be of benefit to women as a group. Slovenia with little money for education managed to take time out from civil war to educate their children and to put them in 10th place, while the US spent 3 times as much as a percent of GDP for education than almost every other country and came in 28th. We scored more than 100 points lower than the highest 3 countries, which is where we were before NOW was created.
Regardless of how many of us appreciate the link between NOW, the Supreme Court decision regarding VMI, and this dismal US academic track record, it is certain that we cannot alter this dangerous course unless we take positive steps. A one point drop in SAT scores is estimated to cost $250 Billion in GDP, while the total cost of all US wars is estimated by "The Military Budget and National Economic Priorities" to be less than $1.2 Trillion in constant 1967 dollars. NOW is an order of magnitude more costly in dollars each year than all the previous wars we ever fought combined. The tripling of the murder rate kills three times as many Americans on our own shores annually as died each year at war during the height of the Viet Nam Conflict. For those who consider a fetus to be human life, 1.6 million abortions per year for 30 years has resulted in 48 million deaths, which is 83 times as many deaths as all of the 573,148 battle deaths from all US wars. Regardless of your position on abortion, this is a premier national disgrace which NOW fully supports.
The NOW "Resolution" (Attachment A) describes its open agenda. What it supports behind the scenes may be even more harmful to society, fatherhood, families, women, education, and the economy than we can imagine. At a time in history when education quality in the US should have improved, it spearheaded policies and legislation which led directly to the 77 point drop in SAT scores. This left the US in 28th place out of 41 nations in the "Third International Mathematics and Science Study" (TIMSS), 15th out of 19 nations which took the "International Assessment of Educational Progress" (IAEP) test (Source: US Dept. of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 394), and in an aggregate 33rd place (Attachment B). This chart ignores the vitally important point that 96% of Japanese students take calculus in high school, while the 4% in the US who take calculus attend mostly privately-funded parochial schools and not more expensive publicly-funded schools. NOW makes not a single valid proposal to reverse this dangerous trend.
The VMI decision is just one in a 3 decade track record of federal educational pathology It is a premier example of how not even a radical minority group will benefit while the majority suffers greatly. The fact that the highest court in the land concurs with the destruction of a fine educational institution leaves us all in a state of panic and sadness, with few ideas of where to turn. The fact that 96% of VMI, and two thirds of the voters, and maybe even 90% of all women, believe VMI should remain all-male is proof enough that the Supreme Court is not acting in the best interests of society. The facts that the spirit and intent of the Constitution are being misinterpreted, that "we the people" know that they are being misinterpreted, and that the radical minority which demands these "rights" are a powerfully destructive force with nothing positive to offer VMI, education, women, society, nor the economy means that we cannot idly sit by and watch it happen. The fact that 41% of us believe that this ruling violates the oaths we took to uphold the Constitution gives us a slim hope that a crisis can be avoided.
Your proposed action plan is respectfully requested and will be held in confidence unless you specifically write "TO ALL" in the subject header.
Sincerely,
John Knight
Attachment A -- NOW ACTION ALERT ON "FATHERS' RIGHTS"
Attachment B -- US Education Standing
Attachment A --
NOW ACTION ALERT ON "FATHERS' RIGHTS"
WHEREAS organizations advocating "fathers' rights," whose members consist of non-custodial parents, their attorneys and their allies, are a growing force in our country; and
WHEREAS the objectives of these groups are to increase restrictions and limits on custodial parents' rights and to decrease child support obligations of non-custodial parents by using the abuse of power in order to control in the same fashion as do batterers; and
WHEREAS these groups are fulfilling their objectives by forming political alliances with conservative Republican legislators and others and by working for the adoption of legislation such as presumption of joint custody, penalties for "false reporting" of domestic and child abuse and mediation instead of court hearings; and
WHEREAS the success of these groups will be harmful to all women but especially harmful to battered and abused women and children; and
WHEREAS the efforts of well-financed "fathers' rights" groups are expanding from a few states into many more, sharing research and tactics state by state; and
WHEREAS many judges and attorneys are still biased against women and fathers are awarded custody 70% of the time when they seek it per the Association of Child Enforcement Support (ACES);
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Organization for Women (NOW) begin a national alert to inform members about these "fathers' rights" groups and their objectives through articles in the National Now Times (NNT); and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as a part of this alert, NOW establish a clearinghouse for related information by sharing with NOW state and local Chapters the available means to challenge such groups, including the current research on custody and support, sample legislation, expert witnesses, and work done by NOW and other groups in states where "fathers' rights" groups have been active; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NOW encourage state and local Chapters to conduct and coordinate divorce/custody court watch projects to facilitate removal of biased judges; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that NOW report to the 1997 National Conference on the status and result of this national alert whereupon its continuation or expansion will be considered.
Attachment B -- US Education Standing
Rank Country IAEP TIMSS Cost/Student
1 China 80.2%
2 Singapore 643
3 Korea 73.4% 607
4 Japan 605 $ 3,530
5 Taiwan 72.7%
6 Hong Kong 588
7 Belgium 565 $ 2,390
8 Czech Republic 564
9 Slovak 547
Republic
10 Switzerland 70.8% 545 $ 5,611
11 Hungary 68.4% 537
12 Netherlands 541
13 Bulgaria 540
14 Austria 539 $ 4,010
15 France 64.2% 538 $ 2,900
16 Italy 64.0%
17 Russia 535
18 Australia 530
19 Israel 63.1% 522
20 Canada 62.0% 527
21 Thailand 522
22 Sweden 519 $ 4,840
23 Germany 509 $ 2,980
24 New Zealand 508
25 United Kingdom 60.6% 506 $ 3,120
26 Norway 503 $ 4,880
27 Denmark 502 $ 4,529
28 Scotland 60.6% 498
29 Ireland 60.5% 527 $ 1,770
30 Slovenia 57.1% 541
31 Latvia 493
32 Spain 55.4% 487 $ 2,030
33 United States 55.3% 500 $ 5,600
34 Iceland 487
35 Greece 484
36 Romania 482
37 Lithuania 477
38 Cyprus 474
39 Portugal 48.3% 454 $ 1,931
40 Iran 428
41 Kuwait 392
42 Columbia 385
43 South Africa 354
44 Jordan 40.4%
45 Brazil 37.0%
46 Mozambique 28.3%
Modified Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Copyright @ 2007 by Fathers' Manifesto & Christian Party