In a callous article in the Telegraph, Ian Douglas declares that desperate father Tim Haries, who has been kicked out of his children’s lives, “set back dads’ rights by decades” when he wrote “help” on a painting of Queen Elizabeth with spray paint. Douglas falsely assumes that fathers actually have any rights, or have won any. The fact is that there are no fathers’ rights — as far as I know there is nothing in the law that says that fathers have any rights to their children. Sure, there may be guidelines for visitation that are sometimes enforced – if the father has the resources to go to court – but if courts can throw fathers out of their children’s lives on mere unproven accusations (or for no reason at all) fathers have no rights.
So what Tim Haries did could not possibly have set back anyone’s rights. His plea for help, which caused some 5,000 pounds of damage to the painting, comes off as remarkably tame considering his plight. Here’s a man who has had his children seized, for God’s sake. A little bit of spray paint in light of that is nothing. If I were in his position and thought it would do any good, I’d take a jackhammer to Michaelangelo’s David.
If anything fathers in the Anglo world have exercised unbelievable restraint in the face of enormous injustice. Apologists like Ian Douglas should be told, in no uncertain terms, to stuff it.
