She noted that social influences in the African-American community often push the father out of the mother-child world. "We don't need men just for the money. We need them for nurture."

If this is true for the African-American community, might it also be true for all of the other ethnic groups? Seventy one percent of the children born in Detroit are born out of wedlock. Pittsburgh's rate is also far too high.

Single Fathers have become Pennsylvania's favorite scapegoats subjected to the worst discrimination presently endorsed and encouraged by Pennsylvania's judicial and political systems.

Single fathers struggling to overcome the bureaucratic and legal roadblocks preventing them from obtaining adequate time with their children will locate no financial or legal aid office devoted to protecting their relationship with their children.

We have become so obsessed with domestic violence that we adopt anti-father legislation in an attempt to protect a small percentage of women-- and thereby sacrifice the health and welfare of the vast majority of children by denying them access to their fathers.

The current system of sole mother custody has become an abysmal failure. It has emptied our high schools and filled our prisons.

The time has come to end father absence in our children's lives. We simply cannot afford the social consequences of any other option.

Kevin Sheahen
President, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter
National congress for Fathers
and Children
Bethel Park