Online Petition to White House on Child Abductions - PLEASE SIGN

[sara]

This is an excerpt from the text in the petition:

The US Congress, in HR1326, has publicly condemned Japan and demanded the immediate return of this children.

However, the Executive Branch has only held back-room discussions. Additionally, there are persuasive claims the DoS is significantly downplaying the number of actual cases.

There needs to be complete transparency into this process, and public condemnation of Japan. These are our country's children. We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals.


The entire text is only a few paragraphs long, but has typos and is not accurate which is why I believe there are not more signatures. US Congress condemned the government of Japan, NOT Japan and calling for a public condemnation of Japan, where an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster wreaked devastation and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands innocent people isn't going to help our cause of returning children abducted to Japan. Again, condemnation of the Japanese officials responsible for allowing abducted children to remain in Japan is one thing, but we should not condemn the whole country where domestic disputes over parental rights are causing the suffering of many innocent Japanese children and parents who are not allowed to have a relationship because of their twisted custody laws.  To sum it up. Blame the government not the citizens.

[momoftwo]

I have to agree with Sara on some level.  The wording isn't perfect.  I do still plan to sign, when I can get the website to let me, but I agree with Diane that it would be nice if all of us here and all LBP's could work together to get the State Department and our own government to help LBP's with children taken to ANY other country.  When we do it this way, each LBP has to create their own petitions, each getting the required number of signatures...which means many of us here are signing multiple petitions...it's a crapshoot for each individual parent, and it fails to highlight the problem as a systemic issue rather than focusing on just one child.  I feel like people become numb to it that way, after hearing it over and over again.  I know this sounds awful, but I see it happen all the time.  I have a FB "friend"..."bringthemhome" whose posts consist of links to stories about abducted or abused children and adults, and I think there are literally hundreds, or close to it, new posts everyday.  It's overwhelming to look at. 

I realize that each family is going to also try to highlight their own abducted child as well...I created the Sage blog after all...but when it comes to trying to get national, or presidential attention, it just makes sense to me that we talk about the issue as a whole and stand together, so that the same battle doesn't have to be fought over and over for every country with an abducted child.

[ANALE]

Momoftwo you are absolutely right.  I finally got to sign the petition.  Don't know why I had so much trouble doing it.  I know it's almost impossible to sign every petition that comes out even though you want to.  You feel for every single LBP.  I get so angry reading all their stories that sometimes I have to just stop.  They all deserve the same help.  That's why our wonderful government officials have to get off their butts and do something.  (I am getting angry again!)

[forthelost]

If Japan would just sign the damn thing, even if they denied every return (well.. and maybe return one child to their US mother so Japan LBP's can't keep saying "black hole"), it would give State the political cover to handle the Japan cases the way it handles all the other Convention cases... by doing nothing.

I'm not even sure they'd do that. I know BACHome has one case where the LBP mom is Japanese, the abductor is the American dad, and they've done no more to return those kids than any others.

[Bob D'Amico]

I also signed it after "fighting" with the WH website, the registration confirmation link brought me to an "Under Construction" page. I switched to another PC and input my info being careful not to click on the option to be on Obama's mailing list. I would hate having to set my email software to dump WH emails in my junk folder.  :hihi

I've emailed a lot of people to sign it but received a surprising number of "push backs" stating that it was an insult to the President and Secretary of State for this line: "We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals."  

Rather than debate I asked everyone who refused to overlook that and sign it for the children.

[sue]

The sign petition is not highlighted and it won't let me sign.  Has anyone else had this problem?  If so, what do I do?

[patrickm]

I've emailed a lot of people to sign it but received a surprising number of "push backs" stating that it was an insult to the President and Secretary of State for this line: "We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals."  

Ask them to forgive me...  I created the petition directly after the recent meeting with Obama and Noda - the most recent Japanese PM, where this is exactly what happened.  Abducted children were briefly mentioned after the primary focus of Bases and lifting restrictions on the import of US Beef to Japan.   In any case, all I am asking for is transparency by both governments with regards to discussions on this extremely emotional topic.

Thanks,

Patrick

[sara]

Is there a way to change your text and make more to the point. Read it through the eyes of a skeptic and then write your text.
 Maybe something like would be better to attract more signatures: Please take a moment to sign this petition on behalf of all the suffering families torn apart by international child abduction. We desperately need your signature as a unified call for action by the US government. The issue is to press Japan and other nations harboring abducted American children that we won't tolerate it any longer. We want our children home!

[momoftwo]

@Sue, that's the exact same issue I'm having now trying to sign...the link is grayed out.

I'll try again today and let you know if it worked, Patrick.

[M.Capestro]

Is there a way to change your text and make more to the point. Read it through the eyes of a skeptic and then write your text.
 Maybe something like would be better to attract more signatures: Please take a moment to sign this petition on behalf of all the suffering families torn apart by international child abduction. We desperately need your signature as a unified call for action by the US government. The issue is to press Japan and other nations harboring abducted American children that we won't tolerate it any longer. We want our children home!

The site doesn't allow creators to edit the text once the petition is posted.

[Bob D'Amico]

@Sue, that's the exact same issue I'm having now trying to sign...the link is grayed out.

I'll try again today and let you know if it worked, Patrick.

You have to register before you can sign the petition. If I recall, they require your full name, zip code, and email address. Then you will receive a confirmation email to verify your email address. Same process required when you registered here.

[sue]

@Sue, that's the exact same issue I'm having now trying to sign...the link is grayed out.

I'll try again today and let you know if it worked, Patrick.

You have to register before you can sign the petition. If I recall, they require your full name, zip code, and email address. Then you will receive a confirmation email to verify your email address. Same process required when you registered here.

I did all that.

[sue]

I just signed in now and it let me sign the petition, maybe you have to wait a day after you register to sign?

[UD_student]

Sue, I also had issues signing the petition last week (I think it was then). It was exactly as you describe with the link to sign being greyed out despite me confirming my account via email (and getting the same under construction error message that Bob got and having to get another link sent to verify my account as once the one that got me to the under construction website was used, the link no longer was valid). I got around the problem by signing out of my account and back into my account, not once, but twice, and then it worked to sign the petition. Ridiculousness. I'm going to sit down with some of my family members this weekend and walk them through signing the petition. I know if I emailed them about it and they encountered the same problems I did, they would give up. But, if I am there with them, then I'm sure they will sign it.

[patrickm]

I've emailed a lot of people to sign it but received a surprising number of "push backs" stating that it was an insult to the President and Secretary of State for this line: "We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals."  

Just remind them that this isn't about politics.  These policies of silence have been practiced for over a decade by both parties and multiple presidents.

- Bill Clinton went to Germany and demanded Kids returned, but not Japan (nor any other country), and only because of a personal plea from the wife of a british ambassador whose children had been abducted there.
- Bush didn't demand them back
- Obama hasn't demanded them back (and only recently even mentioned them behind closed doors - due to continued pressure by LBPs and congressional members).

BOTH: Rep. Chris Smith(R) and Rep. Barney Frank(D) have questioned the actions of the DEPARTMENT OF STATE with regard to abducted children.

The DEPARTMENT OF STATE acknowledged in a recent congressional hearing (before the Subcommittee on Human rights) that they have never even asked the return of the children, only for the Government of Japan to assist with providing LBPs some level of access.

In the same hearing the DEPARTMENT OF STATE Asst Sec. for East Asia said, "I will do *anything* (his emphasis) to maintain the bilateral relationship with Japan."  He also stated that the national security relationship with Japan was of *utmost* importance; and many other things which indicated that the children were way down the priority list.

So either the Asst. Sec. is a "lone rogue" running amuck (which I doubt) and Hilary and Obama need to be made aware.  Or the Asst. Sec. is following the policies as dictated by them.

Either way... we need transparency.

This is why we also need HR1940, to help hold our Government accountable, and make sure that they are doing the right thing.