David Goldman: Father of the Year
Actually, David Goldman just might be Father of the 21st Century. Goldman is the Tinton Falls, New Jersey charter boat businessman, who has been fighting through an international maze of law, culture, politics to bring his eight year old son Sean home from Brazil. In 2004, Goldman’s ex-wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their then-4 year-old son on what was presumed to be a vacation to her native country. Bianchi never returned to the U.S., and refused to send Sean back to New Jersey.
Bianchi later re-married in Brazil to a well-connected lawyer, Joao Paulo Lins e Silva. She subsequently died in 2008 during childbirth, leaving Sean with his step-father. The step-father, Lins e Silva, also has refused to allow Sean Goldman to return to his father, David.
Goldman has received tremendous media coverage and surprisingly strong support from numerous elected officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and his New Jersey congressman, Chris Smith. President Barack Obama has weighed in on the case, stating his support for Goldman.
The Brazillian courts have played hot-potato with the matter: bouncing decisions both favorable and unfavorable to Goldman and Sean between judicial divisions. In the latest ruling, a judge has ordered that David Goldman may have custody of Sean: only however, in Brazil.
For about the past forty years, we have essentially treated fatherhood as if it were a historical remnant, akin to blacksmithing or cotton-gin operation. Fathers have been deemed unnecessary to the raising of children (with the exception of their financial responsibility, btw). We have communities in our nation where upwards of 90% of the children attempt to grow up in single-mother dominated households, and neighborhoods. Neighborhoods without fathers are neighborhoods without men – they are structurally incomplete and street-gang friendly (maybe that’s why, instead of referring to them as “neighborhoods,” we’ve now abbreviated the term to just: “‘hoods”…).
Within a climate of “devalued fatherhood,” a mother may feel quite comfortable in forever separating a child from their dad, as it so tragically appears that is how Bruna Bianchi felt about her abduction of young Sean.
So, Goldman not only is battling a foreign nation for the rightful return of his son: he is also fighting the insanity of a culture that for almost half a century, has thrown the “daddy out with the bathwater.”
Please honor this upcoming Father’s Day by visiting David and Sean’s website: http://bringseanhome.org/home.html.
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I believe I can appreciate your point of view, Mr Stephney. My son-in-law has shown me — and continues to do so — that fathers are important in the lives of children. No ifs, ands, or buts about that.
About Mr. Goldman: why does the press and everyone else here in the U.S. seem to take it for granted that the mother of the boy didn’t leave Mr. Goldman for good reasons? Maybe it was for those reasons that she fled to her family in Brazil and finally divorced and remarried — and until her death tried to protect her son from? Why does everyone assume that the mother was devious and betrayed the father, when in fact for all the press has reported it could very well have been the other way round?
“About Mr. Goldman: why does the press and everyone else here in the U.S. seem to take it for granted that the mother of the boy didn’t leave Mr. Goldman for good reasons? Maybe it was for those reasons that she fled to her family in Brazil and finally divorced and remarried — and until her death tried to protect her son from?”
Dear rockyinlaw:
If the assumption is that Bruna Bianchi had good reason to leave David Goldman and protect their son from him, it is my understanding that she would have had every opportunity to seek protective relief (assuming it was necessary…) in New Jersey. Most objective family legal observers view the current matrimonial law system as being heavily weighted in favor of wives and mothers. Published reports so far, do not indicate that Goldman had ever been abusive to his wife or child.
Let me ask you this: what do you think public sentiment would be, if David Goldman left his wife without notice, took their child permanently to a foreign country, re-married and refused to allow his ex to have contact with them?
As a society, for some reason we unwilling to accept that some women can be capable of the same extreme cruelty and inconsideration that some men can also be capable of.
In response to another comment. See in context »Good points all, Mr. Stephney. Mr. Goldman’s story is compelling, just as was Elian Gonzalez’s story was to us all.
Afterthought: I can think of one or two reasons why a woman — one who is innocent and pure of heart — might not want to or not be able to seek legal assistance, but my argument would be pure speculation and therefore not worth anyone’s time.
In response to another comment. See in context »Rockyinlaw,
If I had a question like that about a case that has been scrutinized world wide, I think I’d have done a little research before presenting a “question” that seems more like an accusation. Strangely enough, if you’d believe it, the ‘question’ has been posed on nearly every blog comment known to man, by family of the corrupt Lins e Silva’s. If you were really just “curious”, you could have gone to the bringseanhome website,or do what most people do, and Google it. You’d have found that “question” answered a hundred times and backed up with documented facts. Recordings, legal documents and the like. I’d say as low as the step-father is, he hasn’t had the nerve to even suggest what you have, after all these years of legal wranglings to keep the father from the son.
NO, Virginia, there are a handfull of people, posting on blogs, things that “suggest” that the mother, step-father and grandmother were totally within their rights to try and wipe Mr.Goldman from the life and memory of a child who clearly loved his daddy. Any more “Questions?”.
You’re right. I did no research whatsoever. I was responding to the one article I’ve read about this — Bill’s. I will take your message to heart as good advice.
What I’ve learned in this exchange is that the issue of father’s rights inspires as much passion as the issue of mother’s rights. And that strikes me as a very good thing — as long as the child’s rights take priority.
In response to another comment. See in context »“What I’ve learned in this exchange is that the issue of father’s rights inspires as much passion as the issue of mother’s rights. And that strikes me as a very good thing — as long as the child’s rights take priority.”
I think that’s part of the problem. Rather than encouraging nurturing, care, guidance and love within families, we now have ‘rights’ battles. ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ have been transformed into ‘Plaintiff’ and ‘Respondent.’
In response to another comment. See in context »I think that rockyinlaw was just wondering out loud about the case. No harm, no foul.
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr Stephney — Check out MARK STRICHER’s “Pat Buchanan-ism doesn’t solve fatherhood’s decline” here on True/Slant. Do you, too, think that “fatherhood is in decline”?
There are some rays of hope. Some years ago my neighbor/friends separated and went to court over custody. The father asked for my help, I determined from observation that he should have custody but thought from past experience that he didn’t have a prayer. I once witnessed a judge rule for a mother even though there was proof that she abused drugs. However there were some father’s rights organizations that published some books on how to handle family court. With their advice the Father received primary custody and then full custody. The mother was involved in raising the boy, lived near by and he is now about to graduate high school and I am sure is today celebrating his father’s guidance and child rearing skills.