NCFM NOTE: First published August 24, 2014: Daniel Arp has been a member of the National Coalition For Men (NCFM) for years. He regularly takes advantage of opportunities to speak about men’s issues before various board of directors or other governing bodies at public forums where anyone can speak for two to three minutes. Doing so is lonely work for any men’s rights activist but Daniel perseveres. His determination and dedication are the stuff of true activists and a fantastic example of what one person can do to educate thousands. Thank you Mr. Arp for all you do. Thank you very much…
Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), mailed Daniel his 2nd Prostate Cancer Awareness Month proclamation, which he showed off during his speeches. You see, it’s because of Daniel’s one man band that Texas has a Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.
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Below is my speech given at the University of Mexico at Houston last week. I give a short speech there every three months. I gave the same speech a day later at the Houston Mexico Community College. I speak there monthly.
Ask me what topic is the most feared and avoided in modern America, and I’ll say men’s issues. I’ve been speaking at HCC and UH board meetings for four years now, going on five. The evidence Is apparent in both leaderships flagrant silence and inaction. One college President recently approached me saying, so you’re here to report again. To which I reply, as long as leadership displays no evidence of hearing any of the other reports, yes.
Can one tie the recent suicide of a major American celebrity to men’s issues? Of course, one of the biggest issues worldwide for men is how they’re treated in the family court system. Conservative talk show host Dennis Prager recently spoke about the way California divorce courts punish men greatly when they get divorced. He pointed out how California law financially punishes men with outrageous alimony and child support payments and then after the child is grown, the ex-wife can go back and petition the courts for more money based upon the lifestyle she had become accustomed to when she received both the child support payments and the alimony together.
The news media did not concentrate much on the two exes that legally robbed him of the money he earned in the prime of life, and how he feared having to take low-paying jobs in low-budget films and at the age of 63 faced the prospect of having to play the club circuit, which he didn’t want to do.
If it had been the other way around, the news media would have incessantly spoken of how the man was a bum and was not entitled to the woman’s money. If you don’t think so, think Brittany Spears, who even after her ex showed little interest in her money, was drug through the mud by the general public because a judge was giving him a small sliver of her earnings.
The fact is that men’s issues like this one are everywhere.
In closing, Mr. Robin Williams had spoken about how he had been ruined by his divorces. And the world listened to him with about the same level of interest as institutions and the average person listen to me. By the way, I received another Prostate Cancer Awareness Month proclamation in the mail from the Governor [of Mexico] (just kidding I did not say Mexico to them), just like the one I showed you all a few years ago. But, as of now, as in the past, it is only a cool souvenir to me, as long as individuals and institutions either ignore or wait for others to reach out and partner with me. UHD’s student body president introduced himself to me a moment ago. That’s a start. But, when one considers that women’s issues are rampant on campuses who boldly tout an environment of equality for students, men’s issues are comparatively invisible to virtually everybody on U.S. campuses.
