Editor, Times-Union: I am writing in regards to a problem that currently exists with the newly installed system of "child support payment and record keeping method" used by the office at the local justice building.
I was unemployed for a period of eight weeks. During this time, I became delinquent with respect to my $120 per week child support payment. I had explained the arrearage to my ex-wife who was understanding to my situation. She had asked that I keep current with the weekly payments and that I could satisfy the arrearage of $960 when I was in a better financial position. I am very lucky, she was understanding.
I have kept all of my paid receipts, as well as a record of the weeks that I was unable to pay. It is important to me that I follow what is required of me to do. I do not wish to be considered a "Deadbeat Dad." I care very deeply to do what is legally and morally required of me.
I was finally in a position to pay the arrearage and so, my son and I went to the justice building to satisfy the arrearage. I had all of my paid receipts as well as my records of when I hadn't been able to pay. I felt confident that with our new taxpayer-supported system in place, I would be certain to have the support office readily advise me of the exact amount in delinquent child support I owed.
I introduced myself to a kindly woman and asked how much I owed in back support and believing that the figure I would hear would be the $960 that I had previously calculated. To my great surprise, she responded, "We don't know."
In disbelief, I replied, "What do you mean, you don't know? Doesn't the new system have the means to track my payment history? You have no way of knowing if I am delinquent or not!"
She replied, "No, it doesn't. We can only track payments through a court order from a judge or those of men who do not pay required support at all." I was appalled to find this out. I responded, "So, it's a good idea that I keep track of all my records or your office would have no idea of any amount owed by me?" Her response to this, "The only way that we would know how much you would owe is if your ex-wife were to come into this office and tell us." I told her, "That stinks! You mean to tell me that your new system has absolutely no way of tracking me?" She explained, "No, it doesn't, but we wish that it did."
By that time, I was wondering just how many tax dollars were spent to put this rather worthless system in place. I gave the woman all of my receipts and she then typed on her computer for a while and inspected my receipts. She then said, "That'll be $960." I paid the $960. She gave me a receipt, we thanked one another and I left.
While driving home, I couldn't help but wonder ... what if my ex-wife would have taken a notion to go to the nice lady at the justice building and given her some arbitrary figure of, say, $1,200. What recourse would I have had since, as I was told, record keeping for child support is done by word of mouth and hearsay.
It's a good thing that I keep my own record! I'm not a Deadbeat Dad!
Randy J. Goon, Leesburg
Ignore The KKK
Editor, Times-Union: So the Ku Klux Klan is coming to Warsaw on May 8 to hold a rally. Rally for what? To show their ignorance? Grown men strutting around in some ridiculous white garb trying to convince us that they are something superhuman.
In the Potpourri article, it was stated that some horn-tooting clowns follow these idiots and blow their horns when a klansman speaks. Come on. Attention is what they want. Ignore them. Don't lower yourselves to their level. If you want to blow your horns, go someplace where something good is going on, like the Habitat for Humanity project, and blow your horns in support of people who are showing love and not hatred.
No one had a choice of who their parents would be or where the place of birth was. Also, there is no one who is super special. No matter what our lot in life is, when it is all over we will all occupy a 6-foot area in a cemetery, or something similar. We have a choice of either making this life better for having been here, or else make it worse. The Ku Klux Klan fits the latter category.
I truly believe that 99.999 percent of the people in this county have really important things to do and will stay away from the area where the KKK idiots are meeting. Ignore them and the wind is gone from their sails.
