Lary Holland: Official Blog, Links, and Resources

Here is an event that you can participate in on Parents Day 2009. (July 26, 2009). A march for parents from Upper Senate Park on Sunday at 9AM to the National Christmas Tree with speaking at 12:00PM. See you all there!Fathers Justice Flyer 2009

Now here is a novel approach to advocacy that you can prepare for this week. Lighting Candles Worldwide... How cheap is a candle for you, your family, and your friends. Take out an ad with your local non-profit organization, or one of your choosing, and let your local community know a place that you will be at to light candles on December 18, 2008 (7PM Eastern) for our children and their need to have both parents and extended family members involved in their lives.

From the Lighting Candles Worldwide Website:

Imagine for a moment Lighting Candles World Wide and all at the same time. Imagine your child knowing we are Lighting Candles World Wide just for them.

We have given this a lot of thought and we have come to the conclusion that everyone can light a candle at their home or in their home town at a designated place.

You can be apart of Lighting Candles World Wide to show a united front for the children and their need to have both parents and grandparents in their lives.

We have chosen December 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (more time zones below) for our first annual Lighting Candles World Wide which is exactly one week before Christmas. This is the hardest time of year for those missing their children, but especially for the children who are missing a parent or grandparents or in some casessiblings and of course their extended family.

Thank you to Three-Sides-To-Every-Story for initiating this simple and effective event that people in every community can enjoy. Just take an ad out this week or next and let people know about it. Work with a church, school, or other non-profit organizatons to bring this issue to the public eye. Be sure to invite press and have a press release ready.

You may remember recently that Brian Downs and myself both spoke to the Flint City Council asking support for Michigan House Bill 4564, Michigan's presumption of equal custody bill. I ventured back in July to speak further to the Flint City Council. See below the presentation that I provided again to the Flint City Council. Also, Council Member Jackie Foster Poplar spoke in support of the bill and indicated that she issued a letter to Lansing about supporting House Bill 4564. She also told her side of the story in the below video which I encourage all of you to view. You can also send letters/emails of support directly to Jackie Poplar at jpoplar@cityofflint.com thanking her for supporting this critical issue.

The Grim Reaper came to collect a little bit early again and he granted me an adjournment "sine die" while I complete my work here.

I met a gentleman the other day named Mr. Reaper, he was an old friend. He came to collect a bit early and granted me another adjournment, this one "sine die."

Some of you may have heard that either the Friend of the Court attempted a mail bomb hit on me or I was in a freak accident. The reality of it was, I was in an explosion. This explosion was at point blank range and it happened on Thursday in the middle of the day. I was standing next to a truck with a large gasoline tank, the kind that holds over 30 gallons or more. As I approached the tank on the driver's side I heard the sound of a canon and a blaze of metal and fire exploded into me.

I was able to block the main fireball (the majority of it) from my face with my left forearm. Unfortunately, bare skin does not hold up very well against Gasoline Liquid, Gasoline Vapor, and the Explosive Force necessary to escape a solid rusty metal tank.

http://www.burnsurgery.com/Documents/gasoline_safety.doc

Now some things that I happened to learn about was:

"In spite of the routine use of gasoline, many people are unaware of or unappreciative of the dangers of gasoline. Gasoline is dangerous because it is highly volatile – the fumes are capable of ignition up to 12 feet away from a pooled source.  This inherent danger is further multiplied by its explosive potential. Flammables burn at close to room temperature (100 degrees F), when they are near a spark, flame, or even static electricity. It can float on water and may spread long distances, making ignition and flash back possible. Gasoline vapor is highly explosive and may ignite as a “fireball” with a temperature of 15,000 degrees F."

Now again, my forearm was able to stop the majority of the fireball as I was escaping on the tail end of the concussive force of the tank exploding into me. As I was hit with the entire force of the metal and rust fragmentation I was also splashed with gasoline and remained on fire. As the doctors have already asked, are you sure that you didn't black out from the force? I keep replying, I wanted to, but I didn't really have time to fall asleep while I was on fire. I immediately had to focused on putting fires out that were still on my body, tearing off clothing and extinguishing open flames that were still on me. This was successful after a considerable amount of damage to my arms and abdominal region both through bruising, shrapnel, and burns.

I obtained a ride from a family member to the nearest walk-in clinic and asked if they were equipped to handle the damage that has occurred to me as it was becoming pretty critical at this point. I needed immediate x-rays to see if my left ribs pierced my lungs, because I was having problems breathing and the amount of visible trauma that had occurred to that general area was pretty visible. They were unable to handle any of the care except to wrap me up. They contacted an ambulance to get me to the nearest hospital. Their surgeon was not equipped to address the damage to my left arm. I received a tetanus shot and a vallium shot and eventually an iv which I refused for sometime. I had to get over it, to get treated.

I was taken by ambulance and arrived at one of Michigan's Burn Centers for them to begin working on me. Each day has been a new set of issues associated with the blast, but it looks like I am finally on my last full day at the Hospital. I will be checking out tomorrow after I am cleared by a neurologist and an ear nose and throat specialist regarding some equilibrium and migraine issues. The bottom line is, I have alot of work to do, and I don't have time to lay down and die. We all have alot of work to do, so let's get it done!

• Support: the Bike Trek for Equal Parenting Trip (August 11 - 18, 2007)
• Support: the DC Rally for Equal Parenting (August 18, 2007)
• Support: Budget Cuts for Title IV-D Services
• Support: House Bill 4564

The 49th Annual Frankenmuth Bavarian Festival, raising awareness of Equal Parenting.

On June 10, 2007 I thought it was time to raise awareness of House Bill 4564 by talking to people on the street before and after the Frankenmuth Bavarian Festival Parade. I discussed Equal Parenting and passed out business cards and provided information about Michigan's Equal Parenting Bill, House Bill 4564.

This is only a fraction of the effort that is being placed into raising awareness of the issues surrounding Michigan's Families and how Federal Funding Obstructs Children's Substantially Equal access to both of their parents.

Events will be happening all Summer long, including the Bike Trek for Equal Parenting and also the Washington DC Rally for Equal Parenting. I will be participating in all of the events and making sure that footage is generated at every event.

Kent County Friend of the Court staff and judges should realize that I will be living up to my promise of ensuring that their funding is cut for the willful interference and enabling of the willful deprivation of a child's right to equal access to both fit and willing parents. More people than ever are understanding the cause of the problems associated with the appearance of bias and discrimination in the family court courtrooms. There is a dollar on your children's heads and on one parent's heads, AND THE JUDGE'S GET TO SET THE AMOUNT THAT MOST BENEFITS THEIR OWN OPERATIONS. It's time to reign in free for all welfare programs that encourage the breakup of families.

A father was finally reunited with his daughter after a year and half! A dad had sole custody of their daughter and the mom showed up at dad's house and took off with the little girl and was nowhere to be found. Mom concealed the daughter for over a year. Eventually America's Most Wanted caught up and reunited the dad with his daughter after a couple of weeks of being aired and tipsters reporting the location of the child and the mom. This was truly a happy reunion indeed. Check out the video below from March 25, 2007:

Well we made it to Iowa early this morning and grabbed some sleep when we came in. Now we are preparing for the Equal Parenting Rally in Iowa. You can visit Iowa Fathers (http://www.iowafathers.com) for more information specific to the rally. Minister Ron Smith, Dr. Stephen Baskerville, Dr. Mark Klein, and many others have joined up for the Iowa Fathers Equal Parenting Rally. More to come, including video and pictures.