Help Dan Das Mann Get His Kids Back

It’s 96 hours or so before the man burns.

And I, Benjamin McGranahan have just experienced the strangest and wildest month of my life.

Within it, I met the man in question. Dan Das Mann.

And I never thought I would ever make a Go Fund Me for someone I just met within 2 months.

But you want to know a little secret?

The reason I’m writing this is not about Dan. It’s about Crisis.

Clearly, you understand it yourself. Why would you even read all of this right now? You are probably already on the Playa. Or you are cozy at home taking care of your kids. or focused on building your next big win at work.

Why would you care about Dan Das Mann during this Crisis?

Because there’s a crisis right now. The food is poisoned. The people are separated and hurling hatred at each other. The ocean is becoming more and more polluted. The rainforests are burning down.

It’s a nasty time to be alive.

But even within all of this crisis, I realized what the real crisis is.

And it all began with a dream I just woke up from.

Now to the dream..

Suffering from the heat wave of the century, somehow, my compulsion is to sleep.

Especially when I have projects and my mind is just too wrapped up in trash to come up with a good word to save my life.

Thankfully, we have the unconscious during times like these.

Drifting off into my dream. I am renewed again. 22 or something living in a sick underground den in the middle of Hollywood.

My perfect situation. Right in the middle of a laundry mat. Low key, who wouldn’t want such a set up?

Now, what suddenly happens is that a wealthy chinese man enters the laundry mat. I’m not sure why. Probably to talk to me.

And he’s about to go out on the town. He’s dressed the part. I just look like an artist. An artist who’s held onto my will to create. But beneath being that artist, I am the same entrepreneur who stepped into the building in the first place.

So I go on talking to this astute Chinese man. And he asks me some questions which I rudely interrupt with my own. It doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. But at the same time, there’s a thread of coherence between us. You could feel it in the tension between our eyes.

Anyways, he keeps wanting a chance to blurt. So he keeps telling me random things about his life. Like there’s no pattern, but it’s just the emotion keeping the grease on these wheels.

It’s not until the end of our sit down that things become interesting. I blurt out to him what’s happened in my life up until this point.

But before I tell him this sacred nugget I ask him. Well, what do you plan to do for the rest of the night? Knowing very well he’s going out to gamble or eat with his money.

And instead he decides to talk about tomorrow and how overjoyed he is to take his dog out for a walk.

And I concur, telling him about my buddy who just left to Hawaii and how he has a Shitzu Poodle. And I can see out the corner of my eye, the Chinese mans kids and his wife nagging him telling him it’s time to go.

He corrects me and says they don’t call them Shitzu Poodles. They call them another name. Regardless, besides the point.

So knowing the clock is counting down, I tell him that in 2019 I realized that the art and music world was dead and that I sought to revive it.

And then it’s as if the whole dream paused.. the whole universe paused…

I forgot to mention that I ate a plate of noodles the whole time we talked. Right on my lap.

And his wife comes and takes my noodles and puts them on their cart. They have a cart for some reason.

And when I walk over to the cart, in confusion and curiosity. There is only one noodle on the cart.

And thus ends my dream.

Now, what does this have to do with Dan Das Mann?

I’d argue that my subconscious reinvented Dan as me to help me write this. But that would be a bogus distortion of reality.

Maybe it’s more that even the most frustrated people of wealth still recognize the value of art. And that this can even be reflected in their possession of just one noodle from a plate of steaming hot delicious noodles.

I think that’s more the point of the dream.

Now enough analyzing dreams, you are probably wondering why I’m putting in all this effort to help Dan Das Mann get his kids back.

Great artists give meaning to life.

Rivaling the power of religion.

Great artists channel the beauty of nature into creating new forms.

Few people have I met who walk the talk like Dan Das Mann.

And after traveling with the man, the myth, the legend for a couple weeks.. and hearing about the wild rollercoaster of a story that landed him in Men’s Central Jail for 9 months…and the deceit from his own mother. I wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Dan Das Mann has many faces. So do we all. It’s great artists who remind us of our multi-dimensionality. Isn’t it better to forget you are a round character who stays stuck in a comfortable pattern?

Dan defies all of the comfortable patterns. It’s this defiance that has landed him in trouble. But even for the mistakes he’s made, none of them warrant him being barred from his kids. After fabricating a case against her son and feeling guilty for what she had done, Dan’s mother confessed to me over the phone.

“Dan’s life was taken away from him. He didn’t deserve what happened to him after I lied to the police. As much as his wife Lindsay and mother-in-law tried to paint him as a manic animal so that he couldn’t see his kids again…The truth is Dan is a caring, gentle, kind person. I felt that I had to do what I had to do to protect him. I regret it now..”

So now that I understood that Dan’s mother had called the police on him and made up a story of elder abuse to “protect him.” I realized there’s more to the story, so I asked her “What created this mess in the first place?”

She continued, “Dan loves community. He loves taking care of people. Helping people, and that’s how he spends his life. He had many businesses which were taken away from him. And he didn’t create this mess. I saw people getting upset with him as he tried to fight his way to see his kids again. And it was a tough fight. Everybody thought he was going nuts. While he was not going nuts in that respect, he just wanted to prevent some of the things that happened to him. And I thought the best thing to do was to keep him out of circulation for a while. He was literally getting threats on his life.”

I had to inquire further, “Ms. Lowry, what did you do to protect him?”

She responded.. “So I made up a story that he attacked me. And I made sure I had something to show and tell the police. And the rest is probably what you think. When he was in jail, he found ways to raise money and do special favors for people who didn’t have help from their families. He was trying to help the people in jail. He raised funds so they could get extra food and used his money and took care of lots of people.”

I was touched by Dan’s heart.. as much as I’ve heard the word on the street that he was a manic demon. There had to be truth to this.

So Ms. Lowry continued, and I listened attentively.. “I love my son very much. And I want to see him back to his routine. But, of course, we all know his normal is a bit kookie. He loves to do parties. He loves to have fun and take care of everybody. And sometimes it’s misinterpreted, but ultimately, it’s for good.”

I still had a pain in my head.. how is it that Dan got into this situation where he lost custody of his kids in the first place?

Ms. Lowry continued to explain.

“Dan’s ex-wife and mother-in-law sought to exact a certain judgment on Dan. And it all started when they took him to divorce court, accusing him of being manic. As far as Lindsay goes.. Lindsay and Dan had a great marriage; they were very happy together. But her mother started to interfere and everything happened at once. When Lindsay had her second baby, she made it very clear to me that she did not want to be a mother. She did not want to have to raise these children. So of course, Danny helped. But Lindsay’s mother wanted to run the show. So she found a way to get to Lindsay. Lindsay felt sorry because her mother was quite alone.”

Now, I was intrigued. I thought to myself… “How could a mother-in-law be so cruel as to plot to take her son-in-law’s kids from him?”

“The first time around her brother got involved as well. His wife was divorcing him. And so her mother and he both were taking care of the kids. And because she had made good money in her lifetime and still had a good income, she could hire a costly lawyer. There were a lot of lies. And I want Danny to get this support because he’s helped people constantly throughout his life. It’s the only way he’s going to see his children again. He’s’ been deprived for two years. They were babies, and he’s not really had the chance to help them become people. He’s never had the chance to raise them with good values and show them right from wrong. “

Well, at this point, I settled it in my head. Even if Danny had frustrated his wife, at least in my experience with him, I would say he’s not manic. A bit wild, but not manic.

So his mom continued about Lindsay’s condition so I could completely understand what happened.

She said “I remember that while Lindsay was nursing, she would drink every afternoon. She also smoked a lot. While she breastfed, she smoked pot and drank wine. That was not appropriate. Regarding drugs, I only remember her handing me a bottle of prescription pills. The bottle had her mother’s name on it. I’m assuming she was hiding these from herself. If there were other drugs, I never saw them. But she did act very strange when the nanny left. And Lindsay would sit and smoke and drink while I watched the kids.”

I was amazed. “How is it that Danny lost custody of his kids when his wife appeared to have been less than accountable for the children?”

Ms. Lowry continued. “Lindsay may have been suicidal at some point. She wasn’t mentally stable. In fact, she was going through post-partum depression and she apparently never told her mother. However, when I was there, she made it clear that she did not want these children. She said that she did not want to raise these children. And that’s why I was even more confused when Lindsay lied about not intending to call the Psych Team on Dan.”

“What? Lindsay called the Psych Team on Dan?”

So finally, Ms. Lowry explained how Lindsay called the Psych Team on Dan. And how Dan even complied.

“Danny was beside himself. He had no idea how to handle them with her mother trying to take the kids. And they decided that Danny was Manic Depressive. So she talked to a bunch of his friends and people in the business and told them to stay away from Danny. They said he could be harmful to his children and himself. So they painted this whole picture. And then Lindsay lied to Dan and I. She said she wasn’t going to call the Psych Team on Dan. But one morning, they showed up at the door. So Dan took off until he could regain his composure. He then agreed to meet Lindsay at the mental institution so they could both get assessed. But when he showed up, the doctors had no interest in assessing Lindsay. And he realized that it was a setup. He realized that her mom must of reached out and had him set up.”

So I asked Ms. Lowry if she had any last words because my mind was made up at this point. Dan deserved his kids or at least the chance to fight for them.

She said “Danny is not a criminal. And I know that I falsely accused him. Thankfully, the case with me was dismissed entirely because they realized he didn’t do anything, saw how he behaved and wasn’t breaking any laws he was accused of. The landlord victimized him and just wanted the business from him and his wife, whom he loves so much. And she just decided that she needed to be taken care of by her mother. And I only know that she wanted everything, all the balls in her court, because I stayed with her. For several months. I listened to her. I knew exactly what she was thinking and planning to do. She’s trying to bury Danny, who she never really liked much. She never thought he was good enough because he didn’t do the nine-to-five executive thing and came home for dinner every night. “

Well, this is clearly the story of a mother-in-law who sought to exact judgment on her son-in-law and take his kids away from him. As much as the story touched my heart, I knew that this would only matter if something was done about it.

Danny could represent himself in court until the jackals come home. This is called being “Pro-Per,” but ultimately I want to help him get support to get his kids back. As you know, lawyers are expensive. In order for Danny to see his kids again, there are costs. And you might know that the majority of “Pro-Per” cases fail because judges don’t respect those who defend themselves as much as those with qualified legal support. So if you can help and have the heart, it would be greatly appreciated.

Support here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/helpdangethiskidsback