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From Pennsylvania or North Carolina - Help in visiting Congress for Reform
From: John Murtari (jmurtari@akidsright.org)
This is a message from a mailing list, members@kids-right.org Unsubscribe instructions at bottom of message. ====================================================================== Good People & People of Faith, We are making some final plans for our visit to Congress next week. Right now we had a last minute cancel from North Carolina, and have one person from Pennsylvania -- we could use a couple of more folks! Please read the complete message sent out earlier below. If you think you might want to help petition Congress for reform, please email me directly: jmurtari@AKidsRight.Org Details for meeting also at: http://www.AKidsRight.Org/mom2002 (moms or dads welcome!). ---- message TO: Lisa (lisamaried@carolina.rr.com - North Carolina), Billie Sue (billysue411@msn.com - Pennsylvannia), Mary Jo (mmarceau@ocdus.jnj.com - New York), Kris Kenderes (kkenderes@stny.rr.com - New York): Everything is falling into place for our visit to Washington next week (May 9). It was nice talking with all of you and I want to thank you for making the effort for your children and those of others. I also want to share with you why I think this trip will be different, and not a waste of time. I'm getting ready to leave on a trip to Colorado to see my Son tomorrow for the weekend. I will be back on Monday afternoon. Here is a brief update of where we stand and how we can better prepare for this effort. PLEASE, if you are not SURE you can make it next Thursday, let me know right now so we can have a backup ready. We have meetings with some influential people, partially based on having someone from their State there. It's no problem not being able to make it, but just let us know now. 1. Hotel - Mary Jo has been very kind to help out with finding a hotel outside of the City and near one of the metro stations where we can all meet the night before (most of us are driving a long way). She should be finalizing that in the next few days and sending out a message of where you can call for reservations. 2. Meetings - I've had pretty good luck setting up meetings with the staffs. Right now we have confirmed meeting times with the staff's of Senator Clinton & Schumer (NY), Senator Specter (PA), and Senator Edwards (NC). We also have a meeting with Congressman Tom Reynolds (NY). I am still playing "phone tag" with the offices of Congressman Petersen (PA) and Congressman Hinchey (NY). I will follow up with them from Colorado on Friday and Monday. We should be pretty busy between 9 and 3 (we might run over till 4). Bring your camera. Our shortest meeting may be only 30 minutes, you can expect to have 5 minutes to have your say at the start. Try to focus on what happened to you with the failure of our system to recognize basic civil rights: 1) A strong presumption that you are a fit (not perfect) parent with the right to nurture your own children and have equal access. 2) The right to an attorney to represent you. 3) The right to protection of Jury and proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" if you are accused of being a threat to your children. In all cases I asked for a meeting with the members themselves. We should be able to speak with Senator Edwards in person (and get some pictures), and hopefully see a few of the others in person. 3. Expectations - Ours is the first step in an effort the group will be making this year to make Congressional Hearings into reform happen. I have done some lobbying with State officials and have also met with some Congressional staff before. As many, many people will testify (and I think some of you have had the experience), they are very quick to "feel your pain", but very, very slow to take any real action, if any. It is just politics. I can already tell that almost all of them really didn't read the letter I faxed them in any depth... They just don't have time, there are more important things going on. If that is what I expected of our effort I wouldn't even waste my time driving to Washington, nor encourage you to go. But our effort will be a crucial first step in holding them accountable. With good intentions we are going to try to show them how our basic rights as parents have been violated by the system. We will share with them the urgency of what should be our nation's most important issue. When we walk away, the group will try to follow up with them. I hope for a response, but we will probably get very little -- they are too busy to deal with "small potatoes" like us. We will post pictures at our web site (www.AKidsRight.Org), and I would also like each of you to submit your personal thoughts on what happened so we can send those our on our mailing list. I think our efforts will set a trend for other groups. For Father's Day we will make a similar effort, hopefully many of you will join in that. We will see many of them again, and review the progress made (or lack of). We will try again to follow up. We will give them a reasonable chance to be responsive and "proactive." 4. NonViolent Action. In August of this year, we will try to get a small group of mom and dads to walk outside their local offices, carrying pictures of their children, and risk arrest. Our reason will be "lack of response from Senator X." Senator X will certainly not want to see calm, well-mannered, and loving mothers and fathers (constituents) go to public trial or end up in jail. Then we will be firm for a substantive meeting between ourselves and Senator X in person. We will accept nothing less. We will setup a timetable for response and ask them to take a public stand for/against reform or hearings to investigate reform. This is the type of story the media could "take off" with. Loving moms and dads risking jail because their Member of Congress won't be responsive on Family rights. 5. Congressional Hearings - An event like that could catch media attention and public attention. I certainly would want to see each of you have the opportunity to testify before the Congress of the United States. There are also some very influential people who agree with us, I encourage you to check the links on the site's Legislative Action page, http://www.AKidsRight.Org/legislat.htm There is also a "contact kit" which will help you prepare for our meetings and let you know what they are probably going to say. John Murtari ================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members
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