OPEN LETTER TO SUSAN HICKS & ABC

WHAT WILL YOU TELL THE “BLACKLISTED ONES?”

The Massachusetts Committee of ABC was one of the prime supporters of SB 63. I have read over your webpage and discovered that something very important is totally missing from ABC’s laundry list of superlatives about SB 63. The missing link is your feelings and attitudes toward the “Blacklisted Ones” – you know, the adopted men and women who happened to have been born on the politically incorrect dates between July 17, 1974 and December 31, 2007. What do you say to these adoptees who will still have to go to court to get their birth certificates?


Will you look them in the face and tell them how good SB 63 is?

Will you pat them on the back and thank them for being martyrs to the cause?

Will you tell them that you'll come back in a year or two to revisit the law and then you will support changing it to include the Blacklisted Ones?

Will you tell them that with all political issues there are bound to be scapegoats? And with SB 63, they are the scapegoats.

Will you look them in the eyes and tell them that this bill was the right thing to do?

Will you tell them that leaving them out in the cold was the politically expedient thing that you all had to do in order to get this bill passed into law?

Will you tell them you’re sorry?

MORE ON MA DISASTER - BLESSED ONES ARE NOT TO BLAME

TO THE BLESSED ONES:

You all should NOT feel guilty about being in the Blessed category. You all didn't do anything wrong! The ones who wrote and passed this law are the guilty ones. Funny, isn't it? Right now, I don't hear any celebrations from them - I think they're hiding under some rug.

Blessed Ones, don't feel guilty. Sometimes in life you find yourself in the right place at the right time. So you all run, not walk, to your nearest Vital Stats office and get your original birth certificates. They belong to YOU.

DISASTER IN MASSACHUSETTS

ABC SAYS………
GRANNIE ANNIE SAYS………

ABC (Access to uncertified Birth Certificates) is the Massachusetts Group that fought to pass SB 63 into law. They are so happy about passing SB 63 and have devoted a whole website page to “What SB 63 is all about.”

For sake of clarity, I will refer to all adopted men and women born between July 17, 1974 and December 31, 2007 as “the blacklisted ones.” Remember, these are the adopted persons who cannot get their original birth certificates like everyone else.

All ABC statements are in red and are directly and fully quoted from ABC’s website. http:www.accesstobirthcertificates.org.


Senate Bill #63 is about stopping the clock now. Every year that goes by, we add thousands of newly adopted persons to the list of people who are excluded from access to their original uncertified birth certificates.

No, No, No, ABC! You can NOT stop the clock. Not any clock. Not the wind-up kind my grandma used to have nor the atomic clocks sold at Sharper Image. The clock continues to tick for us all - the blacklisted ones and all the rest of us.

Every second that passes is yet another second that the blacklisted ones are being kept in their black hole where their identity information is being withheld from them. Honest! They can hear those clocks just whirring away, marking the passage of time and counting the days, weeks, and years that they are going without access to their original birth certificates.

Before July 17, 1974 adult adopted persons over the age of 18 or adoptive parents of minor adopted persons were able to access an uncertified copy of the adopted person’s original birth certificate. Therefore, all birth mothers who relinquished before July 17, 1974 relinquished during the years when access was the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

JUST A MINUTE! HOLD YOUR HORSES! You’re making a giant leap from fact to fantasy here.

Shame on you, ABC. This argument is only an assumption on your part - is not a fact. For the sake of your argument, you are assuming that the law change in 1974 which took away adopted peoples’ access to their birth records also means that the birth mothers who relinquished after 1974 were given legal assurances of confidentiality.

Oh yes, the legislature did change the access law but it did NOT ever address the legality of birthmother’s confidentiality in any way. Birthmother confidentiality has never been a LAW. Don’t equate a law about access with a wish for confidentiality!
Don't make a law where none existed before.

Senate Bill #63 will still require adopted persons born between July 17, 1974 and January 1, 2008 to obtain a court order. The bill also stipulates that evidence of a birth parents willingness to provide information about their identity to the adopted person shall serve as sufficient evidence to grant access to the birth certificate.

ABC’rs – have any of you gone to court to get an order to release your original birth certificates? Guess what? I have!

I spent about 2months doing research in law libraries and then at least another 4 months wending my way through the judicial system. During this time, I spent numerous days making court appearances, amending petitions, gathering more evidence, and enduring many continuances.

Total cost in dollars was well over $1000 – and that was without hiring an attorney. Add on a lawyer and you can add on several hundred dollars to the total expense.

ABC, do you ever wonder how many blacklisted ones have that much free time or money to go to court? Do you even care?

Senate Bill #63 will establish an Adoption Contact Information Registry at Vital Statistics for the purpose of housing information indicating whether or not a birthparent(s) wishes to grant access to the original birth certificate.

What? Yet ANOTHER REGISTRY? Are you serious? ROTFL

Senate Bill #63 is about respecting the judgment of adoptive parents to hold their infant, child, and teen's information and to make decisions in the best interest of their minor child.

Oh my! I didn’t even know that prior to passage of SB 63 adopted CHILDREN were able to make decisions about anything related to their adoptions.

Whew! It’s a relief to know that SB 63 will stop minor adopted CHILDREN from storming the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Senate Bill #63 is about trusting Adult Adopted Persons, Birth Parents and Adoptive Parents--as we trust other citizens--to respect boundaries.

What boundaries? Whose boundaries?

Oh, I get it. The blacklisted ones must have a history of breaking boundaries? Is that it?

Heavens, there may even be some blacklisted ones in the clinker at this very moment, serving time for not respecting boundaries. No wonder you have to teach them about trust.

Senate Bill #63 is about reinstating the same access that existed until 1974 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

ABC, watch out!! You’re going backwards – and fast! Most people in the United States like to believe that they are moving forward on important issues. Most people want to change with the times. They believe in flexibility. But maybe they don’t know the issues as well as you do.

ABC, what other laws will you be going backwards to find and enforce? Would you like to go back to the 1950’s and enforce the “Gentlemen’s Agreements” about selling houses or renting hotel rooms to Jewish people?

Or maybe you don’t like African Americans drinking from your water fountains. Maybe that can be your next project – go back to the 40’s and 50’s and reinstate society the way it was then.

Say, maybe you’d like to reinstate the law that says women cannot vote. You’ll have to go pretty darned far to get that one, but hey, you’ve got lots of political experience. You can do it.

“Senate Bill #63 is about granting Adopted Persons their first formal certificate of membership in the human race and as citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

WHAT?

Just a minute. What’s wrong with the blacklisted ones? Why can’t they get a formal certificate of membership in the human race? Why can’t they be granted full citizenship in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

Is it because their mothers gave them away and don’t want them coming back?

Or maybe the blacklisted ones aren’t smart enough yet to get a formal certificate. Is it like a graduation certificate?

Could it be that the blacklisted ones are bad people, ones you really don’t want to join the rest of the human race anyway?

Or could it be that you all just don’t care?!

MASSACHUSETTS IS NOW LIVING ON ANIMAL FARM, WHERE ALL ADOPTED PEOPLE ARE EQUAL EXCEPT THAT SOME ADOPTED PEOPLE ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

MASSACHUSETTS SB 63

“An Act to Further Regulate the Access of Birth Certificates”

ARE YOU BLESSED OR ARE YOU BLACKLISTED?

SB 63 is one of the worst bills ever devised in adoption history. Under SB 63, adopted adults will be separated into two distinct categories based solely on dates of birth. I call them the BLESSED LIST and the BLACK LIST.

MASSACHUSETTS’ BLESSED LIST

1. Adopted men and women who were born before July 17, 1974.

2. Adopted children who will be born after January 1, 2008.

If you are the Blessed list, you will be able to request and receive from the Commonwealth’s Registrar your original birth certificates without any restrictions.

MASSACHUSETTS BLACK LIST

1. Adopted men and women who were born between the dates of
July 17, 1974 and January 1, 2008.

2. Adopted adults in all of the United States and Canada. This bill has the potential to set an unacceptable precedent in adoption law. If one state, Massachusetts, is allowed to blatantly discriminate against 34 years of adoptees, the potential for other states to copycat is great.

If you are on the Black List, you will only be able to request your original birth certificate by petitioning the courts.

HOW CAN YOU PROTEST TODAY?

SB 63 has passed both the Senate and the House and is awaiting the governor's signature within the next few days. Please phone, fax or email Governor Deval Patrick IMMEDIATELY and tell him to veto SB 63.

The Honorable Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick

Phone: 617 - 725 -4005

Fax (in state only) 617-927-9725

Email: http:www.mass.gov/

HOW CAN YOU PROTEST IN NOVEMBER?

ALL ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!

THE SPONSORS OF SB 63 MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. THEY MUST BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE.

SENATOR FREDERIC E. BERRY, Republican. Represents the districts of Second Essex, which includes Beverly, Peabody, Salem, Danvers, and Topsfield

SENATOR KAREN E. SPILKA. Democrat, Majority Leader of Senate, 2003 – 2008. Represents the districts of Second Middlesex and Norfolk

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN. A. LEPPER. Democrat, Minority Whip 2003 – present. Represents the Attleboro District, precincts one, two, and three.

Save this list and watch for these names at the next election!

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