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Boston, May 18--A huge turnout of 110 to 120 supporters jammed into a Judiciary Committee hearing here today to criticize restraining order laws.
Testimony was structured, highly dramatic, and moving. Thanks to strong preparation by Ned Holstein's Fathers and Families and by the Coalition For the Preservation of Fatherhood (CPF) leaders, the first dozen testifiers on restraining order abuse electrified the legislators. Both men and women testified. Ned had provided six women to testify, and they clearly were a surprise.
Myra Dunne, a nurse from Hingham, described bring thrust out of her house with a restraining order as the first move in a surprise divorce. Her voice quavering, she told the committee of the lifelong effects of that trauma, including medication, disqualification for insurance, depression, etc. The Senators and Representatives (six each on this joint committee) were really, really shocked to hear her saying what she did.
Ray Saulnier, co-director of CPF, described the fact that he hasn't seen his children in five years, and told how he has been harassed with restraining order arrests and put on trial after he criticized a battered women's leader in a letter to the editor.
Many others testified, and to great effect, even though the limit was three minutes.
Shock treatment
Chairmen of the committee were Senator Creedon Quincy and Rep. Donovan of--not sure. Massachusetts has the most liberal, politically correct, left-leaning legislature in the country. But these legislators were shocked into a new course. They both asked our witnesses sympathetic questions, and made detailed sympathetic comments. They both grilled and persistently challenged the two feminists activists who testified against the reform bill.
Legislators were interested, shaken up by the testimony, sympathetic. When the shallow ideologues (two battered-women professionals using the usual foggy jargon: batterer, perpetrator, victim, etc) testified to the idea that never had either of them ever seen a woman lie to get a restraining order, you could see the legislators rolling their eyeballs. I think these two women-are-helpless-victims mouthpieces were truly confused when they found themselves in a room with 110 opponents, in the proportion of 25% women, 75% men. No one had ever challenged their thinking before, and they were confused about what was happening!
In October 1997, the last time this bill was introduced, five people showed up at the hearing. Today, it was 110-120 people. One speaker made the point that the problem of restraining order abuse is growing geometrically. The committee gave every sign of taking the testimony seriously, and of changing their minds right on the spot about the seriousness of the restraining order situation. There were no hostile questions of our people by the legislators.
None.
Pointed questions
Sen. Creedon told the room the story of a man in his district who had been lured to his home to pick up his fishing equipment, slapped with an arrest, and put in jail for three days. "What's the answer to this?" Creedon wanted to know. He asked the battered-bureaucrats and they had no serious answer. It was obvious that they had no concern for, or even conception of, the injustice of putting an innocent man in jail by trickery for three days. Their cluelessness seemed obvious to the legislators and to the whole room.
People in the chamber wore buttons and badges. Many wore a nametag-size badge that said Fathers and Families. Others, connected with the Fatherhood Coalition and other groups, wore the
purple heart badge. (We gave nearly 100 of them out.)
I have not captured the atmosphere properly. but it was dramatic and shocking. Ned Holstein did a great job by holding a rehearsal on Thursday night--his key witnesses were powerful. (Note the technique,people.) The tide turned a bit today in Massachusetts, in the legislature. Really amazing.
The Spirit of 1776
We are not sure how well the bill will fare. The reform bill now needs to gather more sponsors. But in this most politically correct state, to see a room full of men and women putting the legislators into a state of sometimes intense shock on the subject of restraining orders--well, it was amazing.
We carried the day. We defeated our opponents--at least in this hearing--by a score of about 120 to 2. We creamed them so well, they were not even aware of what had happened when it was over. We had the legislators solidly--especially the two chairs of the Judiciary--solidly on our side when it was over. They were saying things like, "Clearly something has to be done."
I have never seen the like, and after three panels of testimony, others there said the same thing. Something shifted--this is brand new--maybe the turning point for the state. We could see these men taking on the responsibility to deal with restraining order abuse.
I feel like a man in Concord in 1776 who has just seen his fellow farmers fire their guns, watching a whole bunch of formerly terrifying redcoat soldiers falling to the ground. Amazed, shocked.
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