Worcester County Freedom Trail

You’ve got to see this new series of ads created by The Center for Union Facts, an organization that raises awareness about the corrupt practices of organized labor.

Did you know that since 2000, labor unions have faced more than 13,000 charges of discrimination? And they’ve paid more than $6 million in fines. According to the EEOC, the charges include:

• Complaints of race discrimination: 4,248
• Complaints of age discrimination: 3,386
• Complaints of sex discrimination: 1,820
• Complaints of disability discrimination: 1,642
• Complaints of religious discrimination: 297

Find out more at UnionFacts.com. Thanks to Earl Bernier, Leicester RTC, for this tidbit!

After the public hearing on the Massachusetts Marriage Amendment in April, I received an e-mail from a gentleman and his male partner who wanted to know why I support this initiative. I decided to share my reply here because I want people to see both sides of the issue. Those of us who support the Amendment are not homophobes or Bible-thumpers (although I do enjoy reading the Bible

Here’s my reply:

Congratuations on your wonderful relationship. I wish you well. I am not against stable relationships, I am against gay marriage. This is because I have repeatedly heard gay activists talk about using marriage as a way to undermine our society and redefine sexuality and relationships on all levels. They want to make the norm be whatever goes, regardless of its impact on others. I don’t believe that is right (for both religious and health reasons) and I don’t want my child growing up thinking that is right.

I have an interesting book to recommend, The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left’s Assault on Our Culture and Values. It was written by Tammy Bruce, former head of the California NOW organization, a self-described radical liberal who became appalled at what the far left is propounding. She’s still a liberal, but she’s taken up the fight to distance her cause from the radical left.

I have seen gay activists undermine many things that affect my family. They have pushed to have gay sex acts taught at teachers’ conferences where students are present. They are fighting to have sex ed start in kindergarten. They are pushing to have the CDC’s intrusive Youth Risk Behavior Survey given to ever younger grade school children (this survey asks about sexual preferences and partners, drug use, etc.) In fact, one Shrewsbury family was appalled when, after taking the survey, their young child jumped off the school bus and asked, ‘Oral sex is kissing, right?’ There is a time and a place to introduce these topics, but not at such a young age.

My husband and I are in no rush for our child to grow up. She’ll get there when she’s ready. But if we don’t start pushing back against the gay activists who are constantly trying to undermine our society’s fundamental morals and values, it won’t stop. I don’t want to live in a world where “anything goes.”

The government shouldn’t be in the business of undermining moral truths. But as long as activist judges keeping meddling where they don’t belong, voters will need to petition the government for change.

In a May 1 letter to the Catholic faithful, Bishop McManus joined with other Bishops throughout Massachusetts, to encourage support for the Marriage Amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

The Marriage Amendment will come to a vote in Boston as Amendment #20 at the Constitutional Convention on July 12, 2006. The challenge now is that gay activists are looking to confuse the vote by putting their own Amendment #19 just ahead of the vote. But it is only Amendment #20 that received over 123,000 certified signatures last fall, the most ever gathered in this state for a voter petition.

The Catholic Bishops have asked “the faithful to contact their elected representative and request one thing: let the people vote on a moral and social issue that is so fundamental to the common good of society.”

For more information and to contact your legislators, see Vote on Marriage.

As if the immigration issue isn’t bad enough, now Mexico is blatantly trying to influence the outcome of our legislative process and allow more Mexicans into the US. Not only are they working directly with the groups who have backed and organized the demonstrations, but Vicente Fox’s administration is also trying to undermine our existing laws in favor of the illegal aliens currently in the US.

According to an article in the Washington Times,

Worried about pending legislation to better secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the Fox administration and its representatives are working through a coalition of U.S.-based immigration rights associations, Mexican-American organizations and grass-roots Hispanic groups to lobby U.S. lawmakers and civic leaders for amnesty for the estimated 12 million illegals in the United States.

At least one U.S. prosecutor in the “middle of an invasion by illegal aliens” said he is outraged by what he called efforts by the Mexican government to interfere in U.S. policies and overturn laws being used to arrest and prosecute illegal aliens. 

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas in Phoenix accuses Mexico of being behind a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s alien-smuggling law. He has asked the State Department to protest Mexico’s “concerted attempts to undermine” U.S. law and its “interfering in the internal affairs” of Arizona.

Last week, “Mr. Fox visited several states, including California, where he touted the importance of immigrants and said they deserved the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate, which would legalize millions of illegal aliens and authorize 200,000 temporary work visas for foreigners who take low-skill jobs in the United States.”

That and the fact that Teddy Kennedy was behind the Senate’s version of the immigration bill should tell us it’s probably not in the best interests of the US.

And a note of caution to John McCain — we see you swaying radically to the left. First you undermine free speech with the McCain-Feingold bill, then you undermine the judicial nomination process with the “Gang of 14″, and now you’re threatening our country’s security and its laws with yet another useless immigration reform bill. This will not help you when primary time rolls around. In order to run for President, you must first win over the party’s base.

They tired of the oppressive rule of a solitary leader.  They wanted the right to practice religion freely without fear of being killed because of their religion.  They wanted the right to vote.  They wanted to form their own government.

So they had a revolution.

And it took time.  Time to overthrow the oppressive leader.  Time to draft a Constitution.  Time to hold the first free and fair elections in memory.  Time to elect leaders.  Time to establish a legal system and a fair system of taxation.  And time to form a militia to provide for the well-being of the country.

Yes it took time.  It took more than 30 years for the newly formed United States of America to accomplish these things, from the first shot fired in the Revolutionary War until the government was established and running smoothly.

And we’ve been in Iraq for how long?

The Iraqis have a several thousand year history of political and religious evolution they are sifting through as they essentially form a new country.  Our forefathers had only 150 years of history to reshape, yet it took them 30 years to get things running smoothly.

Our forefathers did not have to deal with well funded terrorists strapping bombs onto themselves and blowing up polling places, markets, places of worship, and the like. 

Our forefathers didn’t have to deal with a media that scrutinizes and vilifies their every action. 

Our forefathers didn’t have to deal with a shadow government (the U.N.) which condemns the action of their oppressor yet refuses to take action.

Yet it still took them 30 years to get it right.  And things seem to have worked out pretty well for that group of reformers.  Let’s be patient in Iraq – things are turning the corner.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey has proposed an update to the state’s medical malpractice laws, including streamlining ways to resolve claims prior to trial so that insurance rates for doctors can be held in check. The bill would place a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages and rework the scale for awarding lawyers fees from 25% for verdicts over $500,000 to 15% for verdicts over $600,000. In addition, admissions of disclosure and apologies for problems would be kept out of court.

Healey’s proposed legislation is supported by the Massachusetts Medical Society, whose President stated that obstetricians in this state pay $100,000 per year for malpractice insurance and neurosurgeons pay $96,000. As a result, there are only about 65 neurosurgeons here.

Not surprisingly, the Massachusetts Bar Association is against the bill. The bill targets the sometimes outrageous fees of trial attorneys.

Of course, the Massachusetts legislature is dominated by trial lawyers, so this will be a tough battle.

But virtually everyone, doctors and patients, would like to see the medical malpractice industry fixed so we have the doctors available where and when we need them.

This great commentary just came in from Mike Potaski in Uxbridge.

Tucked away in the US Senate bill are provisions to 1) increase the number of permanent immigrant visas by a factor of nearly 4, and 2) grant additional permanent immigrant visas to family members of legal immigrants, including parents, siblings, and adult children.

On the face of it, this would not seem to matter as the resident alien who sponsors family members is supposed to assume full financial responsibility for those being sponsored. However, in actuality, a great many of the sponsored immigrants apply for, and are granted, Supplemental Income benefits from the Social Security system and become frequenters of hospital ER’s.

To make matters worse, in the Bay State the Legislature passed H4850 to provide MASSHEALTH for elderly and disabled immigrants and prevents the Romney administration from disqualifying these immigrants based on the income of the person who sponsored them into the country.

Think about it: every legal immigrant now in Massachusetts can bring aged and/or disabled family members into the State and have the taxpayers foot the bill for all their preventative and primary health care.

No wonder they vetoed the tax roll back the same week!!!

Voting for the override from the Worcester area were: Bienda (D-Worcester), Callahan (D-Sutton), Carron (D-Southbridge), Donelan (D-Orange), Eldridge (D-Acton), Flanagan (D-Leominster), Fresolo (D-Worcester), Gobi (D-Spencer), Goguen (D-Fitchburg), Hargraves (Rino-Groton), Kujawski (D-Webster), Leary (D-Worcester), LeDuc (D-Marlboro), Loscocco (Rino-Holliston), Parente (D-Milford), Pedone (D-Worcester), Rice (D-Gardner), Spellane (D-Worcester), and Walrath (D-Stowe). Per the Worcester T&G, 30 April 2006, page A12.

Shame on Hargraves and Loscocco. And I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything better from the rest. Didn’t they learn their lesson on in-state tuition for immigrants?

You’ve got to read this new article, “The Coming Conflict Between Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty,” by Maggie Gallagher at The Weekly Standard. It’s an unsettling interview with a group of legal scholars who focus on issues related to religious liberty.

The bottomline is that we’re headed for a huge showdown between church and state. The more lawmakers push into areas that don’t concern them, the more people of faith will push back.

Take the example of Catholic Charities of Boston. The Catholic Church does not condone gay marriage and will not set up adoptions with gay couples. But Massachusetts, in all its widsom, has decided Catholic Charities must recognize gay couples or get out of the adoption business. So out they got.

It’s unfortunate, as Catholic Charities does wonderful work. But the government should not be dictating moral values to the Church.

Contrary to what’s being said by the left, the issue of gay marriage is not one of civil liberties. Gay people are free to adopt children from other agencies, they are free to sign health care proxies that allow them to make medical decisions about their partners, they are free to draw up trusts and living wills that name their partners as beneficiaries, etc.

Gay marriage is just one volley in a much larger fight to undermine the morals of our country. The push from the radical left is for “anything goes” — abortion on demand, sex with anyone and anywhere, no higher moral authority, and more.

At some point, we have to put our foot down and say “enough is enough.”

Massachusetts Senate President Robert Travaglini has postponed the constitutional convention that was to be held today, May 10th, because the Senate is currently preparing its budget. The new date will be some time in July.

At the constitutional convention, at least two initiatives will be adressed. One is the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. We knew that was in the works because of the big signature drive, etc.

What comes as a surprise to me is that there is also a push to make health care access a right written right into our consitution! This, despite the fact that Governor Romney just signed a new law designed to require virtually everyone in Mass to have health insurance. Supporters of this new health care amendment say they want the right “locked into” the constitution.

Holy cow, our founding fathers have got to be turning over in their graves at this point.