Don't Miss the July 17th Rally, Advises MCM

MassNews Staff
June 24, 2002

Over 200 citizens were transformed at the State House last Wednesday, and they also began to transform Mass. politics, says Sarah McVay Pawlick, President of Mass. Citizens for Marriage.

"This would allow one man to nullify every effort that has been made since last August to put the Amendment on the ballot for the voters to decide at the elections in 2004."

Their honest outrage shocked Sen. Tom Birmingham. Many sources say he was totally surprised to see honest, ordinary citizens angry after observing the way the Senate works under his leadership. "These people came to Beacon Hill as ordinary citizens but they left on-fire with a zeal to change things," said Pawlick. They plan to return on July 17 at 1 p.m. to make sure that the Constitution is followed and they get an honest vote from the legislators on the Marriage Amendment.

Even the Boston Globe observed the change and reported the "uprising" in a friendly story on the front page of the paper.

Opponents Will Also Show

But the opponents will also be there in full force on the 17th and many additional ordinary citizens must come or those who favor of the Amendment will be swamped, warns MCM.

"It's too bad that politics is run this way in our state, but that's the way it is," said Pawlick. "It's always a contest to get a few bodies parading in the State House so that the television cameras can show it on the 6 o'clock news. It doesn't matter what the majority of voters think. Only how many people can be assembled at the State House to impress the solons.

"We must respond to that reality because the opposition will be there. In large part it becomes a game as to how many telephone calls are made to Sen. Birmingham and other legislators and how many people we can get to come in to support the measure."

Globe Notes Protest

The Globe, which opposes the Amendment, had a picture of Sen. Birmingham on the front page and a large pull-quote on the jump-page from Jim Lafferty of MCM which said, "He is pushing this delay because we have the votes, and he's trying to wear us down. But we're going to continue until they vote."

Although the supporters of the Amendment were happy to get the Globe attention, they believed that the Globe was doing so because it supports another candidate for Governor and is seeking to damage Birmingham.

But whatever the reason, they welcomed the publicity for their cause, because they believed it showed that the Globe is expecting that they will be successful in enacting the Amendment. The Globe has tried to avoid giving it any publicity since the process started last fall because of its opposition to the Amendment.

The Globe wrote in its story last week, "Court officers vainly tried to quiet the protests, but got only arguments, so they cleared the gallery. That drove 80 of the amendment's supporters downstairs to the corridor outside Birmingham's office, where they continued to chant angrily, before leaders met with the Senate president's staff.

"Birmingham's move may have political consequences for him, he has been battling the accusation that he is beholden to special interests. Amendment supporters yesterday voted to make him pay for his delay of the gay-marriage vote on the campaign trail."

The Senator's spokesperson, Alison Franklin, told the Globe that he may never allow the measure to come to a vote even though that would violate the Constitution. This would allow one man to nullify every effort that has been made by the voters since last August to put the Amendment on the ballot for the voters to decide at the elections in 2004.