We Won’t Be Voting on “Protection of Marriage” Amendment Today; Democratic Legislature Didn’t Obey the Constitution in 2002

By MassNews Staff

       Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman of the New York Times and Boston Globe, ordered in 2002 (in the news pages of the Globe, which are still in their archives) that the President of the Mass. Senate, Tom Birmingham, and the Speaker of the House, Tom Finneran, had to violate the state Constitution in order to kill the “Protection of Marriage” Amendment which forbad both homosexual marriage and civil unions.

       The measure had received over 130,000 signatures from voters and the legislature was now required to vote on it. If it got approval from 25%, it would be voted upon by the citizens in November 2004.

       But we won’t be voting today because it was clear to everyone in 2002 that it would be approved if we were allowed to do so. Therefore, Sulzberger told the legislature that they could just ignore the 130,000 signatures and the thousands of workers who had labored to get the signatures and had spent $1.7 million in their effort.

       As a result, the legislature adjourned on July 17, 2002 without taking the required vote and the measure died. Even the Chief Justice of our Supreme Judicial Court, Margaret Marshall, joined the other six judges on Dec. 20, 2002, in saying that this was a violation of our Constitution.

       Birmingham appeared to have some integrity and had a hard time deciding whether to follow the Constitution or not. Everyone could see what he had done. As a result, he says, he did not become Governor.

       Speaker Finneran, on the other hand, pretended to be in favor of the Amendment even though the House has 160 of the members of such a Convention as opposed to only 40 from the Senate. Finneran voted against the adjournment himself but said he was totally powerless to change the minds of his top lieutenants who were following the orders of Sulzberger, one of the most powerful men in America.

       Sulzberger was so desperate to kill the Amendment that he had the Times and the Globe libel the President of Mass. Citizens for Marriage, Sally Pawlick, sixteen times during the seven months before the vote.

Many Startling Events Are Taking Place

       Many startling events have occurred since then, but they are not reported because the Globe, on the orders of Sulzberger, refuses to print anything that would damage his agreement with Judge Marshall that they work together to force homosexual “marriage” on this state and across the nation.

       Birmingham is now a relic in the dustbowl of history.

       Finneran, in contrast, shocked everyone a few months ago by resigning from his coveted, powerful position as Speaker in order to take a high-paying lobbying job. It’s with a scientific group which wants to use stem cells from embryos for their medical products instead of limiting themselves to those from adults, which most people say will provide more than enough for their research. Although the activities of his new employer go way beyond the ideals that Finneran has always expressed, no one, including the hierarchy of the Catholic Church even questions his motives. He is still seen as a hero by the Church and others.

       Strangely he has gotten a “pass” from the Globe which had always demonized him in the past. Is it because he is working for a group which agrees with the worldview of Sulzberger and does not mind what happens to fetuses, whether as the result of abortion or of stem cell research? Or is Finneran’s peace with Sulzberger more Faustian than that? Has Sulzberger always known the true thoughts in the Speaker’s soul? Have we merely seen a charade being performed by those two?

       The arrangement with the Catholic Church is more complex. Few would doubt that the hierarchy of the Church is sincere and has been duped by Finneran all these years. But how about the man who has been in charge of their lobbying for the past thirty years, Gerry D’Avolio, who has announced his intentions to retire but can’t seem to do so? Is he an innocent dupe who is embarrassed by what has surfaced about his friend, Tom Finneran?

       For whatever reason, D’Avolio continues to be in total charge of what happens now with this issue. He has forbad every effort by anyone at the Church to seek to Remove Chief Justice Marshall and her three cohorts as demanded by the Article 8 Alliance. This would solve all the problems about  homosexual marriage as new judges would instantly change Marshall’s decision and such “marriage” would be in the dustbowls of history.

       So why isn’t D’Avolio enthusiastically in favor of doing so?

       He tells everyone who will listen that it won’t work. If that is true, why did Finneran break the Constitution again in 2004 and refuse to allow the House to vote even though it is required to do? He did so because it is clear, just as it was in 2002, that Finneran would lose the vote.

       Did the fact that Mass. Citizens sent airplanes over his Cape Cod house with banners telling all the neighbors about his nefarious dealings have anything to do with Finneran’s decision to leave? Or did their advertisements on the radio, including the 50,000 watt WBZ, do it? We know that Finneran’s wife was upset with the revelations, and shortly thereafter, he suddenly resigned to the “surprise” of everyone.

       Or did Finneran understand that this election was going to shake the state’s Democratic Party to its roots?

Our Troops in Iraq Deserve No Less

       Whatever the answer, we had better get everyone out to vote today and make our democracy workable once again. Our troops, who are dying in Iraq to establish a democracy there, deserve nothing less from us, who are still comfortable at home.