Senators, Representatives, Stevens County Prosecutor and Citizens Fill Senate Hearing Room
I walked into the room at 12:05 and Senate Hearing Room 1 was packed! What a crowd. KING 5 was in the wings filming. Our friend Doug Stuth was there to give us great words of observation. He spoke for many! The Willards were there from Orcas Island...I met many of you who have written to the blog. Thank you all for being there. To get the message of the injustices out to the general public it will take some work and you came from all over the state to help. We must all put a shoulder to the wheel.
This was NOT a rally. It was a hearing. Think of it as a statewide, bi-partisan focus group.
I invited Rep Joel Kretz (R) and Rep. Marilyn Chase (D) to be my co-chairs.
Thank you so much for those of you who attended. I will report more as time allows. We are voting into the evening. But, I do want to impress upon you that many legislators were listening. It was a success because of you! THANK YOU TO ALL!
10 comments:
I was going to add that I would like for the State Legislatures to please denounce any proclamation to celebrating National Adoption Day. For the families, who have lost a relative this is painful especially if they lost a relative needlessly because of CPS abuse, prejudices or surface judgements or forced adoption. People's ability to work and find a job also has been destroyed which is also something that has not been discussed yet.
Dear Senator Roach..
Praise the Lord!
I am happy to hear that they are listening and taking our thoughts seriously..for if they do not..we the voters have other options.
God speed Senator..Your words never cease to amaze me. You always deliver the message to the crowd and it is received the same way you presented it..
CC Tillett
Thank you Pam and all other Legislators for hosting this hearing. Thank you Larry Haler and Blad Klippert for attending for the 8th District! Lets be pro-active and make changes for families!
Hi!
It was great to meet you and those that post comments to this blog! I can't even come close to describing the great feeling of bonding I was so blessed with, with all of you. I do believe that we did make a huge impact on getting them to listen!
This weekend I plan on working on getting a secured message board and chat room set up for us, if anyone is interested in this. I was thinking we could use the message board to be virtually organized and use it for various reasons. Such as, being an online watchdog citizens community in regards to Washington state family issues, discuss how we can support Washington's leaders such as Pam and others working hard to change this corrupt system, and keep the other informed on what's going on in Washington state as far as child welfare and safety issues.
I was thinking about how we all were talking afterwards about how groups are organized and how they have financial supporters backing them up...and I just said to myself, "Well, we may not be quite there to form local person to person groups for an organization, but we can at least use the internet to be a virtual organization, and it doesn't cost anything to do it this way."
So, since I know how to create a website and get things set up with communication tools, I thought I would get it all set up and running and then post the URL for everyone to get to it....and then all y'all have to do is sign up for a user name and password and we can get to work.
I am sick of just being isolated in my own case regarding my children, sick of just crying out for help, sick of just being on the sidelines and getting nowhere, sick of just sitting and watching other organizations that destroy our families getting ahead...I am so done being passive and getting knocked down...I want to be pro-active and start getting back what the corrupt sect of Washington state has taken from me....as I am sure y'all can relate.
Again, it was such a pleasure to be together yesterday in person. Each of you are such beautiful people and I am just so sorry it took our unfortunate circumstances to bring s together. But, now that we are together in all of the battles of destruction against our families, we have the greatest opportunity to rise up and come together as comrades, pick up our shields of faith and swords of truth and fight till we win the war!
Okay, done rambling here I guess. LOL
Take care and bless all of you and Pam you did so great of a job, we are so blessed to have you fighting for us! Thank you!
ME
Senator Reid sent a letter to Obama encouraging the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. If there are Nevada people on here, they need to be filing complaints against him and making sure he doesn't get reelected.
If this treaty gets ratified, all power in the states will change and everything we are doing for parental and extended family rights will come to a screeching halt. I filed a grievance against Rep Barbara Boxer of California and I am going to file one on Reid. I am one person and can't change the world by myself. We need to keep on top of these Congress people because the Constitution gave them too much power. What the Constitution did not give them, they have slyly given themselves. If this treaty gets ratified, all state and federal laws will be changed to comply with the UN treaty.
Jan Smith
It broke my heart that no one was able to speak. These people all had a child exploited by the states agenda. And we had hopes of being heard. The thing is Senator, the victims of the state have been harmed by their government, and have the feeling that if they speak out, they will get it even worse. We don't know who to trust. And can you see why? This agenda is very real. And it will not be relinquished. I hate to tell you, but unless we form an alliance right now, there is no hope for these kids. I will go anywhere at anytime and speak, if you allow me to.
Please do not fail to realize what we are up against.
Anonymous,
You mentioned about people's ability to work and find a job being destroyed...THIS NEEDS DISCUSSED. You have no idea what great timing you have in mentioning this.
I was a stay at home mother all my adult life. When my children were stolen from me by this corrupt system and my abuser who battered me and used a date rape drug on me to force me into having sex with him...it was during the time the Twin Towers were destroyed on 9-11. Ironically so...while my personal homeland security was attacked, so was our nation's homeland security.
It took me two years to emotionally and psychologically recover from it to a point of where I could be at best, minimally functional. By then, the markets were well on it's way to falling, employers started laying off employees for economical reasons, and it was tough enough for me to enter into the workforce as a displaced homemaker at that time.
As we all know it's only gotten worse this past four years...when the major companies such as Boeing (two lay offs of thousands of employees per lay off), Microsoft (two lay offs of thousands of employees per layoff), and Starbucks (one lay off of thousands and closing many of their stores), that it became impossible for me to find work.
I have the my lack of education and work history, the sick economy, and the information in my background check showing me as a non-custodial mother owing bills and childsupport, preventing me from being seen as an asset to companies. Basically, I feel like I am being thrown out as basic garbage now.
What brings me to bring this up...is that I got to come home after being with everyone yesterday to look at a document that was served to me...the state of Washington has set a date for June 3, 2009 to hold a hearing against me for contempt to pay child support. Yep, no matter how hard I have tried to locate work and no matter how hard I have tried to convince the Child Support Enforcement Office to hold of doing anything against me so that I can take classes, to better myself to enter into the work force when the economy picks up...they didn't listen nor care.
Washington state is seeking jail as a sanction. I am not only scared but angry as hell. It's not my children's fault that I can not find work, but their four days a month that they get to get a break from their abusive home life with their father will be stopped and they will not have any contact with me if I am put in jail. Then, how does it help for me to go to school and find work if I have my butt sitting in jail? This is crazy!
I have gone to all the agencies such as Kelly Services and etc...they have all turned me away, because of my "displaced homemaker" status...they said they only help people who are currently working and about to be laid off find work. I have gone to Work Source...which is a laughable agency...they are so overloaded with people who are unemployed...and when I was in their office, all they do is go online and use their data base of possible job leads and send me out to fill out an application just so I can be rejected. Job fairs? Been to those too, just to come out not having a job.
I have gone to DSHS to get on state assistance, get school tuitions paid, and get help locating work. Since I do not have custody of my children, I am denied so many services that would bring me out of the displaced homemaker status and into the marketable status and find work. When I asked them to at least un-suspend my driver's license so I can get a better chance at getting work with companies that require me to have a driver's license and own transportation...they said no. I am not ashamed to tell you folks, but as of this month, funds from a 401K that I have been living off of will come to an end...and then I will be homeless. I will not have money to shelter, clothe and feed me and my sons. Which will end my vistations...I do not know where to turn to or what to do anymore.
I wish I had the magic wand that I could wave over a job application and make it tell an employer that I am too valuable of an asset to pass by....but I don't and I am out of ideas and feeling so hopeless at this point. What adds so much salt to the wound is that the father has a $50K a year job, low mortgage payments on a house he and his wife owns, they own two economical cars - a family suv and van - a Harley Davidson motorcycle - an expensive and huge motor home that they take off in a lot...as well as take off across the US for vacations any time they wish...my sons ARE NOT IN NEED of financial support...ALL their financial needs are met...the state is not paying out one dime to financially help them!
This is a huge bitter pill to swallow....that's how the rest of day went yesterday after I left y'all. I am sure once it's known that I had a 401K, they are going to hammer me for not paying the child support and I could get a real huge slap on my wrist...but I guess logic will go out the window when I try to explain that if I had paid my child support I would be homeless already and I was using it to provide shelter, clothes and food until I landed a job.
But, I am scared and I don't know what to do to get out of this mess. I live in Kent...if anyone knows of anyone who would be willing to hire me...all I need is a foot in the door and I will make an employer never regret hiring me. I have computer skills, personal relations skills, various manual labor skills...that either life or I have taught me how to do...and I am the type that if I don't know how I dig for any resource available to teach me how...I jut need one employer to be willing to take that chance on me is all.
If there is anything out there than can help me help myself from being homeless or being put into jail, the time is so now...I am not begging for a free hand out nor am I the type to be a moocher off of society...I am so ready and willing to work....all I need a miracle to get an employer to provide me job and who will work around my visitation schedule with my sons. We need our four days a month spent bonding, not me out working.
Thanks for listening,
Me
Thank You Pam, for your diligence in bringing to light the horrible injustices CPS is doing to children and families.
I have walked in those shoes and will never completely recover.
Until my daughter, who was adopted out to strangers comes home.
She will! My sons did!
The same is going on everywhere, as it is in Colville.
I will be speaking with my Sherrif and Prosecutor very soon in Kitsap to demand they do something. I have been a pretty squeeky wheel here for many years.
Everyone that has suffered because of lies needs to do the same where they live.
And these Judges that know they are hearing lies and do nothing! Need to be replaced with more honest models.
Keep up the good work. You are a shining example of what a good Senator is.
Elaine wolcott-Ehrhardt
Washington Families United/President
Thanks very much for the dedication and tremendous amount of work
which you and Representative Joel Kretz
and your colleagues and legislative team invested in this public hearing.
I was pleased that Representative Maralyn Chase attended and invited another
family to attend and testify.
It was great that KING 5 provided televised reporting of the hearing.
Richard Roesler from the Spokesman Review did attend the hearing.
I hope that his article that was published was not heavily edited by someone else before it was published Friday.
Thanks for continuing the conversation with the State of Washington on
the floor of the Legislature.
A parent whose child is in out-of-home custody by the State is scolded, reprimanded, and documented when that parent telephones constituent services.
A sign of constant abuse of a person is the person's sense of "walking on eggshells"
when in the presence of the abuser.
Well, folks, how do families of children in CPS custody
feel when conversing with an angry Constituent Services state employee
who is supposed to be an intermediary to resolve a concern?
I walked on egg shells for a long time. Fearing they would retaliate! Now I stand toe to toe and fight! AND I WIN! No more eggshells! I will not allow those people to abuse me or my family anymore!
"NEVER GIVE UP! DON'T BE QUIET!"
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