yellowducky's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Passions Running High Well, I'm not going to jail. Some of you knew that it was actually a possibility. I wanted to, I had actually signed up for it. No, it wasn't one of those little fund raiser things. It was something much more important. There was a 13 year old in Mass. who had been raped and had gone to a clinic for counseling. Some stupid judge then decides to order the clinic to turn over her counseling records to her rapists' defense. Hmmm....counseling records are non-supoenable. The judge, however, decides to fine the clinic $500/day until they turn over the records. The clinic will quickly go bankrupt, so instead they ask for 500 volunteers to each spend a night in jail in lieu of the fine. It's a civil offense, not a criminal, so I wouldn't loose my fingerprint card(and therefore my job), and I quickly signed up.
Before it was over, they had over 2,500 people willing to go to jail, articles in newspapers across the country--including the NY Times, interviews on radion stations across the country..... And the judge reversed her decision. She knew she was wrong in the first place. Yea us! I'm a little disappointed. I have friends in Mass. I would have liked to see. That's okay, though, I have another battle to fight. Right now there is a Bill up in front of the State Senate that would protect me from have to testify against my clients in a state court. See, right now I have the same "confidentiality status" as a counselor in a federal court, but not a state. This Bill is trying to change that. What really ticks me off is that we were told at a hearing last week, that they thought we were all a bunch of "man hating lesbians" ('all' meaning Domestic Violence advocates) and that's why they were giving the bill such a hard time. Now, my Diaryland friends. Those of you who know me and my pages so well. I know I have trust issues, however, I do not now, nor have I ever considered myself a "man hating lesbian"! In fact, I love men. That's beside the point, though! Being against domestic violence is not a gender orientation issue. It is a violence issue. It is a control issue. Something these senators obviously are not getting. Their vision is so clouded by prejudice and petty one-up-manship! Wanting to feel safe that my clients can talk openly with me, so that I can give them the best possible help should not be degraded into childish name-calling. They've made me mad, these Senators. They've aroused my passions. Now I am fully engaged in the cause. **************************************** In other news, I'm worried about our friend "Ungerman". He appears to be withdrawing further and further into himself. Monday night, at an activity, he left abruptly before it really even started. I'm worried about him. I know him to well not to be worried about him. I wish I could just call him up for one of our old talks and see how he was doing. He took that right away from me, though. He ended our friendship. He opened the door to his soul, let me see it in all it's complexities (well, maybe not all. a human being has a lot of nuances that it would take a lifetime to learn, but he did share a lot with me) --the good and the bad, and then he bolted it shut. If I wasn't so afraid of his rejection I would check on him. It just hurts too much to have doors that were once wide open slammed in my face. Then I call myself a coward, because it appears so obvious that he needs a friend right now. Of course, that wouldn't suprise him. He's the one who labeled me an "emotional escape artist." *************************************** Oh, to Bobby Someone, thanks for signing my guestbook. You're welcome anytime :) 10:39 a.m. - February 05, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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