Tuesday, March 10, 2009

First, they attacked religious liberty. Now they've taken away your right to a public hearing!

From my email:

Judiciary Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Michael Lawlor (D-East Haven) and Sen. Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford) have abruptly cancelled tomorrow's public hearing on R.B. 1098, the bill targeting the Catholic Church. That the other members of the Committee were not consulted about the cancellation highlights the hypocrisy of Lawlor and McDonald, given their claim that R.B. 1098 was about transparency and accountability. The cancellation is also a huge act of disrespect to the thousands who, on very short notice, arranged for buses and planned to take the day off from work in order to testify against the bill.

WE STILL NEED ALL OF YOU AT THE STATE CAPITOL TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11TH! The Legislators who introduced this bill and cancelled the public hearing will not get away with this. WE WILL BE HEARD!

From 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Room 1A at the Legislative Office Building will be the Family Institute of Connecticut's religious liberty headquarters. Please stop by to pick up packets of information about R.B. 1098, the legislature, and what you can do to turn the tide for faith and family in Connecticut. (Click on our homepage for parking and directions.)

From 12:00 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. there will be a Rally Against R.B. 1098 on the North Steps of the Capitol (210 Capitol Avenue in Hartford). The Rally is sponsored by the Catholic Church and will include speeches by the state's Catholic bishops. Family Institute's members of every faith are also encouraged to attend. Archbishop Leroy Bailey of First Cathedral, who is about to undergo surgery in North Carolina, called FIC executive director Peter Wolfgang today and strongly urged involvement by all the churches.

Also beginning at 12 p.m. the House and Senate Republicans will go ahead with their own informational hearing on R.B. 1098. An informational hearing has less official importance than a public hearing, but is still a valuable opportunity. Here is the message sent to members and staff of the GOP: "On behalf of House and Senate Republicans I would like to inform you that the House and Senate Republican Offices will be going forward with an informational hearing on SB 1098,AN ACT MODIFYING CORPORATE LAWS RELATING TO CERTAIN RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS tomorrow starting at 12:00pm. The hearing will be held in room 2C and overflow rooms will be available. Sign up for the hearing will start at 9:30am in lobby of the Legislative Office Building. We will hear from Church officials first and then open it up for other public comment. We have invited and will be reaching out to anyone who has contacted us on this bill so we can let them know they will be heard on this issue tomorrow. We will also be inviting our Democrat colleagues to join us. We hope all Republican members can attend, especially our Republican Judiciary Committee members who were scheduled to be in attendance tomorrow anyway. If you have any questions please let us know. Thanks, Deb Hutton Chief Legal Counsel, House Republican Office, 860 240 8700."

At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday March 11th, FIC executive director Peter Wolfgang will debate the head of the Connecticut chapter of NARAL, the pro-abortion group, at the Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford's campus. Doors open at 7 p.m. If you are still in Hartford, we would welcome your attendance at this event.

2 comments:

Eric said...

I notice that Lawlor is from East Haven...same place where they arrest priests for filming cops, right?

Charles said...

It's incredible that they didn't anticipate a pushback after proposing something like that. Beyond being politically tone deaf, it's the stupidest political maneuver I've ever witnessed.