A Banner Day for Our Cause

Our cause received a real shot in the arm today when the Boston Globe ran an op-ed by Elizabeth Benedict called "The Chilling Effect of State's Divorce Laws," in which she exposed the dark underside of our state's practices toward second wives and families.  This article has been the most emailed article of the day on the Boston Globe!  

Please print out this article, get a paper copy of the newspaper, and take copies of this article everywhere you go.  Hand it out to your ministers, your rabbis, your doctors, nurses, dentists.  Keep the story moving. 

At 5am, Tom Finneran, who used to be speaker of the house (I believe that was his title), mentioned the op-ed on his radio show on WKRO.  A state senator (I didn't catch his name) was also on the show and expressed his horror at these laws.  He vowed to go to the Judiciary Committee members tomorrow and find out why the bill was put into study and try to get it out.  Steve Hitner and Ms. Benedict spoke on the show about the current law.  She stressed that lawyers sometimes deny second wives' incomes are used, and that lawyers say that if a judge does use a second wife's income, the judge is in error -- and that it's up to the wronged individual to learn the judge has made a mistake and to appeal the decision!  Great for lawyers, lousy for the rest of us, huh?

Where we go from here?  Our publicity campaign is just beginning.  The more media attention we get, the more our legislators will understand that we mean business, and that the general public is revolted by these laws.  It is TERRIBLE when women and children suffer after a divorce, and protective laws are essential!  But it is just as bad when other family members suffer -- husbands, second wives, the children of second marriages -- and lawmakers and the public should not stand for this either.

Keep writing and calling your legislators and keep talking about the issue.  HR 1567, which is current "under study," may well be taken out of study and reconsidered by the Judiciary Committee.  But whether it is or not, the bill will be reintroduced in January, and we will fight to get co-sponsors and media attention to these disgraceful laws.

Unfortunately, we will have to go up against the Mass Bar, which does not want legislation, even though they know the current law is truly awful.  

Thanks everyone for checking in.  Keep coming back.  Keep up the good fight!