FULL 11TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS REJECTS TERRI SCHIAVO'S PARENTS' REQUEST TO REINSERT FEEDING TUBE

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KEEPING THE FAITH, March 23, 2005

KEEPING THE FAITH ACTION ALERT
March 23, 2005

We wish you and your family a happy and blessed Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will be out of the office beginning Thursday, March 24 until Monday, March 27.

Please forward. This is a rather lengthy email, but I am trying to cover several bills as the 2005 Legislative Session comes to an end.

MAKE YOUR PLANS TO JOIN US IN MACON FOR THE KICKOFF OF THE CHRISTIAN COALITION OF MIDDLE GEORGIA!

On Thursday, April 7, 2005 the Christian Coalition of Middle Georgia will be holding a conference at Tabernacle Baptist Church, 6611 Zebulon Road, Macon GA 31210 –7:30 p.m. (I-475 Exit 9 – ¼ mile north on Zebulon Road past Wildwood)

This is a new chapter recently formed that has great plans to expand the CC throughout middle Georgia! I will be speaking along with former U. S. Congressman Mac Collins, former U. S. Senate candidate Herman Cain, State Senator Cecil Staton, State Senator Casey Cagle, Sav-a-Life Director Tim Poole, Covenant Care Services Director Iris Archer, and Bibb Co. Tax Commissioner Tommy Tedders.

For more info call 478-405-9826.

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STATE LEGISLATION – Contact info for the following bills can be found at www.legis.state.ga.us Also, if you want to read any of the bills in their entirety, go to the same address and put in the bill number.

SB 25 This bill would require a 120 day waiting (cooling off) period prior to getting a divorce under certain circumstances. This bill would not require those who are victims of domestic violence or other such egregious circumstances to comply with this waiting period. Statistics show that in 80% of all divorces – one party doesn’t want it to happen, and this bill would give the couple time to consider their action. It does not prevent anyone from getting a divorce if that is the final decision made by the parties involved.

According to an article, “Does Divorce Succeed?” put out by Americans for Divorce Reform:

• "For most people, marital unhappiness was not permanent,” says University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, Ph.D.
• Recent findings indicate that two-thirds of all unhappy marriages are repaired within five years.
• Dr. Waite’s study also showed that only 19 percent of all divorced subjects were happily remarried.

In 2004, Psychology Today printed an article “Don’t Divorce, Be Happy.” That article stated, “When researchers examined data from the late 1980s on 5,232 married adults, they found that 645 subjects reported marital dissatisfaction. When the unhappy spouses were surveyed five years later, those who had remained married were more likely than divorced subjects to state that they were happy. In fact, the most miserable marriages had the most dramatic turnarounds: 78 percent of people who stayed in “very unhappy” marriages said that the marriages were currently happy.” (www.divorcereform.org/succeed.html)

This bill would also require certain divorcing parents to participate in education classes that focus on the effect of a divorce and separation on children. According to a report put out in 2000 by the Heritage Foundation, each year, over 1 million American children suffer the divorce of their parents; moreover, half of the children born this year to parents who are married will see their parents divorce before they turn 18. Mounting evidence in social science journals demonstrates that the devastating physical, emotional, and financial effects that divorce is having on these children will last well into adulthood and affect future generations. Among these broad and damaging effects are the following:

• Children whose parents have divorced are increasingly the victims of abuse. They exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in crime and drug abuse, and have higher rates of suicide.
• Children of divorced parents perform more poorly in reading, spelling, and math. They also are more likely to repeat a grade and to have higher drop-out rates and lower rates of college graduation.
• Families with children that were not poor before the divorce see their income drop as much as 50 percent. Almost 50 percent of the parents with children that are going through a divorce move into poverty after the divorce.
• Religious worship, which has been linked to better health, longer marriages, and better family life, drops after the parents divorce.

The divorce of parents, even if it is amicable, tears apart the fundamental unit of American society. Today, according to the Federal Reserve Board's 1995 Survey of Consumer Finance, only 42 percent of children aged 14 to 18 live in a "first marriage" family--an intact two-parent married family. It should be no surprise to find that divorce is having such profound effects on society.

If you would like to read more about the effects on children by divorce, go to www.heritage.org.

ACTION: Support. This bill passed the Senate by a vote of 36-17 on March 3. It is now in the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Wendell Willard. Please call Chairman Willard at 404-656-5125 and urge him to allow this bill out of committee and onto the floor of the House for a vote.

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HB 577 This bill would repeal the requirement to be fingerprinted in order to get a driver’s license and 30 days after passage instructs the Department of Motor Vehicles to destroy all prior and existing records of fingerprints.

ACTION: Support. This bill passed the House by a vote of 118-33 and has had two readers in the Senate, with the last one being on March 22. Please call your Senator and urge them to get this bill onto the floor for a vote and to vote for passage.

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SB 84 This bill would change the forms of identification that are acceptable for voter registration, for absentee voting, and for voting at the polls and would require the Secretary of State to ensure that certain information is contained on the lists of electors used at polling places. I short, it would help to ensure that those voting are actually eligible to vote, therefore protecting the integrity of our voting system.

This bill also provides if a person is indigent and does not have one of the required ID’s, then they may receive at no charge a state-issued ID so that they may vote.

ACTION: Support. This bill passed the Senate by a vote of 31-22 and has been favorably reported out of committee in the House. Please contact your House member and urge them to vote for this bill.

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SB 172 This bill would require you to be a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States before you could get a driver’s license.

ACTION: Support. This bill has not made it through the Senate. Please contact your Senator and ask that they support this bill.

Thank you for Keeping The Faith.
Sadie Fields