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Last Friday evening, the MOB (Mad
Ohio Bastards) held a demonstration to
protest the closed records stand of Hear My Voice during HMV's
annual
conference, which this year was held at the Fawcett Center on the
Ohio
State University campus. HMV, as some of you may know, is the old
DeBoers
Committee that grew out of the Baby Jessica case. While HMV
claims to be a
child advocacy group (and they always come down on the side of
aparents in
disputed adoptions) they signed on as an amica curae in Doe v
Sundquist,
thus sticking its pointy nose into the affairs of adult adopted
persons.
Though HMV is not, I believe a major player in the appeal (chief
appellants
are the NCFA, the Christian Coalition and the Tennessee Eagle
Forum with
the appeal being handled by Pat Robertson's American Center for
Law and
Justice) we felt that we could not let HMV meet on our home
territory
without doing something.
The HMV meeting schedule (coupled with the Rolling Stones concert
on campus
on Saturday) meant that we could hold our protest on Friday night
only
during HMV's registration time: 4:00-8:00 PM. At 5:30 FB Michelle
Goldbach and myself, joined by unofficial Friends of BN Charles
Urban and
Brad Morris met at the Fawcett Center. Though we saw several cars
with HMV
bumper stickers in the parking lot, we unfortunately, had trouble
finding
HMV attendees. Most of the people entering the building were with
two
other conferences being held at the center: a writer's conference
and a
women's basketball meeting, or they were going to the
all-you-can-eat
seafood buffet held at the Fawcett Center each Friday.
We did however spread out our flag on a bench and leafleted
people as they
entered. We also left a stack of flyers clandestinely on the HMV
registration table on the third floor of the Center, and spread
more around
the lobby. Brad and Charles were particularly entertaining as
they opened
the doors for people, smiled pleasantly and handed them a flyer
that asked
the burning question: DOES HEAR MY VOICE LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF
ADULT
ADOPTEES? HMV guests, apparently believing we were the welcoming
committee, gladly took our flyers and pleasantly thanked us.
Accept for one....the Amom from Hell. About half-way through the
demonstration, a woman dressed in impeccable amommy style (no
offense
intended to aparents on the list) carrying 5 professional looking
notebooks
came into view. Behind her was a befuddled and disheveled
husband, several
suitcases under his arm and a toddler by the hand. (A good number
of HMV
people had small children with them--future Bastard Nationals?)
She had
an air of authority about her that we did not see with anyone
else:
definitely a HMV VIP. The husband made a half-hearted attempt to
take a
flyer but couldn't since his hands were full. Like W. C. Field,
he looked
like he'd rather be in Peoria. Ms. HMV took it instead, and her
smile
disappeared. She tore upstairs, and we were sure that she was
going to
"report" us, though what we were doing was perfectly
legal. She came
outside three times after that, and each time we attempted to
give her
another flyer. I think somebody said, "you all look
alike." She did not
see the humor.
Around 8:00 PM, simply from a lack of business (probably no more
than 25-30
people had gone into the Fawcett Center in the past 2 1/2 hours)
we retired
to the restaurant to enjoy crab legs and chowder, garbed, of
course, in our
BN t-shirts. And who should show up but Ms. HMV herself--by
herself--husband and son apparently left to their own devices. We
were up
at the buffet scarfing, so probably in error. she plopped down
directly
behind us, where she pulled out her notebooks and read. Such a
busy bee!
And ignoring her kid and all! Tsk tsk!
Now Bradley is a religious sort. He prays before meals. So with
Ms. HMV
directly behind us, he proceeded to thank G-d for the fellowship
of Bastard
Nation and to ask G-d to help open adoption records. Ms. HMV
glared at the
prayer (didn't her mother teach her any manners?), and continued
to glare
at us throughout her potato skin dinner.
When we left about 9:30, the lobby was empty and we found at most
1/4 of
the parking lot in use. Conclusion: HMV's conference was not
exactly the
event of the year. And it was awfully pricey!
While this demonstration was not the March on the Pentagon, it
did
accomplish several things. It enabled BN to directly confront an
organization that supports sealed records, and to educate its
membership,
who in my opinion knows little-to-nothing about open records--and
might not
even realize that HMV is a party to Doe v Sundquist. They equate
cute
little bundles--not us-- with adoption, I suspect. Our flyer
addressed this
issue. FF Pam Zaebst, who could not attend due to work
commitments, edited
down the 8 points about open records for adults that is part of
Open
Records booklet so it fit on one page. On the other side we asked
HMV
several questions about their advocacy of sealed records and
asked them to
withdraw their support of Doe v Sundquist.
The demo also gave us some publicity. We sent out numerous press
releases,
and I did interviews with the Ohio News Network, WCBE-FM (NPR
affiliate),
and with Columbus Alive! An article about BN is supposed to
appear in this
week's issue of the paper. I learned today that part of my
interview with
WCBE aired at 5:10 PM Friday night. The reporter also talked to
someone
from HMV, who evaded open records altogether. My friend who heard
it said
that I sounded great and the HMVer was "lame."
"She just went
"neneneneneneneneneneneneeeeeee!" he told me. I talked
to the WCBE
reporter today, and he agreed with both statements. He also
showed an
interest in doing more BN coverage in the future.
Finally, I suspect that word will get back to Bill Pierce about
our
presence in Columbus. That makes it all worth while.
By all means necessary,
Marley
Executive Chair, BN
Chair, MOB
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