One Last Shot

HB1408 has STILL not yet been presented before the Arkansas Senate Judiciary Committee.  Meanwhile, the agenda continues to grow and grow.  The agenda for tomorrow's session has 86 bills waiting to be presented and nine of them are targeting sex offenders.  Some of the other bills other than HB1408 have already been presented and passed.  To my knowledge, not one bill targeting sex offenders has been presented and has been rejected.

Tomorrow is my last ditch effort to speak out agains the bill before April 4.  If they present it between next Monday and the 4th of April, I will not be present to speak out against it, and neither will my good friend Robert.  I'm afraid that this bill may be passed without someone there on the behalf of sex offenders and their families to speak out against it.  Robert and I are both traveling to different states in the next two weeks.  I am taking the kids to Florida to visit my family (once again sans husband due to Florida's exceptionally strict registration requirements...) and Robert is going to visit family in Oklahoma.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the HB1408 bill gets presented TOMORROW.  My toes, too.

It is hard to be a lone figure in the fight against the sex offender laws in Arkansas.  Actually, I'm not alone, thank goodness there's Robert and another fellow, "Biker Bob".  Biker Bob is a really nice guy, very likeable and much more outgoing than my little meek self.  He, like Robert, is not afraid to approach lawmakers and other visitors to the Capitol while I still can't seem to crack out of my shell.  I'll get there though...  Let me tell you ~ I've come a loooooong way in overcoming my fear of speaking (I'm still afraid) and my shyness (I'm still shy) and I'm a lot better than I used to be.  Still have far to go, though...  I'm no Robert or Biker Bob....

But, boy, can I write!  :)  Not afraid to do that, at all.  I don't care if I write well or not.  I don't use big words.  I just find that writing is an excellent way to express myself and I am just grateful to at least be able to put a few thoughts into sentences and paragraphs.  Oh, but I digress... sorry...

It is hard, though, like I said, to stand alone ~ we three ~ and speak out against these laws.  I so wish that there could be a group that could stand up in the halls of justice and demand that these laws be changed.  I know, that there must be hundreds if not thousands of Arkansans who want the laws to change, but they are too afraid to get out there and show their faces.  I don't blame them.  It is hard enough for me, and I hide behind a fake name and under a wig.

Maybe someday.... someday we can stand up for our rights and protest with picket signs outside the capitol building.  The time is coming, you will see.  The question is, do you want it to come sooner or do you want it to come later?  If you're tired of the way these laws affect you and your loved ones' lives, then it's time.  Put aside your fears, don your wigs and create a fake identity for yourself and join us!  Whatever you have to do to get your voices heard, do it!  Don't wait until it's too late.  We need you, now...

We sooooo need you... now....