Dear Members,

Recently, we have noticed postings for American Family Rights Association
asking us to donate money to send "Mr. Smith to Washington."

I caution all members regarding this fund raising scheme. I am cautioning
members because we already raised over $1,000. to send these same people to
Washington a few years ago. I was one of the engines who helped raise the
money and I also donated money. I will say, all of the fund raisers of before
have now completely disassociated with AFRA for this and other questionable
issues. The money was wasted, in my opinion. Not only because the end result
was that the people were given the money and never made it to the hearings but
a more import reflection is that it is a very poor way to try to bring about
any positive change for child protection reform. This statement is
supported by the prior Baca hearings in San Bernardino and the last
reauthorization
of Ways and Means hearings. Even more daunting, one person had a medical
emergency and needed some of the funding to get medical care, another was
unable
to get into the hearings at all. The first representatives we funded last
time were only allowed to speak to the chair person, California Congressman,
Wally Herger a few days later.
The end result below is that their statements held little or no weight in
affording any change.
[http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=3043]


The most disappointing reality of this attempt was that all of the written
affidavits from harmed parents that were submitted, along with testimony from
the prior Baca Hearings turned out to be the very fertilizer to grow the CAPTA
reauthorizaiton budget to an even more mammoth amount. AFRA was warned
prior to this brainstorm idea that their attempt would end in exactly this
result by former attorney member of AFRA. He warned that this was a totally
ineffective avenue and would result in biting us in the backside. He was
prophetically correct. Why? Well, AFRA has a very flat and basic
understanding of
what Congress can and will do to for welfare reform. The power of CAPTA does
not rest in the hands of the Congressional Legislature. The Congressional
Legislature only can justify more (the usual) or less monies flowing out to
states to help support the child protection initiative. They are not court
rooms or judges who can invalidate a statute as unconstitutional. They can
only
create law sponsored by a member or make adjustments to already voted and
approved statute.

Child Protection Laws are essentially created via states. States are
sovereign and fight hard against federal government to ameliorate federalism.
In
fact, they cry federalism whenever they feel the legislature oversteps their
bounds into the business of the state and many federal courts will state their
desire not to get involved in state business that should be efficiently
handled by the state's own enumerated branches. Enumerated powers, when
working
properly is a very good thing for the people of the United States and should
be something we encourage. Instead, we have these short-sited individuals at
AFRA, with their limited understanding of government and its political
balance and intra function within governmental powers wanting to have a second
chance at striking out!

When we, the public citizens go and tell our personal bad experiences with
social services in testimonial format, the Congressional members see dollar
signs as the answer. If we are harmed by this system, by golly, they'll hire
more people to oversite the system. They'll put more social workers on board
and more supervisors and create even more ombudsman initiatives to create not
a better system but in most cases more bureaucracy for we tax payers to su
pport with more of our tax revenue dollars.

It is evident, in the links below that the last attempt at doing this was a
failure. Mr. Herger's slant is to help even the monies given to states,
increase adoption, and give more funding to try to fix the system.

_http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news.asp?formmode=release&id=271_
(http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news.asp?formmode=release&id=271)
_http://www.house.gov/herger/images/pr6-10-5.pdf_
(http://www.house.gov/herger/images/pr6-10-5.pdf)

The veracity of the AFRA members attempting to be credible representatives
for our groups is questionable. They are thin in understanding the political
channels to tap necessary to bring about desirable change to our movement.
Some have skeleton's in their closets as to their own personal records with
child protection services and are on child abuse registries or have domestic
violence histories. This is a sure way to knock all of our members'
credibility, some of whom have only had neglect issues face them and their
families.
Founded physical abuse, sexual abuse and violence along with battering is not
who we want to represent our members. Persons who falsely claim to be law
students, para legals, or court appointed special advocates are not who we
want. Better that this representation of AFRA stay within only the small
group of AFRA and not us. Health concerns that are so grave that it affects
function is better for AFRA leaders and not us. This speaks volumes as to how
ineffective they have been and will continue to be in the reform of welfare
within this movement. Last attempt was a terrible failure and gave Wally
Herger, Chair of Ways And Means the ability to reauthorize CAPTA with more
monies
- especially for foster care/adoption . We all know, too well, who gets the
increased monies for Foster Care.

I caution all members "Buyer Beware" on this attempt to get money to finance
AFRA to Washington. Not only because of their own poor pasts histories,
their incredible veracity, but because the path they pick is only one that
harms
us and empowers child protection agencies in the long haul. This AFRA
attempt is a rerun that should end up on the cutting room floor!

effie



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]