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Valley Patriot Editorial *
People Finally Prevail Over
Cowardly Legislature
01/04/07
In a surprise action, on January 2nd the
Constitutional Convention of the Massachusetts
Legislature actually voted to move forward a citizen
petition to amend the state constitution on the
definition of marriage. The constitution itself, in
Article 48, requires the ConCon legislators to vote up or
down on a citizen initiative petition, but in the past
our gutless pols had found ways to avoid a vote through
procedural delays until time ran out and the petition
died.
This year the legislators were poised to once again flout
the constitution and their oath of office by denying a
vote on two initiative petitions. One was on universal
healthcare and the other was on the definition of
marriage. They did manage to kill the healthcare
amendment - which passed the ConCon last year – by
sending it to a committee for further study. The marriage
petition, however, proved to be more difficult to ignore
because of continuing public pressure and threatened
lawsuits.
The cowards on Beacon Hill postponed the vote several
times during the year, hoping the media and people would
tire of the subject. But this time it didn’t work.
Newspaper editorials from across the state – and
even the Wall Street Journal – castigated the
Legislature for trying to avoid a vote. Citizens
repeatedly called their representatives and senators.
Then Governor Romney petitioned the SJC, trying to force
the Legislature to vote. Others filed lawsuits to
sanction or disbar the 42 legislators who are lawyers if
they didn’t fulfill their obligations under the
constitution.
All this proved too much and on Jan. 2nd Senate President
Travaglini relented and called for a vote on the matter.
The 100 plus cowardly legislators who had desperately
tried to kill the initiative all year had now run out of
options. The vote went forward and 62 respectful
legislators finally voted “yea” to advance the
petition and “let the people decide” on the
definition of marriage.
The Valley Patriot salutes all those who worked so hard
to pressure our self-serving and arrogant politicians to
show some respect for the state’s constitution
— and the people.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The January 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 10,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Hampton & Salisbury
Beach, and Lowell.
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