Senate Hearing on UN Disabilities Treaty November 5 – Urgent Calls Needed!

Urgent information from the
Parental Rights Organization.

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May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

Granpa Chuck

Keeper of the web files for http://nfpcar.org

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October 29, 2013   Dear Friend of Parental Rights, Last year, your grassroots activism defeated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). But this treaty has returned. We have been told that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a new hearing on the treaty on Tuesday, November 5. We believe that this hearing marks the start of an aggressive push to ratify this dangerous UN treaty. The CRPD surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats and will threaten parental care of children with disabilities. Our nation already has laws to protect Americans with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families by giving bureaucrats - not the child’s parents - the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child with disabilities. All 100 U.S. Senators, and especially the Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee, need to hear loud and clear that the United States must not surrender our freedom to the United Nations. The following Senators are on the Foreign Relations Committee: Democrats: Robert Menendez (NJ):     (202) 224-4744 Barbara Boxer (CA):     (202) 224-3553 Benjamin L. Cardin (MD):     (202) 224-4524 Tom Udall (NM):         (202) 224-6621 Edward Markey (MA):     (202) 224-2742 Chris Murphy (CT):     (202) 224-4041 Tim Kaine (VA):     (202) 224-4024 Jeanne Shaheen (NH):     (202) 224-2841 Christopher Coons (DE):    (202) 224-5042 Richard J. Durbin (IL):    (202) 224-2152 Republicans: Bob Corker (TN)     (202) 224-3344 Ron Johnson (WI)     (202) 224-5323 James E. Risch (ID)     (202) 224-2752 Jeff Flake (AZ)     (202) 224-4521 John McCain (AZ)     (202) 224-2235 John Barrasso (WY)     (202) 224-6441 Rand Paul * (KY) Marco Rubio* (FL) *These Senators strongly oppose the CRPD. Calls are unnecessary. Even if your senators are not on the Committee, please take a moment to call their office right now. Your message can be as simple as the following: “I urge you to oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This treaty surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats and will threaten parental care of children with disabilities. Our nation already has laws to protect Americans with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families by giving bureaucrats the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child with disabilities, not the child’s parents.” You can reach your senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or by clicking on your state at ParentalRights.org/States to find their contact info. You defeated the CRPD last year. We can do it again. Please call right now and please also forward this email to your friends. You can visit our CRPD page here to learn more about the treaty and you can read the text of the CRPD here. For Liberty, Michael Farris President ParentalRights.org

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P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

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Good News and Bad News from the Parental Rights Organization

 Do read the email below for further details. However:

• The Good News is that a very special event is about to take place! On November first, we begin our first ever national grassroots training for ParentalRights.org’s volunteer state leaders..
• The Bad News is that the Senate are scheduling two hearings for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) two weeks from now!

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May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

Granpa Chuck

Keeper of the web files for http://nfpcar.org

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October 24, 2013 CRPD Is Back in the Senate! I have some exciting news for you, and also some very disturbing news. The good news is about a very special event that’s about to take place! On November first, we begin our first ever national grassroots training for ParentalRights.org’s volunteer state leaders who are generously serving the cause all across the country. I want to let you know how you can help us with this important event, but first, I have an urgent update. I just received word that our opponents in the Senate are scheduling two hearings for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) two weeks from now! Sources tell me they hope to get it out of committee and pass it through the full Senate by the end of the year. By now, this feels like déjà vu all over again, but the truth is we could be in more danger than last time. CRPD advocates will almost certainly have no trouble getting it out of committee, and when they do, we will be in a similar position to last fall when Harry Reid tried to sneak it through by “unanimous consent” in a mostly-empty Senate chamber. Actually, the situation may be even worse. While we were able to hold off ratification by just five votes in December, our opponents are now claiming with confidence that three of the five would have voted “yes” – they would have voted to ratify the CRPD – “if the vote mattered.” Our margin is not a narrow five votes, but a razor-thin wall of only two! Unfortunately, we’re going to have to gear up and fight this yet again. But in doing so, we cannot lose sight of our primary goal, which is to permanently kill the threat of this treaty to children and parents by passing the Parental Rights Amendment. And that’s why the national leaders training I mentioned above is so important at this very moment. As you know, my goal is to get the Parental Rights Amendment out of committee in this session of Congress. Whatever happens in the Senate, simply getting a House committee vote will move us light years forward. The more people we can mobilize to drive cosponsors to support the Amendment, the more significant this victory will be. Our grassroots network is a vital key to making that happen. If not for the hard work of supporters in every state we could never have come as far as we have. I’m simply amazed by the generous commitment and success of our volunteers—especially the state leaders—and we want to do everything we can to help them in their roles. Leaders from all over the country will come to get equipped for the fight. They will learn how to effectively recruit, organize, and activate volunteers; pass state statutes and resolutions; lobby elected officials; incorporate fundraising into their efforts; and speak persuasively about our issues. As I mentioned before, these are volunteer leaders. They are not paid, and they cannot afford to bear the cost of this conference. So ParentalRights.org has shouldered a significant expense to provide it for them, because it is vital to driving results at the grassroots level. Because of this, funds are much tighter than usual, even as we need to ramp up against the CRPD right now. The cost of this conference is nothing next to the value of having well-trained leaders in every state! But the timing has put us in a crucial bind. Because both needs are so important, I’d like you to consider making an immediate gift to help sponsor a state leader for this training. That will replenish our funds so we can fight the CRPD today! Your gift right now means so much. We’ve had to be on high alert for the CRPD all year. Now that the battle is upon us, it is absolutely vital that we have the provisions to face this enemy again and win! If we can drive results at the local level, then we can drive results in Congress! You and I have already seen how effective our grassroots support can be. Now, let’s make it even better, with trained leaders to halt the CRPD threat once and for all. Sincerely, Michael Farris President Because ParentalRights.org is a 501(c)(4) lobby organization, donations are not tax deductible.

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P.O. Box 1090 Purcellville, VA 20134 * (540)-751-1200 * info@parentalrights.org

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Be the "One Small Voice"

Check out this video when CCHR went on the streets to ask if they have helped another in their time of need?

A heartfelt video and a heartfelt letter to you from CCHR Florida!

Please watch and then read!

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Greetings!  Until a decade or more ago, the subject of abuse in the field of mental health would only be relevant to those individuals and families who have had or do have the potential for mental health situations to arise.   Yet today, the subject of abuse in the field of mental health has everything to do with EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US, NO MATTER HOW WELL WE ARE ORCHESTRATING OUR LIVES!  Why, you may ask, is this the case?  One answer - violence, aggression and homicidal ideation, which are drug side effects listed on the package insert of many psychiatric drugs.  The majority of mass-shooters were on the drugs at one point. A mass-shooting is a variable that is even less controllable then a family situation of a relative who is experiencing mental health symptoms.   We are now, all of us, open to the risk of the violence from someone who is or has been on the psychiatric drugs. This issue belongs to all of us! In an article, titled "Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): A review and analysis", Dr. Peter Breggin talks about the violent effects of psychiatric drugs and several studies that evidenced this. (Note: Fluoxetine is Prozac) "The report provided a clinical window into the development of obsessive violence and a school shooter mentality.  A twelve-year-old boy on fluoxetine developed nightmares about becoming a school shooter and then began to lose track of reality concerning these events.This case occurred in a controlled-clinical trial and the investigators did not know that the child was getting fluoxetine until they broke the double-blind code.The child's reaction occurred long before any of the well-known school shootings had taken place.Therefore, his reaction was not inspired by the school shootings; it was not a 'copycat': Thirty-eight days after beginning the protocol, F. experienced a violent nightmare about killing his classmates until he himself was shot. He awakened from it only with difficulty, and the dream continued to feel 'very real.' He reported having had several days of increasingly vivid 'bad dreams' before this episode; these included images of killing himself and his parents dying.  When he was seen later that day he was agitated and anxious, refused to go to school and reported marked suicidal ideation that made him feel unsafe at home as well. " CCHR Florida is here, servicing you and your community! Help us to get more work done faster -- donate to CCHR Florida! THIS IS ONE THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT THAT WILL HELP TO PROVIDE SAFER AND SANER COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT THE STATE Call - 727-442-8829 or Click here: http://cchrflorida.org/shoppingcart/index.php Copyright (c) 2013 Citizens Commission on Human Rights. All Rights Reserved. Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR and its logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Citizens Commission on Human Rights International and are used with its permission.

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May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

Granpa Chuck

Keeper of the web files for http://nfpcar.org

Untangling the Web of the Internet's Transformative Impact on Adoption

Author: Jeanne A. Howard, Ph.D.

Published: 2012 December, New York NY: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Document Type: Policy and Practice Perspective (70 pages)
Availability: PDF Full Report | Executive Summary | Press Release

The first-ever examination of the Internet’s impact on adoption, released today, concludes that social media and other elements of this modern technology are having "transformative" effects – positive and negative – on adoption policy, practice and millions of people’s lives, while raising serious legal, ethical and procedural concerns that have yet to be addressed.

"Untangling the Web: The Internet’s Transformative Impact on Adoption" 

is the initial publication of a multiyear research project on the subject by the Donaldson Adoption Institute. Its key findings include:

• There is a growing "commodification" of adoption on the web, replete with dubious practices, and a shift away from the perspective that its primary purpose is to find families for children.
• Finding birth relatives is becoming increasingly easy and commonplace, with significant institutional and personal implications, including the likely end of the era of "closed" adoption.
• A growing number of young adoptees are forming relationships with birth relatives, sometimes without their adoptive parents’ knowledge and usually without guidance or preparation.
• A rising number of websites offer useful, positive resources and expedite the adoption of children and youth who need families, notably including those with special needs.

"We hope this report will serve as a wake-up call that something historic is happening that demands the attention of legislators, practitioners, law-enforcement officials and the affected parties themselves," said Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Adoption Institute. "In the longer term, our intent is to help shape policies and practices that respond to the shifting landscape in ways that protect vulnerable children and parents, while taking full advantage of the benefits that this new technology can bring."
Among the recommendations in the Institute’s 70-page report are:

• Professionals who deal with expectant and pre-adoptive parents should get training reflecting the certainty that many, if not most of their clients. will be able to find each other at some point, and should educate them about the benefits of openness and the realities of such relationships.
• Practitioners should get additional training and resources to enable them to better assist the growing number of adopted individuals and others who seek help with search and reunion.
• Policy and law-enforcement officials should routinely review online adoption-related sites/activity for fraud, exploitation or other illegal/unethical practices, and should take action as warranted.
• Laws that impede the parties to adoption from gaining significant information, including "closed records" statutes, should be repealed since the Internet obviates their main contemporary rationale (i.e., preventing the affected parties from learning about and finding each other).

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Executive Summary It is difficult to describe the extent to which the Internet is changing the everyday realities of adoption – and the lives of the millions of people it encompasses – without using words that sound hyperbolic. But a yearlong examination of the effects of this very new technology on a very old social institution indicates that they are systemic, profound, complex and permanent.

Social media, search engines, blogs, chat rooms, webinars, photo-listings and an array of other modern communications tools, all facilitated by the Internet, are transforming adoption practices, challenging current laws and policies, offering unprecedented opportunities and resources, and raising critical ethical, legal and procedural issues about which adoption professionals, legislators and the personally affected parties, by their own accounts, have little reliable information, research or experience to guide them.

The Donaldson Adoption Institute’s research for this report affirmed that substantive information about the Internet’s impact on adoption is scarce in the scholarly literature – or anyplace else – so there is little reliable knowledge to inform policy and practice, or to guide families or professionals. To begin filling this gap, the Adoption Institute has embarked on a multiyear, first- of-its-kind study of the Internet’s impact on all aspects of adoption. Because there is a dearth of evidence-based information, most of the content of this report was derived from searching the Internet and getting input from the affected parties through a variety of means, including interviewing them and setting up a special email address to which they could send their input.

One key goal of this initial report by the Adoption Institute is to stimulate a national discussion about the Internet’s impact on adoption and how to regulate Internet-based adoption services to assure that they are legal and ethical, and that the interests of all those affected –particularly children– are protected. This report provides an overview of the evolving landscape; an explanation of the scope and impact of the changes; resources (albeit limited ones) to inform, protect and assist all those affected; and preliminary recommendations on legal, policy and practice reforms intended to better respond to adoption’s new realities. Our ultimate intent is to identify and promote policies and practices that enable this powerful technology to best serve the millions of children and families for whom adoption is part of everyday life.
The Adoption Institute’s key findings on the Internet’s impact on adoption to date include:

• A growing "commodification" of adoption and a shift away from the perspective that its primary purpose is to find families for children. This is particularly the case in domestic infant adoption, where a scarcity of babies available to be adopted heightens competition. Unregulated websites compete with traditional practitioners, sometimes by making claims and utilizing practices that raise serious ethical and legal concerns.
• Finding birth relatives is becoming increasingly easy and commonplace, with significant institutional and personal implications, including the likely end of the era of "closed" adoption and a growth in relationships between adoptive families and families of origin.
• An indeterminable but growing number of minor adopted children are contacting and forming relationships with biological siblings, parents and other relatives, sometimes without their adoptive parents’ knowledge and usually without guidance or preparation about the complex emotional and interpersonal repercussions for everyone involved.
• A rising number of useful, positive sites, such as ones that expedite the adoption of children and youth who need families, notably including those with special needs; and more places to get information and education, networking opportunities, support services and other resources that are a clear contribution to professionals, policymakers, researchers, journalists and the millions of personally affected individuals.
• Evidence that the Internet has many additional positive effects on adoption and the people it touches. For instance, there are growing numbers of opportunities for affiliation, support and information-sharing that would be impossible to achieve without the technology and reach of the Internet and, in particular, social media.

Because the territory covered by this review is extensive and on-going, these initial findings are necessarily general, as are the recommendations presented below. The Adoption Institute will follow up in the coming months and years with more-detailed additional research, as well as education and advocacy initiatives to improve Internet-related laws, policies and practices.

Practice recommendations:

• Key organizations and experts in the fields of child welfare, foster care and adoption (Child Welfare League of America, National Association of Social Workers, American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, and representatives of major agencies and stakeholders) should convene for the purpose of devising best-practice standards and identifying other guidance/materials for use in the short-term while additional research is being conducted. The Adoption Institute plans to organize such a meeting in mid-2013.
• Education and training programs should be developed by and for adoption professionals so that they gain a better understanding of the positive and negative uses of the Internet and social media (including improved understanding of the technology itself), They then need to develop comparable programs to pass on this knowledge to their clients.
• Adoption practitioners, social workers and others who deal with birth and adoptive families should revise their curricula and training regimens to reflect the reality that many if not most affected parties will be able to find each other at some point, if they wish, and should provide their clients with commensurate information, education, counseling and other supports that recognize most adoptions likely will be "open" to some extent.
• Adoption practitioners of all sorts need to receive training and devise materials that enable them to better assist the growing number of adopted individuals, first/birthparents and other members of families of origin, adoptive parents and others who are coming to them for assistance in search and reunion activities.
• Child welfare organizations, researchers and other professionals should devise and post information on the Internet for prospective parents (adoptive and birth) explaining how to assess the array of online services and thereby enable them to make informed decisions based on a clear understanding of the ethical, personal and legal issues involved.

Policy and law recommendations:

• Policy-makers at the state and federal levels should commission research and hold hearings to determine whether changes in law or policy are needed to serve their constituents who are affected by adoption, and to ensure that everyone is protected from scams, exploitation or the risk of psychological harm.
• Policy and law-enforcement officials at all levels should routinely examine adoption-related activity on the Internet to determine whether fraud, exploitation or other illegal or unethical practices are taking place, and should follow up, as warranted, by issuing warnings to violators, pressing charges and/or instigating statutory changes.
• Social media and Internet companies, particularly Google, Facebook and others that have a major impact on the issues discussed in this report, should conduct and enable research to inform their activities and should re-examine their policies and practices to determine if they need to be altered in light of the findings of this report.
• Laws that impede or prevent the parties to adoption from gaining important information, including statutes preventing adopted adults from accessing their original birth certificates, should be repealed since the Internet obviates their primary contemporary rationale (i.e., keeping the affected parties from learning about and finding each other.)

Conclusion 

The list of positive, negative and complicated changes occurring in the world of adoption as a result of the Internet goes on and on, with many already in place and others still evolving. The common denominator among them is that they are not best practices derived from lessons learned from research and experience; rather, overwhelmingly, they are transformations that are happening simply because new technology enables them to happen. It is critical that those concerned about ethical adoption practice alter this reality by determining how to use the Internet to assure the rights and well-being of all parties, while improving adoption overall.

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May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

 GranPa Chuck

  "We the "Little" People"

    Defend Yourself http://nfpcar.org/Jurisdictionary/

  My Family Reform Blog
  My Family Rights Affiliation

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Now on sale as a hardcopy:

Standing InThe Shadow of the Law

 
Special Edition - Expanded and   More information than Original VersionBy Marilyn Harrison
 
         http://nfpcar.org/Shadow/Hardcopy Now Available>> Purchase Now ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Informed Public Make Informed Decisions!

Great Title for this email: "Informed Public Make Informed Decisions!"

CCHR Florida reached 1000 families in one day! Working to end harm and abuse in the field of mental health.   CCHR Florida at the Hispanic Heritage Family Festival, this past Sunday 1000 more people informed public making informed decisions! CCHR Florida provides this information as a public service; we operate only by donations of our members; sign up today; $30 a month.     Call - 727-442-8820 or  Click here: http://cchrflorida.org/shoppingcart/index.php FOLLOW US ON:             Copyright (c) 2013 Citizens Commission on Human Rights. All Rights Reserved. Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR and its logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Citizens Commission on Human Rights International and are used with its permission.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

Granpa Chuck

Keeper of the web files for http://nfpcar.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now on sale as a hardcopy:
Standing InThe Shadow of the Law

 
Special Edition - Expanded and   More information than Original VersionBy Marilyn Harrison
 
         http://nfpcar.org/Shadow/Hardcopy Now Available>> Purchase Now ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,

 GranPa Chuck

  "We the "Little" People"

    Defend Yourself http://nfpcar.org/Jurisdictionary/

  My Family Reform Blog
  My Family Rights Affiliation