AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA

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July 14, 2004

“We’ve only just begun to fight”

 I believe those were the famous words of John Paul Jones during a sea battle.

For those who fight for traditional values those are our words also in response to today’s vote in the U.S. Senate – 48 to 50 against cloture.  Interpreted that means 48 senators voted for an end to debate on the Federal Marriage Amendment and to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the Senate.  Fifty senators voted not to bring the amendment up to a vote.  Simple addition will show that two senators were not present for a vote.  These senators who believed the marriage issue was not worth their vote shall remain unnamed.  You must understand that they are both busy on the campaign trail as they seek the highest and second highest offices in the land so they can work for America’s families.

I am writing this as I return from Washington, D.C. This morning I was in the Senate Gallery to witness the debate and vote.  Words are not sufficient to describe our own Senator Rick Santorum’s fanastic job

during the debate.  Speaking almost entirely without notes, he made an impassioned plea for families with one husband and one wife and for the children in that family.  He equated marriage to oxygen – we don’t realize how

 important it is until we are on the verge of losing it.  He concluded his debate by asking several times what harm would it do to vote to allow the FMA to go forward for a vote.  There was no response from the other side; they avoided the issue.

But lets back up to yesterday.  I was part of a team that visited every U.S. Senators' office in Washington, D.C.  As I visited the various offices, I was struck by one thing – the phones were ringing constantly!  As we regrouped, each team member reported the same thing.  Senators that were opposed to the FMA were reluctant to say how many calls they had received and what the ratio was for and against, but just listening on our end told a lot of the story – the phone calls we ‘eavesdropped on’ were for the FMA.  The senators

in support reported thousands of calls each day this entire week.  Senator Jeff Sessions said that the calls his office received was 23 to 1 in favor of the FMA.  Others reported similar ratios.  YOU did it – YOU shut the Senate switchboard down for three straight days!!  Congratulations for getting our senators’ attention.

As we met with Senator Specter yesterday, he said he was strongly considering voting for cloture.  But He still is saying that he believes it is too soon to amend the Constitution.  His office reported a 5 to 1 ratio in favor of the FMA.  I’m sure if he’d had more than just one person, as seemed to be the case, answering the phone that the numbers would have been higher!  Today Senator Specter did, in fact, vote with Senator Santorum for cloture.

Last Friday 1.4 million signatures in favor of the FMA were delivered to Congress.  In the packet of information we delivered to each Senator yesterday was also a CD containing additional signatures.  Almost 51,000 Pennsylvanians' names were delivered in the original group on Friday.  I know our numbers are higher than that as some were hand-delivered to Senate offices by concerned citizens.

NOW WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE??

First, pat yourself on the back!  You did it.  You got Senator Specter’s attention!  You shut down the Senate switchboard this entire week. 

Second, at the bottom of this alert is the roll call vote of how each senator voted on this issue.  Both our senators voted in favor of traditional marriage, but if you have family or friends in other states whose senators did not vote the right way, feel free to forward this e-mail.  If they are up for re-election their constituents need to make it clear that they will remember in November how they voted on July 14.

Democratic senators used the arguments

1.)    This is a state’s rights issue

If this is a state’s rights issue – then let the states decide.  The Congress simply puts the amendment out there for the PEOPLE to vote on.  It will not become an amendment to the Constitution unless three-fourths of the states approve it.  Amazing that is about the same number of states that already have DOMAs.  Perhaps that is why homosexual activists and their allies do no want the states to vote on this issue – they know they will lose, if the people are permitted to speak!

Why don’t these same senators, who suddenly have become great defenders of states’ rights, allow the abortion issue to be voted on by each state?  Also, many of them were very anxious to force universal health care on all of us a few years ago.

2.)    There is no crisis in the U.S.  DOMA has not successfully been challenged.

Same-sex marriage has only been legal in Massachusetts since May 17.  Even now there are at least 33 challenges to states’ DOMAs.  These have just been filed and have not had time to work through the court system yet.  Judges are on the verge of striking down Nebraska’s marriage amendment.  Over 70 percent of the people voted for their amendment, yet judges are within weeks of striking down the will of the people. In Massachusetts judges told the legislative body to write a law legalizing same-sex marriage.  How many more examples do the senators need?

Many states in the United States did not view slavery as being a crisis situation either.  There were no slaves in the north – so why bother?

If the United States Congress had not stepped in and passed a constitutional amendment, slavery might still be legal today.  

More importantly in the slavery issue, if the churches had not stepped in and said slavery had to go would the Congress have acted?.  We are faced with the same scenario today – the churches must step in and defend traditional one man one woman marriage.  The good news is that the churches have begun to do just that!! Ask the senate staffers about the last three days!

ACTION NEEDED:

1.)    After you pat yourself on the back for shutting down the Senate switchboard, call Senator Santorum and Senator Specter’s offices and thank them for their votes today.  Tell them that the fight has just begun and you are in the fight for traditional marriage until it is fully protected under the Constitution.

Senator Santorum: (202) 224-6324

            Senator Specter: (202) 224-4254

2.)  Look at the roll call vote.  Do you know people who live in some of the states where the Senator voted the wrong way?   Forward this e-mail to them and ask them to contact their senator.

3.)  Contact your state senator and representative and tell them you want a Marriage Protection Amendment to the PA Constitution.  If they move quickly enough, it could be on the ballot by November 2005.  Click here and key in your zip in  the upper right hand corner.  http://www.legis.state.pa.us/

4.)  Write a letter to the editor and share your views on today’s vote and your views on the importance of traditional marriage and families.  Be sure to thank Senators Santorum and Specter for their vote in your letter to the editor.

5.)  Call your Congressman and ask him or her to support the FMA. It is currently scheduled for a vote in September.  Go to http://www.house.gov to find your Congressman.

Today is the day to act.  Our time to sit on the sidelines has passed. We cannot allow a very vocal minority to change the definition of marriage in our nation.  Homosexuals only make up 2-3% of the population – and only a small segment of this percentage are the ones pushing for these radical changes in our nation. 

We have been called for such a times as this.

II Chronicles 7:14 –

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will

I  hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

_____________________________________

S.J. Res. 40  Cloture Vote Tally

July 14, 2004

Nays  (** are up for reelection this year)

Yays

Not Voting

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