Tag Archives: Melisha Mitchell

When Neal Young released his 1979 LP Rust Never Sleeps we doubt if he had Sara Feigenholtz in mind. Yet, that’s the phrase that came to mind when I read Feigenholtz’s latest interview with the press in Saturday’s Springfield State Journal Register and other Gatehouse publications. Corrosion. Corruption. Decay. Listen to Sara: I think that non-adopted people take the right to know the first chapter of their life for granted … To know where you came from is a basic human right. Feigenholtz’s HB 5428, which she claims restores the right of original birth certificate access to Illinois adoptees, guarantees no such right–unless she considers playing wack-a-mole and Mother May I with state functionaries and birthparents and filling out War and Peace-length government forms how the non-adopted exercise their actual right to access their own birth certificates, Listen to Sara: We have to stop stigmatizing adoption. Adoption is a beautiful thing. We have nothing to be ashamed of. This legislation turns the corner on the stigmatizing of adoption. From an email sent by Feigenholtz or a member of her staff, to Washington State bastard activist Lori Jeske, after Jeske objected to HB 5429’s failure to recognize obc access as a Continue Reading →

Recently adoptee rights activist Lori Jeskie emailed a short note to Sara Feigenholtz at her listed Illinois House address stating her disappointment with the representative’s sponsorship of HB 5428, which under the guise of”records access” has eviscerated adoptee civil rights in the state. We do not know if the reply Jeske received was actually written by Feigenholtz or a staffer or her “assistant” Melisha Mitchell. We have heard stories, however, about Feigenholtz’s personalization of political criticism and attacks on those who disagree with her whom she thinks should be her friends. Until now, we have not had a written document. No matter what the source (in the past Feigenholtz has blamed staffers for SNAFUs that she clearly owns), the email was sent from Feigenholtz’s address. This response, says much about her professional demeanor and respect for the adopted people and our interests she claims to represent. Below is Feigenholtz’s response to Jeske’s email, followed by Jeske’s original email, reposted with Jeske’s permission. —- Original Message —– From: Sara To: Lori Jeske Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 10:00 PM Subject: Re: HB 5428 Lori: Thank you so much for your kind remarks about HB 5428. We will pay for your travel Continue Reading →

If you don’t believe Illinois HB 5428 is rigged, check out the bill calendar. Note that the Senate Judiciary hearing, held on April 13 (Tuesday) was never announced. We knew about it because we have learned to call and check regularly since the Feigenholtz-Mitchell machine is too cowardly to let the public know what they’re up to–even to the extent of keeping the hearing off bill’s leg page. Not that it did much good. On Tuesday, the chair of Judiciary “permitted” only two people on each side to testify. On the Feigenholtz support side were a man from Alaska (!) and a representative from The Cradle. The chair then thought it would be a good idea to let one person who says the bill went “too far” to speak, and finally OUR side who says the bill “doesn’t go far enough” (these are the words of the chair, not us) and claim it a fraud. Written testimony was ignored and the committee voted DO PASS immediately after the oral testimony, 6-3. So adoptees got screwed again. Sara Feigenholtz and Melisha Mitchell, of course, were elated. Despite Feigenholtz‘ claim Tuesday that the bill wouldn’t receive a floor vote until next month, Continue Reading →