Tag Archives: Sara Feigenholtz

BAD DAY IN ILLINOIS: Quinn to Sign Anti-Adoptee Bill

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The Chicago Tribune announced this morning that Governor Pat Quinn, over the protest of adoptee rights activists (aka “ungrateful bastards”) throughout the US, will sign Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz’s Adoption Industry Cash Cow and Corporate Welfare Act of 2010, HB 5428, (NOTE: The Trib has since published an longer version of this story, which I will hold back on an include in later commentary. We are expected to jubalize because Under the legislation, adopted people born in 1945 or earlier could get their birth certificates right away. Adopted people born after 1945 would have to wait until November of next year — after their birth parents have had a chance to file an objection if they want. Note the absence of the actual Draconian restrictions on post-1946 bastards and their obc access that the bill codifies. Feigenholtz has never mentioned, much less taken responsibility for the ugly post that came from her published email account last month to adoptee Lori Jeske that included: Would you consider giving Representative Feigenholtz the key to your (delusional) Eutopian world where all ungrateful bastards think it’s easy to pass a bill that makes everyone happy AND CAN ACTUALLY PASS ? Pass a law? what a Continue Reading →

SARA SPEAKS: SARA FEIGENHOLTZ TELLS US WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS OF US

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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 →

PETER MOSE: WHY CANT I GET MY REAL BIRTH RECORD?

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Yesterday, the online (and today’s hardcopy) Chicago-Sun Times published an op-ed piece by Peter Mose, Why can’t I get my real birth certificate? in response to HB 5428. Peter is a member of Bastard Nation’s Executive Commitee. The piece will go into the Sun-Times paid archives soon enough. With Peter’s permission I’m giving it a permanent home here. It is a clear simple statement, written on a very personal level, Aabout why sealed birth certificates and restricted access is wrong. It deserves wide circulation. Thank you Peter! Please go to the link above and post a comment. ****** Why can’t I get my real birth record? April 25, 2010 BY PETER KRISTIAN MOSE On July 15, 1956, I was born in downtown Chicago, at Wesley Hospital, now a part of Northwestern University’s medical complex. I was delivered by a physician named Byford Heskett. It says so on my Illinois birth certificate. It also says my parents were Donald and Ellen Mose of Oak Park. But Ellen never met Dr. Heskett, and indeed she never gave birth to me. Instead, I was adopted by Ellen and Don Mose from an adoption agency in Evanston when I was 2 months old. The Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION LETTER TO ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PAT QUINN – PLEASE VETO HB 5428

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Dear Governor Quinn: Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization urges you to veto HB 5428, a so-called “adoptee rights” bill promoted as a progressive piece of legislation to correct Illinois’ long-standing Draconian treatment of its adoptees and their families of origin. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed. The introduction to the bill reads: The General Assembly recognizes that it is the basic right of all persons to access their birth records, and, to this end, supports public policy that allows an adult adoptee to access his or her original birth certificate. The rest of the bill guts the “recognition of that “basic right,” putting unreasonable and outrageous restrictions on that “basic right:” HB 5428 separates adoptees into two classes by date of birth and then into numerous subclasses of “access” and “contact” eligibility dependent on parental and state “consent.” HB 5428 “grants” rights to some at the expense of others. HB 5428 criminalizes adoptees that use information from the Illinois Adoption Reunion and Medical Exchange to locate and contact families of origin. HB 5428 dictates relationships between adults. .HB 5428 is a bill that adopted persons and their Continue Reading →

WHAT IF? Illinois HB 5428 and Woman Suffrage

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You can listen to the HB 5428 Senate floor debate at the link at the bottom of this blog. The debate is about 33 minutes long. What I find interesting is that many of the senators theoretically “got” the idea of our “rights”–but failed to grasp that the bill, with its multi-layered “consents,” forms “information exchanges” and liabilities obviated those rights, kept the state in control, and gave adoptees and their families nothing but a big messy pile of obtuse rigmarole that can only be sussed out with a pitchfork. On June 10, 1919, Illinois ratified the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. What if Illinois leggies that day declared: All women have the “basic right” to vote. However, we are concerned about the affect female voters will have on male reputation and status in the community. We need to protect the rights of those husbands who believe that the marriage contract promised them that their wives would never be allowed to vote. To balance the right of women to vote with the right of husbands to protect their reputations and status, we are mandating a mutual consent voter registration law, which authorizes Continue Reading →

BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT: STOP HB 5428 – WRITE GOV. PAT QUINN NOW

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Distribute Freely and Quickly! BASTARD NATION ACTION ALERT!URGENT!ILLINOIS GROUND ZERO CONTACT GOVERNOR PAT QUINN NOW Don’t let Illinois gut what few rightsIllinois adoptees still possess! This afternoon the Illinois Senate passed HB 5428:the Illinois Adoption CI/Registry Cash Cow Protection Act HB 5428 is NOT an original birth certificate access billHB 5428 is NOT an adoptee rights billHB 5428 is NOT an adoption reform bill HB 5428 is an adoption industry bill, dressed up as obc access, intended to kill rights-based adoptee access to our own birth records. HB 5428 is an Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Exchange (IARME) promotion bill with virtually no support from adoptee rights and adoption reform advocates and organizations. HB 5428 separates adoptees into two classes by date of birth and then into numerous subclasses of “access” and “contact” eligibility dependent on parental and state “consent” HB 5428 “grants” rights to some at the expense of others. HB 5428 criminalizes adoptees that use information from the IARME to locate and contact families of origins. HB 5428 dictates relationships between adults THE BILL IS HERE: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=09600HB5428eng&GA=96&SessionId=76&DocTypeId=HB&LegID=50466&DocNum=5428&GAID=10&Session=HB%3C/span GO HERE FOR BN TESTIMONY AND TALKING POINTS http://bastardnation.blogspot.com/2010/04/bastard-nation-testimony-hb-5428-oppose.html Contact Governor Pat Quinn immediately and ask him to veto HB 5428 Continue Reading →

RIP ILLINOIS: HB 5428 PASSES:. Adoptee Rights Die

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That pernicious piece of crap passed. Tentative vote: 36 yea16 nay2 No vote Senators waxed poetic over the “robust” debate in Judiciary a few days ago!Were they there? Others praised the bill as “brilliantly crafted.”Did they read it? Supporters said, “We are being balanced” by not going “far enough.”Why do they promote “special rights” Supporters spoke eloquently about the “restoral of a right”What about the vetoed left behind? The EB Donaldson “pledged support” for registry/CI “educational” campaign.When did EBD become NCFA? On to Pat Quinn’s office…action alert shortly!

Deja Vu All Over Again–Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz Part 2: Illinois HB 5428 and The Odor of Mendacity

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There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity… You can smell it. It smells like death.……Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ****** This is Part 2 of what has now, due to length, become three parts originally only one blog: Deja Vu All Over Again-Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz, Part 1: HB 5428 State Secret. Please read that entry first to put Part 2 in context. For further context go to my 2008 Illinois Warning! Trainwreck ahead for records rights and Illinois and That train keeps a rollin’–more pile-a-crap legislation. (I wrote more about Illinois in 2008, which you can find in a search, but those are the major pieces). Much of what I wrote then is relevant to the current situation in Illinois. Not much has changed except the bill number. ****** Illinois HB 5428 is a “new and improved” version of HB 4623 and older similar registry/confidential intermediary bills that Rep. Sara Feigenholtz has been flogging for 15 years. All have met with universal opposition from adoptee rights and adoption reform organizations in Illinois and throughout the country either from the onset or due to rights stripping amendments added later. Though she is a “reunited” adoptee Continue Reading →

MORE COWARDLY ATTACKS ON ILLINOIS BASTARD RIGHTS

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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 →

ILLINOIS: MORE BAD NEWS

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Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz’s HB 5428, the Illinois Adoption CI/Registry Cash Cow Protection Act, has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is very bad. Of the 11 members of the Judiciary Committee, two are Senate sponsors: Judiciary Committee Chair AJ Wilhelmi and Ira Silverstein. Other powerful members of the committee are Majority Caucus Whips Terry Link and Don Harmon. Harmon is also the Assistant Majority Leader. And don’t forget, Sara Feigenholtz’s mentor, John Cullerton, is president of the Senate. HB 5428 could be a slam dunk for Sneaky Sara and her adoptee-soaking special interests unless its stopped now. If passed, while other states continue to unseal our original birth certificates and free them from pinch-nosed bureaucrats and politicians without controls and restrictions, Illinois adoptees will be tied up in a ball of red tape for decades. All to fill somebody’s pockets. So far, no Senate hearings have been announced, but then none in the House were announced either, though the bill in its earlier identical forms had huge opposition from adoptee rights advocates. This time around, without public announcement and airing, no one knew this travesty, introduced as a unctuous shell, even existed until it passed the House. Sara Continue Reading →