It is a paradox of “social movements” that they rely on lone voices, sharing stories of impact and pain. Whether chanting “Me Too” or “Black Lives Matter,” it is easy to stand in a crowd and demand change and much harder to stand alone, as one Bowie resident did last month, when he shared with strangers the most horrifying and vulnerable experience of his life in a recorded Zoom session for the Maryland General Assembly.
The legislators tuning into the hearing had been given a 200-page stack of testimony from survivors of childhood sexual abuse, all of it urging them to strengthen a law called the Hidden Predator Act that had passed with great fanfare in 2017. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee would spend almost two hours going back and forth with a lobbyist sent to oppose the bill, also known as SB134.
But, because of COVID protocols, they would only hear from one lone survivor; 63-year-old David Lorenz. And he had just three minutes starting one hour and 51 minutes into the hearing to tell them why the 2017 law cannot stand...
The aces of arcane protocols
ReplyDeleteProviding artificial obstacles
Overshadow those of Lords
Reading edicts with monocles.