i'm a felon on paper who can't vote. change that first, and i'm sure the rest will fall into place.

@ anarchy304 - why cant you vote? Illegal immigrants vote when they are not supposed to. If they are not allowed to vote but do so anyway, why cant those whose voting rights have been stripped away?

I say, it doesnt hurt to put your voice out there - go and VOTE!

@AAMI Please let me know when the petition is out - I want to sign it. I'll let others know about it - thanks for informing us of this petition

it's a crime here in wisconsin. felon's on paper can not vote. it's a way to control them. you see if you check the constitution the amendment says the word franchise. i'm disenfranchised. lol so does that mean i don't have to pay taxes ;O

The laws of this country regarding sex offenders and the registry will never change until the families--the children, the wives, the daughters, the sons--of sex offenders rally and make their voices heard.

Nobody, except their family, cares about sex offenders themselves. Nobody feels sorry for sex offenders. I've read some of the comments in response to articles on the internet at web sites such as MSNBC, Salon.com, CNN, etc., and although the tide is turning, you will still see a lot of remarks such as, "Well, as far I'm concerned, you can take them all and shoot them. Don't stop until you run out of bullets, " or "They should have known about all these restrictive laws when they commited the sex crime." (even though that was not possible since many of the laws regarding sex offenders are retroactive and were not even in existence when the crime occurred.)

So just a group of sex offenders will never get much done in the way of reformation of these laws.

I will always support any group of offenders trying to turn the tide of this mess we call the registry, but it is not realistic with the current political climate that the politicians will do the right things just because a group of sex offenders are complaining.

That is not to say that we need to stop trying. No, not at all, we need to keep the injustices of the sex offender registry in the open and get people talking about it.

BUT, the families of sex offenders, the collateral damage so to speak, do have a story to tell about the injustice THE ENTIRE FAMILY has had to endure because of these laws.
Nobody feels sorry for sex offenders, but there is real concern when little Johnny cannot have daddy come to his pee wee football games because of some silly restriction or little Suzie cannot understand why her family has had to move away from all her friends when the family was forced to move away from a school because of residence restrictions. People listen to this--they do not listen to sex offenders themselvess.

When enough families complain and enough sad stories emerge of how these laws are hurting the INNOCENT members of the family, the laws will change--and not until then. When legislatures realize that so many people do not want these restrictive laws, things will change. All a lawmaker cares about is getting re-elected, and when that time comes, some of the laws will get changed.

This registry problems reminds me so much of the time I was in Viet Nam. I served two tours of duty---two 18 month terms--in Viet Nam in 1968 - 1971. (Yeah, I know, most of the posters here are young enough to be my daughters or sons.) Everyone was watching the war protests because we all hated it over there. The protests started slowly, but when the mothers and daughters of the drafted soldiers started protesting in the streets with signs, then things began to change. Politicians began to listen, especially when they began to realize their political career might be in jeopardy if they continued to support the war.

I know it is difficult to compare the sex offender registry with the war in Viet Nam, but what I am trying to say is this: no matter how much the soldiers protested and griped about the war and the draft, it did not matter. But when their families, especially the moms and daughters got involved, things changed. That is what must happen here.

Until these things change, we must comfort each other and support each other and make everyone understand that, yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel--and that the tide is turning, no matter how slow.

That is what this site if for and it servers its purpose well.

rew

My husband had a felony with a firearm before he met me and has since then gotten his right to vote given back to him. I know its a different kind of crime, but he had to do some footwork to get it back. Maybe there is hope. I live in Wisconsin ...

rewdiazepam,

Your post touch my heart....because you are so right.
Yes, there are a lot of people today that didn't see those protests on their nightly news. I did. Although I was obligious to it. (Then.)

But at 17, I dated a man who had just come home from Viet Nam, and slowly I began to understand the horror's of that awful war. We have been married for forty years. ( Shouldn't he be on the sex registry?)

At times I feel as though I am a one woman soldier, fighting against all odds. For six years I have tried to understand why some family members aren't as active as I have become. It's frustrating at times.
But, we are all in different situations, different "stages" of our grieving processes.

Fear is a strong emotion. Some family members are just to fearful to get involved. (In light of the recent murders in Washington who could blame them?)
For some, it's trust. Many family members have felt betrayed by most the people they trusted. ( Friends, attorneys, court systems, law enforcement etc.) And then there is the issue of protecting someone who might become the next killer.

Some mother's have already died for this cause, I know of a few. I'm sure there are father's too.

So many children in these families have suffered great loss, friendships, homes...

However...I can't turn back, I am a different person then I once was. And I will most likely die fighting this black hole nightmare.
So, I am ready. I am not afraid, I will be out there protesting when others are ready to join me.

rew is again on the money. i have been saying this to people time and again. felons on paper in wisconsin can not vote, but if the people who can vote make a huge stink about it; then they may change it. you see it's the people who can vote, the people who can put pressure on the politicians of today; are the ones who can change things. sex offenders, and felons on paper can not change a thing, because no one cares; it doesn't matter to them. very nicely put comparing the vietnam war protests to this, because it does make logical sense. they maybe apples, and cranberries, but you can put them together to make cranapples :)

I have been trying to get more people that know RSOs involved in at the very least writing letters or calling their politicians that represent them. To me, if that is all a loved one does for their RSO, it is the most effective. Even if they don't want to do anything else to get involved, VOTE and become a name that your politicians in your area know... If I could get even 1 person for every offender doing just that here in WI we would have over 22,000 people calling or writing their politicians in their areas... Yet getting most of them to do anything other than think of themselves and their own hardships and see that if they all just come together we would have real power...

I mean I don't need to be doing this, my husband and I will be fine, I have a great job, we have an excellent support system and we are stable... But it all keeps coming back to my fundamental belief that we live in a country where those of us that can an are able to fight for our rights as a country should do that. It is their RIGHT, it is their DUTY to their fellow man to do this... if not for everyone but for themselves too... for ALL of us will benefit from the triumph of anyone that is battling these laws, the least we can do is try to help even in a small way like a phone call to their local Assemblyman, State Senator, Congressman, or Fed Senator. They will change nothing until we SAY SOMETHING!

One more point - most polling places are held at public schools, at least around here. The voter registration board has not yet put two and two together so my husband can still vote, but the instant he puts his foot on a school property (and verifies that he did so by voting) he's in pretty deep shit.

We don't expect things to change for SOs any time soon, and we're afraid that if we stick our necks out we'll get a target on our backs.

My H has 2 RSO felonies and he can vote. We live near a school. I agree that the laws are inconsistent and bc they are, they are at times unfair. In my H's case. I think he is getting what he deserves. He almsot went to prison for 12 years. I am glad he is getting the help he needs w/o prison....yet...he was doing immoral and illegal things. He had tons of child porn...been with at least one underage and many other ugly things.
I think the more sex offenses are on the news, the tighter the system will get. And in many cases, it needs to. An adult should NEVER abuse a child in any way or form....NEVER.

The problem is, Lulu, the laws don't really work to protect children, in fact, they hurt a lot more children than they help.
"Sex offender" is such a broad term. If we were talking only pedophiles, it "might" be different.
I pray the laws don't get tighter, it won't do any good.
How are children any safer from someone who lives 1001 ft from a school, than one who lives 999?
Most sex abuse is done by someone in the family or close to it.
And, yes, adults shouldn't abuse kids in any form, yet sex offenders are the only ones who have a registry, when a lot more kids are physically and mentally abused ...not that I'm advocating for more registries, because as I said, they don't work.

The school is basically out my back door, cross the street and you are there. I agree to a certain point. I have seen how these laws have destroyed families. BUT...if these husbands hadn't done what they admitted to doing, then none of this would be an issue. I do think the law is al over the place...depends on your judge, your lawyer, your PO, your court ordered therapist...there is no rhyme or reason. An example is the guy in CA from ;ast year who held that girl for years....and the PO even came to visit. Just awful. As for my H, I never in a million years would have thought he would do any of this. This is a world I do not like being part of.I do not like that my son has this icky skeleton in his family closet. He doesn't want his dad to ever be alone with his future kids...I get that and I won;t le that happen.
I just don't get any of it. I am still mortified that I have had this "education" from hell.

Maybe if they'd stop spending all the time, money and resources monitoring people are low-risk, than people like Phillip Guarrrido wouldn't have been overlooked and Jaycee would have been found a lot sooner

Amen!!!! I agee.