Pink Slipping the Statehouse in October of 2010 was nothing short of amazing. 


I had been on the roll with videotaping that year.  Every time I asked the House Broadcast Division, under the Speaker's office Rep. Robert Deleo, if they planned to tape a public hearing, I was met with the response, "we get our orders and sometimes don't know until that day if the hearing will be covered.  We are only responsible to tape the General Court Sessions, and they are all consuming.  We just don't have staffing, or money to cover all." 


I decided to challenge myself with this statement.  Not enough staff?  Hmm, that seemed like a stretch.  So I compounded my capturing and would cover two or more hearings in one day.  I was juggling cameras, audio equipment, and running a road runners route across the building to keep all timed without stops. 


I was being seen as nothing short of amazing.  Eventually, by fall that year I had made my point.  It was a deliberate act of subversion to not cover these meetings.  I had to run this by the Sec States office once more.  I was viewing the calendar on the wall, when it occurred to me, the lighting was terrible, the window too high, and with my camera light I could still not read it .. so I made my way to the office and asked for a response to why I was repeatedly challenged with all the meeting schedules and no one seemed to care.  One atty comes out.  A second comes out.  No they did not have to even post the meeting.  Under the lack of a law to oblige them the Committees did not have to hold a meeting, did not have to post a meeting and simply put it was a joke if the meetings were not posted.  They were not responsible to do this. 


We were screwed.  I was shocked.  My questioning was over.  I stood there aghast.  I felt like a piece of tissue paper that had no bones.  I could have keeled over.  I left furious and alarmed.  What was I to do.  My mission was accomplished that day.  I had done discovery on the Open Meeting Law now for 5 years.  Had captured 500 public hearings Press conferences and Events and had my evidentiary facts.  No one was going to get anywhere without the law being changed to force them under the public record law. 


My entry to the scene of the crime in 2004 was before my face.  My stubborn resistance to let them extract me as non essential illegal media was in full display.  I would now have to think about how to present this legally and defiantly to the full Legislative Branch.  Oh wheels spun out of control that day.  I got home on pure steam from the wind beneath my feet.  I was livid.  I was furious.  I was not going to allow this to go on. 


I got the idea  genius attack.  I would give them all a Pink Slip.  I would write up objectives that would isolate the innocuous wretched misdeameanors of public scammers.  They were definitely not meeting any of the disability milestones in the rooms.  Sound Visibility Access Speech with microphones and proper amplification  were never working properly.  I would use that as my platform.  I made up my objectives printed them up on a Pink Slip 8.5x11 and delivered them to  every Rep and Senator in the place.  On Oct 27 2010 I completed my mission.


On Dec 21 2010 in Peabody, in front of the Dist Court I fell.  That fall changed my life.  My session on Beacon Hill would stop .  I was going to be operated on for 1st stage cancer.  This year 2014 I am finally back in my ability to work a normal day.  I have never ceased working on this project.  I have never ceased pushing my self to the final goal.  I have prayed many times about the meaning of this journey.  Each time I am assisted in some way.  So today I will leave you with a copy of the Pink Slip.


I forgot about that until last week changing banks for the project.  I had thrown a bunch of docs in a pile to show the Banker on my efforts.  In it was the pink slip.  As I explained that I had given the Legislature a Pink Slip in October 2010 and fallen in Dec 2010 and only now was I able to really get back at it I was floored at what I read.  Yes, they had met the objectives.  Yes they had actually implemented the disability areas I had mentioned including an area for Press in the meeting rooms.  I had covered a hearing recently and was not connecting the dots until I saw the pink slip copy I had this day.  I had been effective.  I had attained some pressure of change. 


The only thing left was the public record law implementation on the Legislative Branch.


Please when you call your Reps and Senators, remind them of this.  Tell them thank you for the accomplishment of meeting the meeting room objectives.  However tell them that the key now is to focus on the integrity of accountability.  They need to be under the open meeting law public record law.  That will change Beacon Hill to be a Beacon of transparency.  That is what we the people want.  That is what I went to the hill to discover.  That is the light at the end of the dark tunnel. 


Help me launch the CPPR Archive Project.  A Library resource of public works documents that are accessible to the pubic and historians to examine the works of our governance and improve that as needed with necessary proof in video capturing.




The Pink Slip