RADAR ALERT:
Mark Your Calendar, Hold the Date: June 26!

Monday, June 26, 2006. That's the day that 40 organizations around the country will launch an unprecedented effort to educate candidates how the Violence Against Women Act tramples on persons' civil rights and destroys families.

The campaign theme is "Truth and Consequences: 2006 Elections." The purpose of the campaign is to educate candidates involved in the 2006 elections about the truth of domestic violence, and the consequences of VAWA on families and children.

The 40 participating groups have a broad range of missions, including promoting children's rights, family stability, shared parenting, victim advocacy, and media accuracy. These groups have signed a three-point Resolution Regarding the Violence Against Women Act: http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/VAWA-Resolution.pdf

This is what some of these groups are saying about the campaign:

• "Susan Faludi once wrote, 'Men have no clearly-defined enemy who is oppressing them.' Well, thanks to VAWA, now they do." – Richard L. Davis, Family Nonviolence, Inc. (Massachusetts)
• "Our campaign to end the discrimination by VAWA is a 'circling of the wagons' to defend traditional American values." – Paul Clements, DADD-NH
• "For two decades I have struggled against the anti-father bias in court. It is a blessing to be a part of this movement." – Mike East, Fathers Asking To Have Equal Rights (Kentucky)
• "A system without redress is tyranny, and those who do nothing about it have abnegated their freedom and acquiesced to slavery." . Terri Lynn Tersak, True Equality Network (North Carolina)
• "You can blow out a flame, but our solidarity is becoming an inferno." – Alan Rusmisel, Alabama Coalition for Fathers and Children
• "Restraining order abuse has skyrocketed since passage of VAWA. TABS stands 100% behind this effort to expose the truth how domestic violence laws have gone too far." – Lisa Scott, TABS: Taking Action against Bias in the System (Washington)

During the course of the campaign, we will be calling on persons around the country to meet with candidates in all 470 national races (33 in the Senate, 437 in the House of Representatives). We will request that immediately after the November 7 elections, the newly-elected official call for Congressional hearings to investigate VAWA abuse.

The first step of the campaign will be for persons to contact the candidate's Scheduler and request to set up a meeting in August. We will explain the details in next week's Alert.

For now we encourage persons to sign up to receive E-lerts which will be issued on a weekly basis throughout the Campaign. Go to http://www.mediaradar.org and enter your e-mail address in the box in the left-hand column.

Stay tuned!

Date of RADAR Release: June 19, 2006

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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org