November, 2000

At the annual banquet of the Massachusetts Family Institute at the Newton Marriott Hotel on October 12, the following people were honored with the "2000 Citizenship Award."

Mary Drahos
Wife, mother, author, teacher and playwright, you have emerged as a powerful and inspiring pro-life voice.  Despite having struggled for years with multiple sclerosis and having faced cancer and a myriad of other medical challenges, you have never given in to hopelessness but rather have always championed life.

Last month in Boston, The Hemlock Society held an international conference to promote the legalization of assisted suicide.  Suicide is the solution that the Society proposes for persons with serious disabilities or those at the end of life who may think that they want to die.  This is a slippery slope, and it is conceivable that in the future involuntary euthanasia will be advanced by some as the solution for the elderly and disabled who would rather live.  Fortunately, this macabre devaluing of human life did not go unopposed in Boston.  You have a different solution - not suicide and euthanasia, but life - and you have had the courage to proclaim it.

There could have been no better person than you to herald life and publicly oppose the pro-death Kevorkian-like whispers of The Hemlock Society. Speaking at the Massachusetts Citizens for Life press conference, you winsomely, eloquently and persuasively made the case for life, even a life with severe challenges. You recounted the many struggles and sorrows you have faced and overcome with the help of God and your loving husband, Richard.

Your positive perspective has impacted more people than you will ever know.  You have conveyed the pro-life message of hope and compassion in the off-Broadway productions you have written.  Throughout your life, you have encouraged others who are suffering, clearly evident in the award-winning series about multiple sclerosis you wrote for New York radio.  In 1997, you wrote a book, The Healing Power of Hope:  Down-to-Earth Alternatives to Euthanasia, that specifically challenges the methods endorsed by the euthanasia proponents.

Mary, we thank you for focusing on the positive. Your life stands as a beacon of light:  you have shown compassion to the hurting by uplifting them and courage for facing the well-organized ranks of the Hemlock Society. We honor you for your commitment to others in pain and for your lifetime of overcoming your own suffering - all with indomitable hope and love.

J. Edward Pawlick
Husband, father and grandfather, lawyer, publisher and entrepreneur, you are a fine example of a man willing to defy courageously the politically correct culture here in Massachusetts, creating an invaluable newspaper in this Commonwealth that has challenged the prevailing journals of the day.

Trained as a lawyer in Pennsylvania, you found yourself a single dad, raising four children in the suburbs of Boston. Needing to work out of your home, you founded Lawyers Weekly in 1972, a publication which today reaches over 30 percent of the lawyers in this country. The company was sold in 1998 in order for you to pursue another dream. That dream was to start the Massachusetts News - another kind of newspaper, one which would break the news-coverage stranglehold of the politically correct Boston dailies. Your newspaper would publish articles from a faith-based perspective on many of the critical moral issues of the day.

You have just completed your first year publishing the monthly Massachusetts News. With hard-hitting journalism, you have covered such topics as the problems within the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, the widespread use of Ritalin in schools, the mainstreaming of homosexuality in Massachusetts schools and the graphic teaching of homosexual sex to teenagers at a March, 1999 conference held at Tufts by instructors from the Massachusetts Department of Education. You have funded the entire effort on your own, and Massachusetts News is gaining a growing circulation.

For your efforts, you have been savaged and pilloried. You have been attacked at community meetings held expressly to call you "homophobe", "bigot", "intolerant" and much worse. Through it all, you have persevered with courage and grace. You and your lovely wife, Sally, 
have been willing to engage with good will any and all of your opponents in a dialogue. 

Ed, you are a man of faith and action. You are the uncommon businessman who unambiguously promotes Judeo-Christian principles in the public square with your financial resources and with your name. Because of your vision, courage and commitment, this Commonwealth has an invaluable newspaper which offers the news without the politically correct slant which is so damaging to the pivotal institution of the family.

Scott T. Whiteman
Husband, law student and new father, you have been instrumental in addressing an appalling episode in the history of public education in Massachusetts. 

This past November, you began to explore the influence the homosexual lobby has on Massachusetts public schools through the Safe Schools Program and the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. By December, you felt compelled by what you had learned to report to the Department of Education that homosexual activists and state contractors were taking male children across state lines. Their stated purpose: to "get to know yourself and other queer youth on a much deeper level." This over-night weekend retreat was for boys and men under 25 "who are attracted to or have sex with other men." It was organized by a homosexual-youth group which receives tax-payer funds. To your dismay, the DOE responded to you with a letter alleging that your remarks were both irrational and slanderous.

Determined to expose the truth about the DOE's role in advancing the homosexual agenda in our schools, you attended a spring conference at Tufts University. You recorded a gay-sex workshop entitled, "What they didn't tell you about queer sex and sexuality: a workshop for youth only ages 14 to 21," and sent the audio tape to the media. As a result, this "how-to" program for children received national attention. You have appeared on such programs as Fox Cable News, CBN News, and Boston's Jeanine Graf Show. You have also been the target of homosexual publications such as The Washington Blade and Bay Windows, which have accused you of hate crimes and called for your criminal prosecution.

Currently, you are facing civil charges brought about by homosexual activists who were angered by your actions. Exposing the truth has cost you much, but because of your efforts DOE has removed the instructors involved in the workshop and apologized. MFI is pleased to honor you for your commitment to principle, compassion for our school children and your courage to stand tall in the public square.

Gerald Williams
"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness." Ezekiel 34:11,12

One hundred and thirty years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, human bondage remains disturbingly prevalent throughout the world. In Mauritania alone, U.S. State Department estimates suggest as many as 100,000 blacks serve white Arab Berbers. These slaves are the inheritable property of their masters. In Sudan, as part of the 16-year civil war between the Islamic government in the north and the African Christians and animists in the south, government-armed militias raid African villages, kill the men and kidnap women and children.

At 19-years-of-age, Gerald "Jay" Williams is already a man of action. When confronted with the knowledge that slavery still exists on a massive scale, Jay was willing to stand up, get involved and ask "what can I do?" As an intern with the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group, it was this desire for action that propelled him last month to travel to Sudan as part of a Swiss-led liberation effort. 

A native of Buffalo, New York, and a pre-med student at Harvard, Jay was part of an eight-person delegation that traveled to Sudan. Their mission was to buy back the freedom of Christian African women and children held in slavery by Sudanese soldiers. As part of this team, Jay risked his life but was rewarded by their success in liberating 4,435 women and children.

Believing that this work is part of God's calling on his life, last year Jay started helping the anti-slavery group. This past summer Jay was based in the organization's Washington, D.C. office where he helped lobby Congress on this pressing issue. Through the efforts of the American Anti-Slavery Group and their allies, over 35,000 slaves have been freed during the past four years.

Tonight we honor Jay for his leadership in the modern abolitionist cause to seek out and rescue the oppressed and enslaved.

Gerald Williams was unable to attend the banquet.

Richard F. Williamson & Christopher G. Womack
Rich Williamson and Chris Womack, you have reached into the hearts and minds of countless young men from the inner city of Boston and have given them a reason to live and believe in themselves, when many others had already given up on them.

Rich, after graduating from MIT and later earning a Master's degree in education from Harvard University, you became a teacher in the Boston public school system, including the prestigious Boston Latin School.

Chris, you came to Boston from Pittsburgh where you had a different education as a gang member, hawking drugs and weapons in some of the toughest streets in that city.

With radically different backgrounds, you had two things in common: you shared a belief in the transforming power of Jesus Christ and you had a heart for lost, at-risk boys from the inner city. During a tremendous outbreak of gang violence in Boston in 1990, you formed God's Posse to minister to these high-risk young men. Walking the streets of Boston, sometimes placing your own lives in danger to reach these young men, you began to hold weekly gatherings in a Roxbury home, your home, which became known as "The Holy House." It was here that some of this city's most hard-core, violent young men put down their weapons and gave their lives to Jesus Christ.

Your one-on-one ministry to these young gang members developed into a uniquely effective ministry, rescuing young men from the devastation of broken families and societal neglect. God's Posse developed programs to teach responsibility as well as academic and economic skills so that these young men would have a chance to reach their God-given potential in today's world.

Tonight we pay tribute to Chris Womack and Rich Williamson for their individual and collective efforts on behalf of these young men and their families. You have made a difference in the lives of many, showing exceptional courage and compassion, and we honor you tonight for your achievements.