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Senator Anthony H. Palumbo; Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy, Ph.D., (niece of Dr. Lillie White), Founder, Elder Dignity; Libra Max (daughter of artist Peter Max), Founder, #FreePeterMax; Philip C. Marshall, Founder, Beyond Brooke; and Senator George M. Borello. New York State Senate Guardianship Round Table Public Hearing, New York City; August 25, 2022. Photograph: Collection of Libra Max.
Liberty, lifelong
I have testified before state and congressional hearings. But, until last year, I had never participated in a hearing in which all the witnesses were concerned persons who suffered harm resulting from abuse inflicted on their loved ones.
On August 25, 2022, Senator George M. Borrello and Senator Anthony H. Palumbo convened the New York State Senate Guardianship Round Table Public Hearing in New York City. The hearing was scheduled from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 pm to include introductions by the senators, four-minute statements from a dozen witnesses, and a question-and-answer session led by the senators. All witnesses had been victimized by state-sponsored guardianship abuse and exploitation, except me.
The hearing concluded at 4:30 pm. It was extended and guided by the concern and sensitivity of senators and staffers to their witnesses and the ordeals they chronicled, at times in tears. Witnesses’ visceral, vicarious, and heartfelt oral testimony was archived on the New York State Senate Republicans Facebook page (August 25, 2022).
After hearing these stirring accounts, I have never felt so compelled to action on behalf of those victimized by elder abuse and exploitation. I hope you do, too.
That day, there was acknowledgement that the senators’ witnesses:
Endure primary personal harm as collateral damage in a war for loved ones and against state courts;
Suffer social harm inherent in guardianship abuse and exploitation as a white-collar crime, and;
Are re-victimized by the social harm of guardianship abuse and exploitation — as states and citizens countrywide turn a blind eye to their determined fight to save other citizens from a similar plight.
The senators’ witnesses served as credible messengers and wounded healers, signaling how urgent needs can be met with opportunity and urgency in the present. They demonstrated how silence protects perpetrators not victims. They illustrated how victims are re-victimized by perpetrators and by society’s lack of responsibility and response.
Toward gaining mid-traumatic and post-traumatic growth (Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun 2004), the senators’ witnesses campaign to change or abolish state guardianship systems so other citizens do not have to go through the same ordeal. Concerned persons understand that “strategies must focus on both ‘bad apples’ and ‘corrupting barrels’” (Winsor Schmidt and colleagues, 2022, 52–53).
Statue of Liberty, from Brooklyn.
My campaign, Beyond Guardianship, was launched that August day. I vowed to help champion this greatest cause, buttressed by fellow witnesses’ advocacy and senators’ concern and capacity. After the hearing, I headed across to Brooklyn looking south to the Statue of Liberty, her torch raised to an evening glow. I thought, may all citizens countrywide be able to maintain their personal liberty, lifelong — and not be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law” (Fifth Amendment).
Witness Marian Kornicki, founder of G.A.I.N. (Guardianship. Abolish. Intervention. Now.), testified how guardianship destroyed her family(January 10, 2022). Marian also reported on the hearing. She shared several stories—the plight and fight of Sherry Moses and Nadia Antrobus—and recounted the hearing’s origin (September 12, 2022):
“The senators first became aware of this issue because of the Free Peter Max movement Libra started on behalf of her father Peter, the famous artist and long-time New York City resident. Last month, she filed a lawsuit against the New York City courts, alleging systemic due-process violations in the city’s guardianship system. [Max v. Kaplan, July 20, 2022] In the suit, she describes how her father is being mistreated by his guardians, who she says are also preventing her from seeing him and monitoring her with surveillance cameras during her limited visits with him.”
Witnesses Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy and many more concerned persons said they found out their loved ones have died long after burial or cremation. These deaths may have been due to neglect, lack of medical care, and trauma inflicted as their assets and lives were plundered.
Teresa, founder of Elder Dignity, submitted written testimony to the senators for the record. Teresa introduced her aunt and family’s saga with:
“Imagine you’ve worked hard all of your life and suddenly you are deemed incapacitated and stripped of your dignity and basic individual rights. You have done nothing wrong but someone you did not choose is given control over your person and property making you a modern-day slave. You may even be taken from your home and hidden away from loved ones while your assets are pillaged. It sounds like Nazi Germany, but this is happening in the United States today. It happened to my aunt, Dr. Lillie Sykes White [ABS Action News Tampa Bay; January 22, 2012].”
Libra Max and many more concerned persons continue to struggle for years to free a family member or friend, fighting for justice and the rescue of their loved ones.
Libra founded #FreePeterMax. In Libra’s case, “guardianship has cost her father millions,” reported Adam Walser of ABC Action News (November 10, 2021). In 2022, the article “Peter Max saga continues, as his daughter struggles to gain guardianship of the dementia-stricken Pop artist” appeared in The Art Newspaper (June 16, 2022). And, as chronicled by Kornicki, Bloomberg News reported, “…artist Peter Max’s daughter, Libra Max, has filed [in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York] a lawsuit [Max v. Kaplan]…alleging systemic due process violations in [New York City’s] guardianship courts.”
The senators’ witnesses expressed:
Their love, which remains greater than their plight.
How the guardianship system has compromised their ability to fight — to fight for loved ones, to fight against state-sanctioned abuse and exploitation, to fight against injustice nationwide, and to fight against ignorance and ambivalence.
How politicians can amplify their voices in the chambers and halls of state capitols nationwide.
In Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, Martha C. Nussbaum observes,
“The type of imaginative engagement society needs…is nourished by love. Love, then, matters for justice…” (2013, 280)
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