I'll Be Home for Christmas--Someday

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to adoptees and parents in search.  For many, coming home is only be a dream at this point.  Let's make it a reality in Ohio in 2013!

Reuben Pannor, 1922-2012

Pioneer adoption reformer and adoptee rights advocate Dr. Reuben Pannor died yesterday at the age of 90.  I never had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Pannor but am familiar with his work and the great honor he bears in the reform movement.

Below is is Reuben's obituary, written by his son Jonathan and posted on the CUB list by Karen Vedder. I had no idea what an interesting man he was inside and outside of adoption).

Reuben “Ruby” Pannor, a social worker and pioneer in the field of open adoption, died on December 22^nd, 2012, at the age of 90. A man overflowing with kindness and empathy, Reuben was universally loved by family, friends, colleagues, and all of those in the “adoption triangle” (birthparents, adopted persons, and adoptive parents).

Reuben and his twin brother Harry were born on July 4^th, 1922, to Rose and Isidor Pannor in the small village of Slobodka, in Lithuania.  The twins and their younger sister Esther spent their early childhood surrounded by generations of extended family. In response to growing anti-Jewish sentiment prior to World War II, Reuben’s immediate family immigrated to America when Reuben was eight years old.

Reuben grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, where his parents, early union supporters, worked as tailors in a factory. When World War II started, Reuben joined the Army Air Corps.  Stationed on Fernando di Naronha, an isolated island penal colony 100 miles off the coast of Brazil, Reuben was responsible for predicting the weather over the Atlantic Ocean for use in military operations. He later awed his children and grandchildren with tales of befriending the island’s prisoners and his uncanny ability to identify clouds and forecast the next storm.

After World War II, the GI Bill enabled Reuben to obtain an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University.  One day in 1948, he was visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where he repeatedly found himself gazing at the same paintings as Sydell Alpers, a Poughkeepsie girl who recognized him as one of those handsome Pannor twins. In Sydell, Reuben found a true match in temperament and intellect, a shared passion for social justice, and a soul mate.

In 1953, Reuben and Sydell followed Ruby’s twin brother, Harry, to Los Angeles, eventually moving to Pacific Palisades to raise their three children. For thirty years, Reuben worked at the nationally recognized child welfare agency, Vista del Mar of Los Angeles, where he became the Director of Community Services and later Director of Adoptions. Through his clinical work, he noticed that the needs of birth fathers had been overlooked, leading to the publication of his first book, The Unwed Father, co-written with Byron Evans. Through his interactions with birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees, Reuben developed several key insights: that birth parents often suffered for years from their loss, that it was natural for children to wonder about their biological origins, and that adoptive parents’ relationships with their children were strengthened, not harmed, by openness about adoption. 

In 1978, he wrote a seminal book, The Adoption Triangle, with co-authors, Annette Baran and Arthur Sorosky. This book argued that adopted children had a right to know about their origins and that laws preventing this were cruel and should be abolished. Reuben championed the belief that knowledge of one’s origins should be a civil right for all. Another book,Lethal Secrets, co-written with Annette Baran, addressed issues of secrecy and genetic heritage for those who had children through donor insemination. Reuben received numerous awards for his work, including citations from the City of Los Angeles, the State of California and the United States Congress.  

Reuben touched countless lives and engaged in many communities. He was constantly sought out for his wise counsel. He always had time to listen and he gave the best advice. He was a prolific storyteller, captivating his children and grandchildren with long, creative tales he made up as he went along. Reuben inspired in his family a great passion for the outdoors. Yosemite Valley, Sequoia, The Sierra, the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and the Alaska wilderness were second homes. Closer to home, Reuben was frequently spotted walking his dog through the Palisades, engrossed in political conversations, and schmoozing in Mort’s Deli.

Reuben’s surviving family include his wife of 62 years, Sydell, his children, Suzanna, Gerry (husband Rick), Jonathan, and his grandchildren, Sarah, Michael, David, Viva, Golda, Ari, Jacob, and Sam. Reuben touched all who knew him with his unconditional love and is lovingly remembered for his profound compassion, commitment to reducing suffering, ready chuckle, and his smiling eyes. 

A celebration of Reuben’s life will be held on Thursday, December 27, 2012, 1:00 pm, at Congregation Kehillat Israel, 16019 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades, California, 90272. 

You can read n interview with PACER that Reuben made in 1998 here.

I'm having problems posting  a 3-part video of Reuben, but if you go to this link you'll find them.  Part 2 is dedicated to unsealing records,  adoptees, and first parents.. Part 3 covers adoptive parents and the adoption industry.

Ohio Adoptee Searches  sends our condolences to the Pannor family.

Ohio's Dan Chaon Nominated on Goodreads!

Speaking of books....

Dan Chaon, Ohio's unofficial adoptee laureate just keeps racking up the honors, His newest collection of short stores Stay Awake: Stories, has been nominated for the 2012 Goodreads Choce Awards. in  the Horror division.  I haven't read the book yet,but it's described as "set in post-recession America, where dreamers, losers and troubled souls feel like ghosts in their own lives."

You don't have to write "horror" to write horror!

I've written about Dan before here,. here,  and .here. His 2001 collection of short stories, Among the Missing described as "a gripping account of colliding fates, the shifty nature of identity in today's wired world and the limits of family" was a National Book Award finalist. It was also named one of the year's best books by the American Library Association, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Entertainment Weekly and made the New York Times Notable Book List.  His first novel, You Remind Me of Me (2004), , is an adoption-related (and so much more) examination of identity, fate, and circumstance. It was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle.

A reviewer for the Los Angeles Times Book Review describes Keeping Awake as



A riveting thriller, chock-full of plot twists, and a sober meditation on the erosion of identity in the age of technology . . . There’s a bristling momentum that develops, as in any great tale of suspense. . .  [Chaon] writes with an eloquence rarely seen in the world of page-turners.”

 Dan jokes on his Facebook page that he has 'ta chance for the Goodreads  award since he's up against
Justin Cronin's The Twelve!   Go here to vote.   I think you need to belong to Goodreads to vote,

 
When I finish the two books I am currently reading I think I take on a Dan Chaon reading marathon. Although I'm   generally a nonfiction reader (except for mysteries)  I find that literature is a much more satisfying vehicle by which to explore  adoption, identity,  and dislocation.
'
You'll find an audio interview with Dan here where he discusses Staying Awake, adoption, the loss of his wife to cancer, and more.

Dan lives in Cleveland and is  the Pauline M. Delaney Professor of Creative Writing.at Oberlin College.

NaBloPoMoing through Adoption 20112

Against my better judgement, I've signed on for November 2012 open topic NaBloPoMo .   That is I'll post a blog every day--in this case for National Adoption Awareness Month--for the month of November. The blogs will appear on my main blog, The Daily Bastardette.  Anything pertaining to Ohio will be repposted here.

I say better judgement, because since I've been forced back into the workforce, I have limited time to do much of anything but work and sleep.  My work schedule is not normal. One day I start at 3 AM and work until whenever the job is done; the next day I start at 9 PM and work until 2  AM.  It's reaked havoc on sleep, eating, and anything normal people do. All for half of  the hourly rate I made when I left the Ohio State Univeresity 14 years ago--and working half the hours. I'm not going to write about the job other than to say that as a "professional" inventory counter, I've got a great view of the decline of America via consumer culture and goods. Did you know that Hanes now makes underwear in Haiti? And don't get me started on party stores, Ollie's, and worst of all--Victoria's Secret panty tables.  .

Please check  the Daily Bastardette each day!  Comments always welcome!

A Girl Like Her coming to Columbus

Back in January I wrote about Ohio adoptee Ann Fessler's film A Girl Like Her,  based on her award winning book, The Girls Who Went Away.    At that time, I hoped the  the film would make it to Ohio.

Good news!  We are happy to announce that the A Girl Like Her will be shown at the Wexner Center, on the Ohio State University  campus in Columbus on November 27.   You can get more information here.

From the Wexner film page:

The powerful A Girl Like Her reveals the hidden history of over a million women who became pregnant in the 1950s and 60s and were banished to maternity homes where they would ultimately give up their children in forced adoptions. At a time when sex education was minimal, single women were often ostracized into enduring their pregnancies in shame-filled institutional isolation. The film allows us to hear heartbreaking stories directly from the women who lived them, combined with footage from educational films and newsreels from the time that reinforce the era’s perceptions of sex, “illegitimate” pregnancy, and adoption. (48 mins., video) 

(view the trailer here.  I'm having a problem putting it directly on the blog)

Also scheduled is Fessler's short, Cliff & Hazel (25 mins., video), "a humorous and poignant portrait of her adoptive parents that was supported through the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio Program"   A book signing will follow.

Event support provided by The Living Culture Initiative in the Department of Art and the OSU GLBT Alumni Society. Cosponsored by the Ohio Birthparent Group; Arts and Humanities and the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies in Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences; and the Women and Gender History Workshop.

Tickets are now available online at the Wexner above link..

I'm thrilled that the Wexner and OSU  is supporting Ann and her work.  For far too long academia and liberal feminists have  swept adoption and its repercussions under the rug of political correctness-- bizarre sisterhood- is-powerful propaganda created to hide that adoption policy and practice has been and remains  inter- and intraclass exploitation of women by women.  Adoption, you see,  is just another way for women to"have children." --and we should all celebrate the "choice" with criticism or politics.. (see my Open Letter to NOW for background.).

I'm really looking forward to seeing Ann once again and seeing the film.  Please join me at this important event!

Headbags optional!

Demons of Adoption Ballot: 2012. Vote now!

 The nominations are in!

So many demons!

Only one can win!

 The nominees for this year's edition of Demons of Adoption  are:

• The Christian Post: for running several mind bendingly biased articles about intercountry adoption;
• Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute: for giving their seal of approval to persons and organizations that promote the interests of the adoption industry and pushing agency friendly legislation in Congress;
• Celebrate Children International: for being the agency behind numerous illegal adoptions, and the agency of record for the stolen child Fernanda;
• Oxygen Network: for producing the absolutely horrendous show "I'm Having Their Baby." Tasteless, manipulative, coercive, and intrusive into the lives of vulnerable women trying to cope with an unplanned pregnancy;
• Adam Pertman: for claiming to be a critic of the adoption system, while at the same time promoting the interest of the adoption industry;
• Martin Narey: for trying to speed up adoptions and make it easier to adopt, and suggesting women who want to abort should abandon;
• Adoption Assistance, Inc. and World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP): for their role in the adoption travesty featuring Artem Justin Hansen (Artem Saveliev) and his so-called "permanent placement" with "forever mom", Torry Hansen, infamous Adoptive mother who returned her problem-child back to Russia like a pair of unwanted shoes;
• U.S. State Department: for their show-boating role in adoption regulation reform talks with Russia this year. Despite all appearances, the DOS has zero power when it comes to enforcing regulations established between the two signatories;
• Larry S. Jenkins: for his involvement in nearly every case where father's rights were violated;
• The United States House of Representatives: for fast-tracking H.R. 1464: North Korean Refugee Adoption Act of 2011; This bill in effect by-passes the limited safe-guards that are in place in international adoption, to bring North Korean children to the US for adoption.;
• Nancy Verrier: for her untested and untestable theory. It creates nothing but weepy distraction in the legitimate battle against adoption secrecy, corruption, and coercion;
• South Korea: for having the longest running international adoption program in the world; for not giving adequate support to single mothers. 

For more information and to vote go here!

Happy voting!.

PS  I admit it . I nominated Adam Pertman

July 15: Ohio Birthparent Group Meeting

Next General Support Meeting- Open to All!

Sunday July 15th, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Gahanna Public Library
310 Granville St. Columbus, OH 43230

The Family of Adoption: Supporting Family Systems

Adoption is discussed primarily in terms of its impact on the lives of adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents. However, adoption also has a profound and life-long impact on children, spouses, partners, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends. In our third General Adoption Support & Discussion Meeting, we will explore the complex ways that adoption impacts entire family systems.

July Birthparent Meeting
Sunday July 15th, 2pm-4pm
Gahanna Public Library, 310 Granville St. Columbus, OH 43230
Open to all birthmothers and birthfathers. No RSVP required.

About Ohio Birthparent Group

What We Do Ohio Birthparent Group is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the life-long needs of birthparents through peer support, advocacy and community education. Learn more about us .

Upcoming Meetings Next Monthly Birthparent Meeting Sunday Aug 19th, 2-4pm Gahanna Public Library Next Open Meeting Sunday Oct 21st 4:30-6:30pm Gahanna Public Library

Copyright © 2012 Ohio Birthparent Group, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Ohio Birthparent Group P.O. Box 9791 Columbus, OH 43209

Adoption Mystique Now in Kindle

Good news!  The Kindle version of the adoption class Adoption Mystique by Joanne Wolf Small, has just been released. You can find Nook here.

By way of review, here is what I wrote about the 2007 re-issue with new material, of the original 2004 edition.

...a book that every adoptee rights activist needs to keep on the nightstand. I first ran into Joanne in 1980 when somebody gave me an article about sealed records and identities she'd written for a social work publication. It was from Joanne that I first heard the peculiar legal concept that the adoptee and natural parent(s) are "as if dead to each other." That article stuck with me, and I credit Joanne in large part for raising my consciousness and bringing me into this strange adoptee rights "career" a decade later. But Joanne has done more than write. In 1980, she was the only adopted member of the federal Model Adoption Legislation Procedures and Advisory Panel (Model Adoption Act 1980). The panel's sweeping recommendations, including unrestricted records for all adoptees nationwide, was a broadside on the secret adoption system. The report sent the industry into such a tizzy that Gladney formed the strong arm lobby, the National Council for Adoption, to "guarantee" that records remained sealed.

Adoption Mystique is an adoptee rights and adoption classic.  

Joanne is a long-time member of Bastard Nation and a member of BN's Legislative Committee.

Joanne Wolf  Small:  Bastard Goddess

Some Thoughts on the "Angry Adoptee": Gazillion Adoptees v JCICS

I published this the other day on my main blog, The Daily Bastardette, and thought I'd share it here.  This is typical of the way adoptees are treated by the adoption industry.

Last we heard from our friend Kevin Ost-Vollmers,in the Land of a Gazillion Adoptees, he was engaged in a dialogue with the Congressional Coalition.  That was " bad" enough, but it gets worse.  It must be something about April.

Land of a Gaiilion Adoptees: Kevin and Bert getting ready to kick it

On April18, Kevin and  "Rockstar Vietnamese adoptee" Bert  Ballard, Assistant Professor of Communications at Pepperdine University, went to New York to give a presentation, Adoptees and Agencies:  Undiscovered Allies or Estranged Bedfellows,  before a JCIC$ (Joint Council on International Children's Services) symposium--to educate  (for want of a better word) this specific set of adoptacrats about adoptees.   JCIC$ is as interested in the international post-production product it markets as it is in the proposition that  9/11 was an inside job.How these bastard gods got the password to the sanctum sanctorium is a mystery, and I congratulate them. 

 I'm not sure how many Joint Councilers actually showed up for the presentation, but the board, as a whole, according to Kevin, didn't bother. Curiously,  a board meeting was scheduled for the same time slot which demanded their attention.This, of course, is an old trick. Sudden board meetings are much like "task forces."-- a mechanism to shuffle urgent issues and uncomfortable truths off to Buffalo. The AAC pulled it on Bastard Nation in 1999 in an attempt to short circuit our Belly of the Beast demo (held during the AAC conference in Tyson's Corners, Virginia) at the old NCFA HQ in DuPont Circle, after some AAC board members announced they intended to show up. AAC  Big Fishes warned, if you go to the protest, you're off the board.

I talked to Kevin before he left; and later he reported back rather cryptically on his journey into the Heart of Darkness. Not surprisingly, adoptees and first parents were represented at the JCICS$ huddle as generously as Concerned Women of America at an Occupy Oakland takedown.  Monday , however, Kevin presented a more lengthy report --or rather a list of astute observations, Some Random Thoughts on the Joint Council Symposium, on the Gazillion page He says that most of the people who attended the presentation were "engaging"  but obviously Nancy Fox, director of  Americans for International Aid and Adoption( AAIA) wasn't.  Frankly, I'm speechless.   If you think being a domestic product is difficult, try being an import!.

[Nancy Fox (check out the all-white JCICS board the link takes you to)   grabbed my chin and brought my face right up to hers.  Seriously.  My response?  Lightly tapping her hand away, I said, “Don’t ever do that to me again.  That’s the patronizing I mentioned to you earlier.  I’m not one of your kids.”  She apologized, and then went into how she has known adoptees like Susan Cox, Kathy Sacco, Joy Lieberthal, and Melanie Chung-Sherman since I was a child.  Weird.  If I recall, I’m in Kathy, Joy, and Melanie’s age bracket

Grabbed his chin?  That says it all, doesn't it?  Actually  Nancy  FancyPants had a lot more to say, like lecturing Kevin and Bert that  Korean adoptee diasporaists and first mothers instrumental in the writing and passage of recent Korean legislation  that promotes child welfare and strengthens the rights of adoptees, first parents,and single parents  have "sentenced children to death in institutions."  Where have we heard that one before?

The  message was clear.  Bastards, are simply petulant--if not dangerous--children who need a good finger wag and talking to by an "adoption professional". who knows best. (What constitutes an "adoption professional" is anyone's guess.)   Heaven knows we get enough of this at legislative hearings where adoption bottom feeders and their hacks play whack-a bastard as they blatantly attempt to hold on to their social and legal control over the lives of total strangers--or as the law so quaintly puts it: legal strangers.(We'd be more impressed if  these experts put their "expertise" into making the Do Not Call List work.)  I suppose we should be "grateful" that Fox  showed her true face in public by tweaking Kevin's, chin, unlike her cohorts in the halls of power who'd just punch it (metaphorically speaking)  behind closed doors with no witnesses..

This incident is absurd, of course. It no doubt made other adoptacrats uncomfortable, so it was  not altogether bad. I don't know at what point  in the presentation or Q&A  Fox made her public assault/insult. Here, though,  are some of the inconvenient questions  Kevin and Bert presented to JCIC$ which undoubtedly made Fox squirm::

• Why are adoptees not invited to more influential speaking positions--boards, Congress, the State Department, executive directors, Hague?

• Why are adoptees reduced  to a singular few representatives

and my favorite,

• Why is there a fear of the "angry adoptee?"

Thee "angry adoptiee" looms large in adoption politics  

"The angry adoptee" is a natural outgrowth of the adoption industry's  treatment of its personal cash cow. A subset of the traditional virgin/whore paradigm, the "angry adoptee" is the  whore, undermining the virginal grateful  that adoption agents love to trot every November.  Both of these crazy stereotypes were unknown to me until I became involved in adoptee rights. Both are industry constructed and serve to dismiss any serious  discussion of Class Bastard and its cultural and legal condition. 

Adoptacrats  (agencies, social workers, lawyers, civil libertarians, therapists, anti-aborts, evangelicals, feminists,  politicians, mommy bloggers, and assorted do-gooders)  have created the "angry adoptee"  by (1) cooking the pot in which adoptee anger roils:  government-sanctioned sealed and secret adoption files, forged documents, coerced surrenders and forced adoptions,  fake psychological syndromes, special rights and privileges for special people, stacked legislative hearings, baby selling and buying, racism,  economic exploitation of women, children, and the poor, and   pawning in international politics;

and then

 (2) laying the blame for the ensuing  anger on the victims.when they demand redress and a place at the table.

The idea that adoptee anger is justified seldom crosses the adoptacrat psyche or if it does, it's needs to be "defused" to maintain the status quo..Conversely, the adoption industry-created "angry adoptee"  and its implications, are utilized  to defeat the restoration of the right for all adoptees to access their original birth certificates and to address other ethical and social issues  Ungrateful,  spoiled,. perhaps mental. adoptees, if allowed a voice, could ruin adoption. for the rest of us. If push comes to shove, the proclaim that "the gad old days" are over . "Open adoption" has fixed the problem.

The big question is why is adoptee anger bad? Why shouldn't adoptees, who have had the most intimate parts of their lives--their identities and genealogies-- confiscated and turned into state secrets which  they can't access-- be angry? Why should adoptees be held to a "nicer" political standard than women, labor, queers, and racial and ethnic minorities mired in a system of gender, class and white privilege?

To add insult to injury, adoption deformists, satisfied with small incremental change, reject anger  as a  component of successful political change. They turn themselves inside out trying to convince legislators, policy wonks, and an incurious media that adoption law and practice just needs "tweaked" not overhauled.  Deformists  internalize the name-calling, fearful of their own unworthiness.  They compromise  their alleged core principles and marginalize genuine adoptee rights and activist organizations in order to raise their own niceness quotient in the eyes of the adoptcrats, which in turn might get them "something on the books" for a few,  no matter the harm that that "something" causes the many in their local and national constituencies. In the meantime, the enemy snickers up its sleeve. Just look at  New Jersey!

Ultimately this self-defeating "strategy"  means that deformists not only let the adoptacrats maintain  the sealed and secret adoption system and other unethical and illegal practices, but frame deformist political arguments in wishy-washy. language.  Everyone is expected to sip pink tea, shut up, and be grateful for what you can get.  Ironically,  it's  "angry adoptees"  who hold the line and their principles who actually get laws changed while people-pleasers dig their ditches deeper each year rendering their work unfocused,  incompetent and laughable to the opposition.

This brings us back to the original question:  Why is there fear of the "angry adoptee?"

Without spending a lot of time on the question,  I'd say that the "angry adoptee" represents to adoptacrats, a repudiation of what many of them see as their personal humanitarian mission and the accompanying  social and legal control--for "a good cause"-- in which these humanitarians' self-esteem are vested  Claiming the high ground of "professionali expert,," they insist that adoption is a win-win win situation, when it fact the product and the producer loose out and even the consumer can be left hanging at the end of a short stick. Anyone who disagrees is a spoiled brat biting the gracious, hardworking hand that fed it in its hour of need.

Current adoption practice in the US is a convoluted hybrid of the worst aspects of capitalism  (making lots of money through exploitation of the producing class) and socialism  (redistribution of wealth and resources, but from the bottom to the top), with eugenics (building better baybees through social engineering)  thrown in for fun. Adoptacrats  may react in a "professional" snit  to save face like Fox did, but, their gut reaction is personal.  How dare you question my work; my  passion; my motives! Bank accounts are off limits, and in some cases even not that great.

It's been my experience, crooks aside, that the  majority of industrialists--even  big bucksers-- view themselves (depending on their belief system) as "christian" or secular humanitarians.acting out American exceptionalism or the Great Commission.. Most likely  it's a mixture since current American social policy is a mixture of both fallacious missions. In other words, adopacrats suffer from an especially (but not limited to) social Marxist-Protestant  missionary impulse  to remake the world. by spreading "civilization," home and abroad, in the form of American middle class cultural values to those deemed less fortunate.and in need of some kind of saving.. Adoption is their platform and re-arranging children into the "right families  their mission. Adoption makes them feel important and living a higher calling..Or as Rosie O'Donnell so famously told a little adoptee on national television,  "God put you in the wrong tummy and I had to fix his mistake."   The liberal academic adoption nut  Elizabeth Bartholet  told a rather confounded audience at the 2010 NCFA conference that countries that send off  their never-to-be-seen-or-heard from-again children to the US or other approved destinations boost  their economic standards   Translated domestically, the voluntary or court-ordered redistribution of poor and African American children  to advantaged while folks empowers the  poor and lets their children be neutralized safely into American Dream.

Adoption Makes the World Better.
The mentality that condones child re-distribution domestically,  and the  "spread of democracy" to far away places with strange sounding names--especially if the faraways are of color--is the same mentality promotes the  import  of  "orphans" to the US.  Note, that whenever the US is involved in an "humanitarian war,"  adoption vultures aren't far behind. The US may have lost in Viet Nam, but we got their kids.

Adoption is a soft but crucial component of American foreign policy, The nicer kinder face of neo-colonialism--usually associated with the exploitation of other people's labor (Nike,Foxconn ),  culture (religious conversion), and natural resources (oil; achildren for labor, sex, and adoption).. One has only to remember the  US State Department's threat to veto Romania's NATO membership   a few years ago, unless it re-opened its pipeline, a threat which was ultimately doomed. Later pipeline crises in Vietnam, Cambodia, Guatemala and Russia illustrate how essential adoption--a wholly government-created social practice-- is to US foreign policy.   Some idealists even see international adoption as vehicle for world peace.  Adam Pertman, in his own snit of one worldism, once ask how adoptive parents could possible want the biological parents of "their" children dead.  Seriously!  Unfortunately, I can't find the source at the moment.

******

Kevin Ost-Vollmers experience with Nancy Fox exemplifies the problem those of us in adoptee rights, and ultimately Class Bastard and our  families live with.  The angry adoptacrat.

Threatened by a usurpation of their social power and loss of status,  internally and externally,  as the arbiter of adoption, they obstruct all but unctuous attempts to bring due process, professional responsibility, and fairness to adoption  except when they can pull the strings.  Everything from birth certificate access to reunion issues and facilitation must be vetted through their professional egos. The people who cause the problems, expect Class Bastard & Famlies  to let the them fix  their good intentions.  In the vernacular, self-absorbed adoptacrats think "it's all about them."  If adoptcrats were children, they'd be sent  to etiquette school.or sentenced to a swat on the behind.

When the adoptacracy condemns  the "angry adoptee"-- or for that matter,  in a slightly different form, first parents or adoptive parents who dare to question the beneficent motives and practices of adoption corporatists-- it is simply  attempting to deflect the industry's own self-interested, sometimes vile, actions..The victim must be bludgeoned and embarrassed  into silence or at least public embarrassment.and humuliation.   Critics who challenge the industry on its home turf, such as trade association meetings and legislative hearings are simply dismissed as ungrateful troublemakers who'd rather see children dead than...than what?

And what o the adoptacrats prefer?

The last word. 

These are just a few thought tossed out.  There's plenty more to say.

. 

May 2012 Events: Ohio Birth Parent Group

Upcoming Events - MAY 2012

Birthmother's Day Ceremony
Saturday May 12th, 2pm-4pm
Center for Families and Children, 4500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44103
Join members of OBG for Adoption Network Cleveland's 20th annual Birthmother's Day Ceremony, a special program honoring the unique journeys of birthmothers. Open to all birthmothers, their families, friend and allies.

Film Screening- Adopted: For the Life of Me
Tuesday May 15th, 7pm

Psychology Building, Room 0010, The Ohio State University
Join OBG for a free film screening and discussion of Adopted: For the Life of Me, a documentary exploring the politics of sealed adoption records in the U.S. Learn about the laws in Ohio that restrict adopted adults' access to their original birth certificates.

May Birthparent Meeting
Sunday May 20th, 2-5pm
This month's meeting will be a casual potluck for birthparents at Kate Livingston's house. For details and to RSVP, email ohiobirthparents@gmail.com

In Case You Missed Us in April...

• "Building Relationship Across Boundaries", OBG's second open meeting drew almost 30 participants!
• OSU's 2012 MFA Thesis Exhibition featured new work inspired by the experience of birthmotherhood
• 2 OBG birthparents spoke to prospective adoptive parents at NCALP's Adoption Academy at Nationwide Children's Hospital
• 2 OBG birthparents were featured guests on on April 18th

Adoption Support Meeting - April 15 in Columbus

 

 

 

General Adoption Support Meeting

Sunday, April 15^th 4:30pm-6:30pm
Gahanna Public Library Community Room
310 Granville St. Columbus OH 43230

Building Relationships Across Boundaries

Adoption fundamentally challenges static notions of family, community and nation. For everyone involved in an adoption, new forms of relationship are created and existing relationships are transformed. Often, we must learn to negotiate these shifting relationships across many different kinds of boundaries. In our second General Adoption Support & Discussion Meeting, we will explore the challenges of building relationships across boundaries.

• How do we understand the boundaries of ‘family”? Who ‘counts’ as a part of our family?
• What kinds of boundaries influence our relationships through adoption?
• What boundaries have been positive? What boundaries have been limiting?
• How have we negotiated boundaries within our relationships?

Designed to create open dialogue across the spectrum of experiences with adoption, this support group is open to anyone who is touched by adoption or simply interested in learning more about adoption issues. Adult adoptees, adoptive parents, birthparents, prospective adoptive parents, spouses, partners and extended family members are especially encouraged to attend. Learn more…

Logistical Note

April’s General Meeting (4:30-6:30pm) will immediately follow our April Birthparent Meeting (2-4pm). Both meetings will be held in the Community Room. The General meeting is open to anyone, but our Birthparent Meeting is for birthparents only. If you arrive exceptionally early for the General Meeting, please wait in the lobby so as not to disturb our Birthparent Meeting.

Shadows of a Dark-Alley Adoptee: Poetry by Ohio adoptee Wendy Blitzer Barkett

Columbus-born adoptee Wendy Blitzer Barkett has just published a new book of poetry:  Shadows of a Dark- Alley Adoptee: An Adoptee's Search for Self.

Wendy's"official" search for her mother Dottye Robertson Moore, and her own history, began when she was18  (and like many of us started "unofficially" much earlier) and continues.  Dottye herself was adopted and died in a traffic accident in 1973,  making things  more complicated.  Wendy's  search has taken her on several cross-country trips, and has been covered b the Columbus Dispatch and Fox Channel 5 in Las Vegas

You can read about Wendy's incredible and frustrating search, now in its third decade at Remembering Dottye.

Shadows of a Dark Alley Adoptee is available on amazon.com. I'm ordering one.

Support adoptees!  Support Ohio adoptees!

Did you know Dottye?

If you have any information about Dottye or Wendy's unknown father contact Wendy at .RememberDottye@yahoo.com

blaagh!!!!

The version of the blog I posted last night on Finding Your Roots was a rough draft. I had a prefectly good final draft, which disappeared, and I only noticed that the bad one is up today  Ugh!  Well, you get the idea.  I've been blogging for 7 years and I've never made a mistake like this before.

PBS Finding Your Roots Starts Sunday: But we're not allowed to find ours

Sunday, PBS will debut, Finding Yourt Roots,  its own version of Who Do You Think You Are?.

 The show, , hosted by Harvard professor Louis  Henry Gates, Jr  is billed as "a journey back in time, examining [their] roots using genealogy and family histories." Guests, that is family tree forangers,  in the 10-part series,  include Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Condoliza Rice, Samuel L. Jackson, Barbara Walters,  Robert Downey, jr. Sanjay Gupta  Rabbi Angela Buchdhl. and, Springfield, Ohio's own John Legend.

A couple of days ago Politico  ran a feature on Finding Your Roots  which included a  quote from Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker, another "guest:"

 People can try to pervert the truth of other people’s past and twist it for their own petty, political benefit, and that’s always going to be a concern and a risk,” Booker said. “But I think, ultimately, by revealing the majesty of each other’s histories … you see how connected we all are.

Booker is obviously referring to race and rightly so. Forgetting the current birther movement for a minute, changing people's histories to serve political ends is hardly anything new in the US. One of the easiest ways to change history (outside of re-writing history books like they do in Texas) is manipulation of birth certificate information..  Less than 100 years ago, for instance, the racial designation of thousands of  Virginians, for reasons of race and eugenics, was changed on birth certificates, I wrote about this here.

The largest class of people though, whose official  government birth documents have been tampered with to change history are adoptees. Not only are the birth names of adoptees and those who give birth to them  removed from birth certificates and replacead with new names when an adoption takes place, but in some states (fortunately not Ohio)  the date and even place of birth  is hanged.; thus, legally erasing any trace of our original selves and replacing us with new state-created identities.

While politicians and policy makers  can look at what happenead in Virginia with disgust and horror today, the fact that 6 million adoptptees have had their own names and histories erased and replaced with state-created constructed idetities and lies, doesn't phrase them That's different.  We're different.

It wil be interesting to see who is  the coprorate sponsor of Finding Your Roots.   Who Do You Think You Are? is clearly an hour-long infomercial for ancestry.com.  ancestry.com is part of the Mormon conglomoraote which includdes L-d-S Social Services, one of the biggest and more influential loggies i nthe US to keep original birth certificaes sealed.

 Unfortunately no adoptees, (that we know of), get a free search and reunion or a platform to discuss sealed records.

More Information, More Questions in Troy Child Sex Assault Investigation

Congratulations to the Dayton Daily News for the bang-up reporting it's doing in the Kenneth Brandt child rape investigation.  I was concerned that coverage would be superficial, but  he Daily News has has stayed on top of things. (I've long been a fan of the Daily News's dedication to actual journalism).  Today's Child-rape case shows safeguards failed. is an important read.  The long feature contains new information on ACTION, Inc., child shuffling between Texas and Dayton, and Brandt himself.  It brings up the yet-to-be-answered question of whether Brandt was living off foster/adoption subsidies. (I'd love to know how the unlicensed insurance agent Brandt convinced ACTION, Inc that he actually had a job.)

 I'm writing another project today that was due last week, and don't' have time today to comment much, but I wanted to get something up with a couple comments.

There's one disturbing piece from the piece I'll point out here before I go for the day.  According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, in the last seven years "28 adopted children from the state (Texas) have been placed in homes thorough Dayton-based ACTION."  In 2006, 12% of ACTION's placements came from Texas.

 I believe this child relocation is common, but I've never understood why.  I'm no doubt naive, but outside of an occasional  special circumstance (excluding kinship placement), why are foster children shipped across state lines? Interstate newborn placement is bad enough, but the outsourcing of foster children is ripe for sex abuse not to mention government and individual financial shenanigans.

The Daily News interviewed University of Dayton Political Science Lecturer Tony Talbott, who teaches a class in human trafficking. .  He says,  "I'm looking at the news coverage, and the residents of Troy are shocked and appalled, which they should be, but they really should be surprised.  This is something occurring throughout the state of Ohio throughout the United States and internationally."

We've certainly seen enough rot in Ohio to have a good idea what goes on here, most of it protected by "professional secrecy"  promoted by  the self-serving  child welfare industry:  "confidentiality" "privacy" and "child's best interest."

As I wrote yesterday, I don't have any sense that ACTION Inc was involved in any illegal activities, and I'd be highly surprised if they are.  Nonetheless, the agency's involvement in the placement of at least three boys who were repeatedly raped by their forever father  and his friends needs exposed and investigated.

The Daily News also mentions a series of ACTION, Inc  videos.  (ACTION's YouTube channel is here.) I found them this morning before I read the article which also references them.  I had originally planned to post a couple today. I've now posted three below, introductions by Patricia A. Hill and two staff members.  They are very short. I was quite taken aback when ACTION, Inc director Patricia A Smith introduces herself as the adoptive mother of 22. A Kid Kollector to boot!

Where the Action Is: ACTION, Inc.identified as agency in Troy child rape cases

Well, it's official!  The name of the Dayton, Ohio agency that handled the adoption of four children by accused adopta pedophile and trafficker Kenneth Brant has been published--ACTION, Inc;  full name:  Adopting Children Today Information/Option Network with the tagline. "dreams can come true,"

A few days ago I  heard that ACTION, Inc was involved in the adoptions  but had no documentation and held back until there was verification.. It has now been reported by the Dayton Daily News.(Man used private Dayton adoption agency in alleged child rape, prostitution case)

The Ohio Secretary of State's business services section verifies that ACTION, Inc. is incorporated as a non-profit child placing agency in Ohio. It's director is identified as Patricia A. Hill  from New Lebanon, a  Dayton suburb.  The agency itself  is located in a single family home at 6000 Philadelphia Drive, Dayton.  Hill's name and home address in SOS documents matches a list of Ohio independent licensed social workers. (I am researching  Hill  and the agency's staff and board which I'll post when completed,  probably in a  couple days.)

According to the ACTION, Inc. website, the agency

...began in 1994 as an adoptive parent support group.  In 1997, members of the group began the licensing process to open an adoption agency.  ACTION continues to proved pre- and post-adoptive services to families as a 501 (c)(3)non-profit corporation.


Our Adoption Services Include:

• Weekly adoptive parent support group
• Infant, child and sibling placements
• Birth parent adoption plans
• Assistance with locating family resources and services
• Specialized educational courses for adoptive families

The page gives no information about the agency's qualifications as child placing  entity,  nor does it list the names and qualifications of  the owner/operator and staff.  (older links with that possible information I found on Googledon't work)  Outside of saying ACTION.Inc is a 501(c)(3), the page offers no accreditation or licensing information, although the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services says that it is licensed. An older ODJFS page contained a directory of  Ohio accredited agencies, but the new page doesn't.

The Action, Inc.page  features two pictures, one of a churchy-looking group of women (the staff? ) and another of a woman ( also in the group picture; Ms Hill?)) with two spiffy-dressed little African-American boys taken in what appears to be a courtroom.

 .

 "For more information"  about ACTION, Inc.we are directed to its "full website." At the top of that page we are informed  Actionadoption.org is COMING SOON to REGISTER.COM which links to register.com for for us to set up our own register.com domain..

While we wait for ACTON, Inc's full-blown webpage to hatch, we find in its place a cheap list of adoption "topics" with links to other adoption topics and sites that are attached sometimes to the spam marketing pest ztomy.-- but nothing about ACTION, Inc. Perhaps this is filler. Bad filler. In fact, when I went to the "full website" yesterday I got filler for video games! I regret not taking a screen shot to post here.

When I began to write this piece this morning, one of the headers, now gone, was called  "Hot Deals," an unfortunate choice of words under the circumstances. That's disappeared, and we now have the equally unfortunate "Hot Favorites" which links to among other topics,  "Adoption Child Photolisting" and "Available Child for Adoption." that connects  to more links which connect to more links. which connect to who knows how  many more links deep into the cyber. hole.  Occasionally, there's a link to a real webpage, which I assume pays to be linked
.
 The curious "full website" contains a search engine, too  Just for fun I typed "ACTION, Inc" into it, and this is what popped up:

Action A Inc

Cheap Prices and Huge Selection. Action A Inc on Sale!

 www.Calibex.com

Action A Inc: Cheap

Best Value for Action A Inc. Find NexTag Sellers' Lowest Price!

 www.NexTag.com

So far I have  no sense that the folks at ACTION, Inc are part of a pedophile or trafficking ring  They're just stupid.

******

Back at the Dayton Daily News we learn some new information about the  investigation:

---the four children are now in the care of Kenneth Brandt's mother; the girl who has not been finalized, will probably be returned to Texas for redistribution

--Brant, following the pattern of many adoption./fostercare abusers, was beginning to socially isolate his victims, through alleged home schooling.

I say "alleged" because we don't know if he actually bothered to. Brandt's qualification for Ohio schooling under Ohio:  evidence that he had a high school diploma and the submission of "proper curriculum."

Whatever went on, one boy was enrolled in Troy schools from August 18, 2011-January 2, 2012; another from August 13, 2010-Feb 13, 2012; and the third from Dec 17, 2010-February 13, 2112. .Reports so far don't indicate when Brandt started to hand off the boys to his Internet acquaintances, but I wonder if that's around the time he began to pull them out of school.  That is,  when his hobby became a money-making deal.

Three is no word yet on what Texas adoption agency, if any, worked the other end. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services says they "will review the case."  ODJFS, of course, is horrified, by the sexual assaults, especially since it licensed the agency that handled the adoptions, It;s investigating "how the adoption took place."

Finally,  on March 1, the Dayton Daily News published an article, .Man accused of child rape, describing a little of his personal life and the reaction of his neighbors to his arrest. A couple interesting points are made:

---Brandt, although he did not hold an insurance agent  license in Ohio, owned Brant Insurance Services.  There is no webpage for the business, but the incorporation can be found o the Ohio SOS page.  How he supported himself, unless illegally, hasn't been revealed and I haven't found anything yet.

---Neighbors report Brandt was selling his house.  Then, shortly after his arrest, a man and woman were spotted moving out furniture and household items.  The man reportedly told someone (no source of the quote): " “I’m so ashamed. I don’t have anything to say. ”

---The children were only occasionally seen outside;  neighbors reported that Brandt watched them carefully.  One of the boys was never seen by neighbors..

More later.