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November! That time of the year again! The time for National Adoption Month otherwise known as National Adoption Awareness Month otherwise known as National Adoption Bewareness Month otherwise known as Adoption Sucks Month otherwise known as National Sealed Birth Certificate Month otherwise known as Be Grateful You Weren’t Tossed in the Dumpster Month ad infinitum. I am sure that some somnambulant adoptees are headed out to Party City for their celebratory hats and horns and cake decorations (you know who you are), but outside of that deviant minority, no one else is amused about being poked. We poke back and we don’t fool around.
This year, as in many past years, I intend to blog every day in November. Coincidently NAM/NAAM coincides with the NaNoPoBlano blogging challenge month so I can double-duty down.
Blogging every day is a tremendous task. Exhilarating but tedious and extremely time-consuming. It is also fun, especially when it gives me the chance to expose some of the more ridiculous elements of the adoption industry that I tend to overlook the rest of the year due to time constraints or laziness. Like this gem: A Guide to the Easiest Countries to Adopt a Baby From. Do I really need to comment?
Mostly though, I have no idea what I will write—until I sit down to do it. Or should I say I sit down and panic? Sometimes there is too much to say. Sometimes too little. A blog should be longer than a tweet or a pithy social media comment. This is the conundrum. It also reminds me I should start up TikTok again. I loathe that platform.
This year I have a bit of a problem. I need to write every day, but I am writing three different blogs: Bastard Nation; The Daily Bastarrdette, and Stop Safe Haven Baby Boxes Now! Since DB is my main blog despite my recent heavy focus on SSHBBN!, I plan to post everything on DB and then cross-post to the other ones when appropriate. Since I am working on some long-form pieces on baby boxes, I can’t put them on the back burner for a month while diddle away keeping up with NAM/NAAM. Some are already un-timelyed, due to past diddling, but important. I need to catch up!
I suspect some of my pieces this year will not be brilliant, witty, or unforgettable. They might be stupid. I shall persevere.
Whatever–please join me in vocalizing and weaponizing adoptee rights, narratives, and angst, and being a public pain in the ass. Write a letter to your local newspaper or a guest op-ed. (I am going to try to do both for separate publications). Write or call a lawmaker. Vote a bad one out. (There are plenty of them) Vote a good one in (If there is such a thing.) Make more social media comments. Don’t be afraid to jump in. You are a Bastard. You were born with a license to be obnoxious and obstreperous. This is class warfare.
We poke back
Day 1 NAM/NAAM2022
Originally posted: Daily Bastardette
Here in Ohio, we have a candidate who makes me want to commit violence on him. I won’t name a name, but one of his ads states that he is helping people adopt by offering special loans. (He also says he is protecting religious rights, but I digress.) Do you want to guess what these PAPs look like? Think Snow White and her Prince!
FB me on who it is. I’ll be writing something about Ohio in a few days probably. My own most unfavorite is Nino Vitale