Forever Family–Forever Dead was hardly up and out when Bastardette learned of a new addition–Dennis Merryman, who died January 22,2005 of starvation. His adoptive parents were arrested yesterday. Dennis’s story is now included in the original posting (see below). This report will be updated regularly
Originally published August 3, 2005 Nobody is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten.Nikto ne zabyt – Nichto ne zabyto….Olga BergoltsSince 1996 at least 15 children adopted from Russia by USians have died at the hands of their Forever Parents. “Experts” like to say that these kinds of deaths are “rare,” yet no other national or ethnic cohort of children placed internationally with US parents have sustained such abuse. The Daily Bastardette will discuss the Russian situation in other posts, but for now, here are the stories of these children who have found their Forever Homes not with loving adoptive parents but in the grave. DAVID POLREIS, JR, (birth name unknown) age 2, Greeley, Colorado. Died February 9, 1996; beaten and cut over 90% of his body. Adoptive mother Renee Polreis, 42, claimed David beat himself to death with a wooden spoon due to RAD. Husband, David Polreis, Sr. , a vice president of Con-Agra, was out of town at the time of the attack and was not implicated. Renee Polreis was convicted of child abuse resulting in death and sentenced to 18 years in prison. In 2000 her sentence was reduced; she was paroled in 2005 and remains on intensive supervised parole. Continue Reading →
Hey, Bastardettes and Bastards! Born, adopted, or live in California? Help make history in California and make sealed records in California history by joining California Open! * * Please Distribute Freely * * *Issued July 30, 2005By California Openhttp://www.calopen.org California Open announces registration is now open to attend the State Wide Planning Meeting 2005: The Starting Gate for 2008!Tsakopoulos Library GalleriaAugust 26 – 28thSacramento, Californiawww.calopen.org/meeting.html California adoptee rights supporters are assembling under the banner of California Open. This early task force is formalizing to bring a 2008 ballot initiative that will restore adult adoptees’ access to their own original birth certificate. Step up to the Starting Gate! We’re calling on all who have been impacted by the 1935 sealing of birth certificate records to join the Cal Open statewide movement. This is the rallying point to organize, involve, and reform a flawed and antiquated law that threatens best adoption practice for thousands of families and endangers California’s privacy and equal rights protections. Everyone’s voice matters to assure our efforts succeed. Cal Open is pleased to present the California Film Premiere of: Measurable Rights: the fight for open records in OregonAppearing in person:Paul Fournier, filmmakerHelen Hill, Chief Petitioner of Measure 58 Continue Reading →
I received several private emails from fans encouraging me to continue my eBay window-shopping spree. Though much of the current Ebay beg-a-thon is for financing adoptions from foreign lands, there is still some good adoption kitsch out there just waiting to be snapped up by sentimental adoptashoppers. Amongst the day-glo bracelets, Italian Choose Adoption charms, and adoptable Teddies, a few true pieces of work have appeared. Unfortunately, some of them have already been sold, but I think it’s worthwhile to see just how deep AdoptionLander taste has sunk in the last couple of years as the HWI supply continues to dry up. Here for instance is the Angel Dollar For Adoption offered by Brad and Camille to help them bring “our daughter home from China.” Excuse me Brad! Just how did YOUR daughter get to China and why was she left there? But why quibble! As you see, this is a real genuine US George Washington dollar bill, only an angel’s head is superimposed over George’s. Isn’t there a law against defacing US currency? Actually, yes. Title 18, Section 33 of the US Code specifically says: Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United Continue Reading →
OK, adoptadogooders! (and you know who you are!) Time to get out your hankies, limber up your typing fingers, and put on your tinfoil hats. According to the July 17, edition of Digital Spy, Who’s Your Daddy is back. This time Daddy will be snuggled cozily amongst Temptation Island, animal attacks, COPS, and re-runs of Joe Millionaire on Fox’s new subscriber Fox Reality Channel. Just imagine, 24/7 reality. I know I can’t wait. I’ve already put in a big supply of popcorn and bought a new block of blank tapes. Of course, I realize a lot of you heaved a great sigh of relief when the original WYD tanked after one episode. But how many more were in the can? 6? 7? 8? 12? Now, in the privacy of your own home, you can watch adoption, as you know it, implode right before your very eyes, week after week after week after week after week. Bastardette is no Pollyanna, even if she is adopted. She will admit that many of those who opposed WYD are friends and colleagues. She holds nothing against them personally for loathing the show and she hopes they hold nothing against her personally for loving it. Continue Reading →
eBay has always been a safe haven (excuse me, I can’t help myself) for the weird, the bizarre, and the collectible. It’s the place where Bastardette regularly replenishes her Tsar Nicholas II icon, Ghoulardi, and Che Guevara collections. Being temporarily impoverished, however, she’s avoided even visiting the place lately, fearing an attack of conspicuous consumption that even a few bedtime readings of Thorsten Veblen couldn’t cure. Due to a recent post on a private email list, though, regarding a certain peculiar adoption-related item (more about that in a minute), Bastardette ventured forth once more into the Land of Leisure Time Spending to take a look at what was being hawked under the guise of “adoption.” A few years ago, eBay was a place to find genuine adoption artificats and curiosities. Once I purchased a page from the long-running Delineator series on adoption published nearly 100 years ago under the editorship of a young Theodore Dreiser. Then there were the “pagan adoption certificates” from the 1930s and 1940s issued by the Catholic Church (don’t ask!) Occasionally some interesting adoption books have been offered, including the much coveted Chosen Child and NCFA’s Factbook 3, a must for any adoptee rights activist. Usually, Continue Reading →
Dimple Menezes has quickly become Bastardette’s favorite dumpee. According to today’s Times of India, Dimple is going for the jugular. Her lawyer S.P. Chopra says his client, in a separate action, plans to file criminal charges against the Singhs under the Indian penal code “which offers seven years imprisonment to parents if a new-born is abandoned and left to the mercy of the unknown.” Hungry dogs appear to qualify as a serious “unknown.” “She threw me away. She did not feed me. Did she hold me? And then after 12 years she came to me. How can there be any love?” Dimple said in a phone interview. “My mother dumped me because she did not want to pay dowry for me and then she came to hurt me again when I wanted to marry the man of my choice.” On the husband front, Mr. Menezes is currently working in Kuwait and can’t wait for this legal imbroglio to be over so he and Dimple can start over. “I want to end this pain…all this anger and move on in life.” The Singhs, not surprisingly, are not available for comment. Dimple’s suit, the first of its kind in India, is being Continue Reading →
Every adoptee who contemplates searching–or just accessing their own information–also contemplates what they may find. And that contemplation usually leads straight to disaster. What if my birthmother is..A fundamentalist? A Democrat? A stripper? A feminist? Hillary Clinton? Rosie O’Donnell? A social worker? A nun? What if she’s a grifter and gave away 7 others? What if she reads Harlequin romances or is Dick Cheney’s secretary? What if Dick Cheney is my birthfather? What if my birthfather wants to move in and sleep on my couch? What if he’s a rapist? A pimp? A junkie? A drunk? A priest? (That’s how he got together with my mother the nun). What if my birth family thinks Thomas Kincade is a great artist? Or pickets abortion clinics? Or are Scientologists?? Or keeps John Kerry signs in their yard year ’round? What if they wear polyester? What if they’re old hippies? Old rednecks? What if my grandparents were Nazi collaborators or belong to the Revolutionary Communist Party and can’t speak in coherent sentences? What if my sister breeds Pomeranians? Or my brothers guzzle beer every Sunday during NASCAR or cook meth in their trailer? What if they don’t like me? What if they like Continue Reading →
Bastardette has once more become distracted by the ways of the world and has not been able to write lately. Her good friend, natural parents advocate Erik Smith has leapt into the lurch and offered us an interview on his views of Safe Haven/Baby Moses Laws. The interview was conducted a few months ago by a student from the University of Nebraska-Omaha INTERVIEW WITH ERIK L. SMITH — SAFE HAVEN LAW UNO student interview, April 2005 What do you think of safe haven laws? I think safe haven laws are irresponsible, wrong, ineffective, andunconstitutional. I mainly oppose anonymity. I am confident safe havenlaws do not save lives. Most adoption professionals oppose them too becausethe laws prey on people’s ignorance of child welfare law and policy. Consider the following analogy: A person lets his children starve to death. The accused claims he saw noother option because he was ashamed to apply for welfare and that hisfriends and relatives might find out he was not self-supporting. Thelegislature then proposes a law that lets anyone who feels ashamed of usingfood stamps get welfare automatically and anonymously because it willdecrease shoplifting and child starvation. If it saves just one life itwill be worth it. Continue Reading →
Like most adoptees I have two dads: Charlie, my adoptive dad and Jack, my birth dad. The last time I saw Charlie alive was on Father’s Day 1976. Two months later he died in the emergency room of congestive heart failure caused by a lifetime of bad habits. I still miss him, and not surprisingly did not fully appreciate him until he was gone. I first met Jack—in person–four years ago, just before Father’s Day 2001. Jack was never allowed to know about me. I was none of his business, at least according to my birthmother’s family who simply hustled their reckless daughter out of town, and told Jack to take a hike. I think she went to care for a sick aunt. And like Charlie, I don’t always appreciate Jack, as I should. Charlie was 35 when I was adopted. World War 2 had just finished, and he had worked as a mechanical engineer in a defense plant designing presses and catapults. He was also an officer in the Ohio State Guard (now Ohio National Guard.) where he organized air raid drills. Although he’d attended New York Military Academy and Culver the Navy due to some mysterious jaw problem Continue Reading →