Inspiration: "Bodies Against the Gears"

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I’m frequently  asked  how I keep this up. All this adoption crap.  To be honest, I don’t know.  Some days the word :adoption” freezes down my brain. This is not what my life was supposed to be about. But… As an historian  I find my inspiration and  endurance in history and keep on keepin’ on . My influences are many:  Emma Goldman, Voltarine de Cleyre, Gurley Flynn, SB Anthony, Lucy Stone, Big Bill Haywood, the Reuthers, Ghoulardi, early Qukuaers,  Malcolm X, Neal Cassady, Abbie Hoffman, the Yippies, the Wobblies–even Alexander the Great. And. of course,  Bastard Nationals. It’s a mixed bag that makes little sense except to me.  Among my more contemporary historical “mentors” is Mario Savio, leader of the 1964  Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. Since I had little time to write today, I surfed YouTube and found this excerpt of Savio’s 1964 Sproul Hall “bodies against the gears” speech.  Although Savio was addressing the liberal corporate educational system -and in larger terms the American corporate state–his speech can be narrowed  to include today’s adoption machine–not only the adoption industry and its cronies in church and government, but the so-called reform movement that props up that industry through compromise Continue Reading →

Bastard Activists Win in Maine House: Bobbi Beavers and Craig Hickman

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Bastard Goddess Janet gets her OBC One of the collateral benefits and enjoyments of bastard rights activism has been the election,of adoptees and other adoption reform activists to state legislatures. After a couple years of trying to pass access legislation in New Hampshire, in 2004 Bastard Nation’s own Janet Allen was elected to the New Hampshire House.  During her second term, she was instrumental in the enactment of SB 335  which retored the right of all the state’s adoptees the access upon request.of their original birth certificates.  Janet was the first person in the state to receive her OBC when  records were opened January 2005. Since then Maine has elected two activists to its House. Bobbi Beavers,  first mother and co-founder of OBC for ME,  shepherded PL 409 which  in 2009, restored the right of OBC access to Maine adoptees, through the Legislature   She was was elected to the House in 2010 (D-District 148) and  re-elected yesterday,  3,164-  2,094. Bobbi sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology. Her legislative interests  include foreclosure protection and environmental issues. Bobbi earned  perfect marks from the non-partisan Maine Conservation Voters for her votes to protect the environment and invest Continue Reading →

Bastard Demographic Poll: Who Got the AdoptionLand Vote?

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Thanks heavens the election is over!. Living in a swing state  I’ve been deluged for the last few days with phone calls from and Mr and Mrs Mittens,  Rick Santorum, Mike  Huckaabee, Clint Eastwood, Pat Boone  (a distant relative through adoption),  the Big O couple, and numerous underlings.  Frankly, I’m impressed that I’m so important. Watching  the returns tonight–I forget on what station–I saw a demographic run down of who voted for whom.  White single women, married Christians,  20 something Hispanics ,etc. This got me wondering about Bastard democraphics.  From Facebook  it appears Obama got the Bastard Vote, (e didn’t get mine, but neither did Roimney, I voted for Gary Johnson and Vermin Supreme (left) for VP).  To facilitate my curiosity I created a Bastardette Poll in  upper left-hand corner. Blogger won’t let me do anything fancy, so I created 3 polls.  One for bastards, one for first parents, and one for adoptive parents. I tried to extend the poll to the end of the month but the app wouldn’t let me, so it closes around 4:30 AM on November14 around 4:30 AM.  The poll is anonymous, but if you;d like to post here whom you voted for and  why, Continue Reading →

Kansas: Adoptee Attacked by Political Opponent for Being Adopted

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I’ve written both in OBC access testimony and blogs about  my concern that  due to Draconian measures such as Real-ID and proposed passport regulations  bastards without original birth certificates are in danger of losing the right to run for public office and even to vote (among other rights.). Without that all-important ‘breeder document’–and yes, that’s what birth certificates are called —it is nearly impossible  to establish all other identity documents and entitlements.  It hasn’t come to banning adoptees from running for office or voting  yet,  but… an  adoptee running for office in Kansas has fallen victim to dirty tricks over his adoption and his “secret past.”. Monday the Huffington Post reported that  the Kansas Republican Party recently sent out a mailer (see it at the link) to voters attacking Democratic state senate candidate Keith Humphrey, a former actor and screenwriter  now operating four aerospace-related companies in the Wichita area. TOP SECRET  There is A Lot Keith Humphrey  Doesn’t Want You to About His Past!…. What else is Keith Humphrey Hiding? What  Keith Humphrey doesn’t want you to know about his background …  or that his name hasn’t always been Humphrey”  What can Humphrey be hiding? . A string of drug Continue Reading →

For Once! A Good NAAM Video

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I had to work all day today, and following form am too tired to do much tonight. (Try counting 48 drawers of Victoria ‘s Secret bras and see how you feel!.) To expedite blogging tonight, then, I decided to post some obnoxious NAAM video off of YouTube. And there are plenty. Instead I’m posting a video made last year by our friend Kevin Ost Vollmers from Land of Gazillion Adoptees. I don’t now how I missed this a year ago, but Kevin has some important things to say about Korean adoptions,adoptees, and first parents especially for “our” month..   End  South Korean Intercountry Adoption. (I know Kvin’s last name is hyphenated, but my hyphen key  won’t budge.)

Dan Chaon Nominated on Goodreads

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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 Continue Reading →

Book Review: Like One of Our Very Own

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I tend to avoid  reviewing  books about adoption.  In fact, I avoid books about adoption in general,   I’m not sure why. Maybe for the same reason that when I worked in theatre I avoided plays.  Too much like work. Besides, having. come of  age reading 19th century literary essays, the New York Review of Books, and the Evergreen Review, anything less than a 6,000 word essay referencing the obscure is beyond my patience. A “formal “book review is a mission impossible.What goes through the head fails to make it down the fingers and on to the keyboard.  Still, occasionally I find a book about adoption that speaks to me; that. I want to share. As an  historian, by training, this usually means books on the history of adoption.. And, as a specialist in the Progressive Era (which I blame most for of our current  economic and social messes) , I especially look for adoption books that cover late 19th-early 20th century. Like One of Our Very Own: Adoption and the Changing Culture of Motherhood, 1851-1950.by Julie Berebitsky is one of them. I first read Like Our Very Own in 2009. A few years earlier I’d read a conference paper Continue Reading →

NaBloPoMoing Through Adoption 2012

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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. 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.  . ****** But I digress… National Adoption Awareness Month is the creature of Continue Reading →

Demons of Adoption Ballot: 2012.

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 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 Continue Reading →