Activism

A new scientific truth does not triumph by
convincing its opponents and making them
see the light, but rather because its opponents
eventually die, and a new generation grows up
that is familiar with it.

Max Planck

Ever since the 70's activists have been fighting over the paper trail, a generation of activists stuck in an endless succession of legal battles in a state by state course.  

Following the course activism against adoption practices has taken, names like Bastard Nation, Origins, CUB, Adoption Crossroads come by. All four of them being established organizations that stood by seeing the adoption industry getting more and more powerful, while avoiding to address the real issue: adoption itself.

The adoption industry has gained reputation and influence, having well known ambassadors in public figures like Angelina Jolie whose hours of airplay on the subject of adoption I wouldn't be able to count. Where were adoption reform activists against this tycoon of adoption propaganda? Sure there are blogs out there that criticize the adoption industry and some forums are shelters for people sharing their concern, but none of that reaches the headlines. In the mean time the Oprah Winfrey Show hosts another show around a celebrity whose loving concern have made them adopt yet another child.

Established adoption reform activism has safely found its own niches, some being occupied with reunions others caught up in legal issues, but a strong and powerful NO against the economic laws governing adoption practices doesn't reach the masses.

In A Short Personal History of Adoption reform Mary Anne Cohen says:

The adoption reform movement that got off to such an enthusiastic start in the 70's with the beginning of so many groups and attempts at legislation and court reform, including the ALMA lawsuit that it was hoped would open records by Supreme Court decision, did not live up to its early promise. For many reasons, and with only the best intentions, the distinction between the personal and psychological issues in adoption, and the political and civil rights issues became hopelessly blurred and tangled in ways that most reformers could not even recognize. They were too habituated to their own peculiar worldview as reinforced at countless conferences and read in endless newsletters. They could not understand why this left legislators and the general public puzzled and cold, and how conditional legislation grew out of the social work/psychological model of adoptee rights that they were espousing.

It was not until Bastard Nation appeared on the scene that adoption reform got back on track. " It's about rights, not reunions" has made all the difference in how many of us view adoption reform, and how we present it to the world and legislators -- and it is working where the old arguments fell flat.

Twenty years of dispute and the end conclusion seems to be: "it's about rights not reunions".

It's not about rights, nor about reunions. It's about adoption itself. It's about saying NO to burdening a child with the separation of its natural family.

A new generation needs to rise, not burdened with legal matters, nor caught up in reunion results, but a generation that can counter the adoption lobby, by clearly expressing that an economy behind child placement is damaging children.