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Sunday, November 25, 2007
SpammersIn light of the recent spam fest, I will be configuring a new, more anonymous blog. This one will still survive,
and will host pictures of AJ, but will soon become password protected for our family's privacy. The new blog will not
host many pictures of AJ or any other family or friends
If you want to be permitted access, please email me- bernatz(@)verizon(.)net- no parentheses.
Thanks for playing.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
I'm moving up!I've finally recieved my first spam commentor. I guess I'm going places in the wide world of blog.
So for you who so auspiciously declined to leave any identifying or contact information...
I did not call Tama Janowitz a prostitute. I said she wrote a book about prostitution (forgive me, I
haven't read it), which is straight from amazon.com. "After I became a prostitute, I had to
deal..."
My issue is not whether Ms. J is a good writer or not (she very well may be); my issue
is the portrayal of her adopted daughter as one who should fulfill the perfect, eternally grateful adoptee
staus quo.
Do you think as a preteen, Willow understands her mother's hyperbole?
Friday, November 16, 2007
Is ‘Paternalistic Mother’ an oxymoron, or just a moron?
My ally, Natasha Sky, is asking,
“Where are all the outraged parents?” (http://multiracialsky.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/where-are-the-outraged-parents-here/ )
Well, Natasha, I’m right here, so pissed off I can’t formulate an articulate thought.
The New York Times recently started
a series on “Relative Choices”, a blog about adoption. From what I understand
many of the posts were poignant and thought provoking, some were so-so, and then there’s Tama Janowitz post. Apparently Tama takes the “you should be grateful to me because I adopted you” stance to a whole new level.
Who is Tama Janowitz anyway? Or moreover, who does she think she is?
(http://relativechoices.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/the-real-thing/) Apparently
she wrote a widely publicized book in the 1980s about being a prostitute in New York. Here
is a glimpse of her more recent work:
“So in a way it is kind of nice to know as a parent of a child, biological
or otherwise - whatever you do is going to be wrong. Like I say to Willow: “Well, you know,
if you were still in China you would be
working in a factory for 14 hours a day with only limited bathroom breaks!”
There are a lot of writers
out there in the blogoshpere who have expressed their opinions far better than I will here.
I must agree with most everything I’ve read that’s been written in response to Tama’s essay.
The thing I will say is
this- Whether or not you believe you ‘saved’ your child by adopting them (that’s
a whole ‘nother post), it is NEVER okay to use their adopted status against them. NEVER!
- Not even as a joke.
I agree with “ReadingWritingLiving”. “Shut up Tama Janowitz and turn in your parenting license!” (http://readingwritingliving.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/shut-up-tama-janowitz-just-shut-up-and-turn-in-your-parenting-license-while-youre-at-it/)
The other issue I have is
with The Almighty New York Times. The NYT kept adult adoptees from commenting
about the blog. The moderator actually refused to accept their postings. Adoptive parents were able to comment. Plenty! Especially if they perpetuated the belief that it’s all love and roses out in the
adoption world (it’s not). But many adoptees’ desperate attempts to post
their opinions to the Tama Janowitz piece and others were deleted by the high and mighty New York Times.
Shame on you, New York Times. You have succeeded in making us all look bad.
Please DiggIt and let our voices
be heard!
http://digg.com/politics/New_York_Times_blog_censors_criticism_from_adult_adoptees
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
21&22
21. About 12% of white Americans believe Elvis could still be alive and living somewhere in the world.
22. Only 6% of white Americans believe racism is a significant problem in the United States.
20 things I learned at the 14th Annual City-County Diversity Conference...
1. Tim Wise is even more dynamic in person than he is in print.
2. If you have the chance to hear him speak, you should go.
3. There are more genetic differences between 2 Mediteranean Fruit Flies than there are between
two human beings of different ethnic subgroups.
4. The same goes for Emperor Penguins.
5. The first person to suggest one 'race' (white) was genetically superior to another (black) was our
very own Thomas Jefferson.
6. He did it in a little known book called "Notes on Virginia".
7. He admitted his reasoning had no basis in fact and left up to science to prove it.
8. Although 'science' spent the better part of 2 centuries trying to 'prove it', they could not.
9. Joseph Quinones is just as dynamic as Time Wise.
10. I would like to work for him.
11. One can fill a 32 oz water bottle 16 times with City of P-Town water for one cent.
12. That's quite a deal.
13. Spring is a great friend.
14. Many people seem to attend the diversity conference to get a day out of work.
15. The issues of adoptive and multi-racial families were not on the collective conference radar.
16. The Red Lion serves a mean conference lunch.
17. Our neighboring county has a Chairperson who looks like she is 12.
18. The most popular conference workshop involved watching a movie.
19. The movie was made by PBS and is called "Race: The Power of an Illusion".
20. I felt like I was the table moderator at all of my workshops.
I think I will volunteer to help organize the the 15th Annual City-County Diversity Conference
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