Adoption

Australia Says Sorry to Stolen Generation

Apology Speech by Kevin Rudd 13th February 2008 to the Stolen Generation.

Part 1. A little History
Part 2. Personal Interviews
Part 3. Footage from Australian supporters
Part 4. Apology Speech by Kevin Rudd

The Stolen Generation is a term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and making all Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and 1969. The policy typically involved the removal of children into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions.

I have been moved to tears by the incredible gesture of Australia's Parliament under their new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

Eleven years ago a study was published under the title Bringing Them Home | "Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families". The study was the height of a coalition of Aboriginal groups and human rights organizations who had fought for years to force the Australian government to blow the lid off the years of its genocidal policy against Aboriginal Australians.

from Talk to Action

Blogging has a lot in common with playing the slots. We spend endless hours researching, writing, and then refining what we've written before pulling the lever one more time by hitting "submit." Most of the time we're lucky just to break even, but once in a while we hit the jackpot.

While driving home from work, I often listen to news radio and catch up with what has happened during the day. Last Thursday afternoon, KRLD 1080 alerted me to an upcoming story that already sounded familiar.

Lawmaker wants to pay women for choosing adoption over abortion

A proposal by state Sen. Dan Patrick would pay pregnant women $500 for choosing adoption over abortion.

The anti-abortion Houston Republican said Senate Bill 1567 would provide an incentive to forgo abortion, but critics questioned whether such payments would be viewed as baby selling or coercion.

That story sounded so familiar because I had posted it online in the wee hours of that very morning.

from Talk to Action

Texas State Sen. Dan Patrick, author of a current proposal to criminalize safe abortion care, has figured out that adoption tax credits have a serious limitation: they don't do anything at all to increase the number of newborn babies available for adoption in the first place. But Senator Dan's the man with a plan to even out the shortfall.

Under Patrick's SB 1567, AKA the Texas Baby Purchasing Act of 2007, women would qualify for a $500 payment from the state within 60 days of signing away all parental rights to their newborn children.

If Patrick gets his way, childbearing in the service of the state won't be just creepy Handmaid's Tale fiction anymore. How's that for some moral family values?

"Can Parents Trust These Nice Conservative Brothers?"
Full post at Snook today -This is about a young couple who. . .make up a story to tell Susie's parents.

For their (shuddering as I notice this for the first time) millennium collection!

It's not just the internet tubes that make my life of the mind so rich. Without my radio, I wouldn't have nearly as much off-the-wall selective-perception stuff to think about . . .turn the radio on, turn the radio on now, no, that was the Chemical Brothers I think. .. but I digress, did you know that the dynastic Governing Brothers both have the exact same favorite song?? (WHAT ARE THE ODDS??)

Yes, it's a highly rated crowd pleaser of a song that has stood the test of time, its power of story about lying to parents and pleasing the country-western crowd, but they are so gosh-darn earnest and church-going and clean-cut about it . . .

So JEB (says my radio) has doffed his official state title and reclaimed his personal three letter nickname. Subliminally this is very presidential, like FDR, JFK, LBJ -- hmmm, are there any famous Republican prez initials, can't think of any known by three letters except Ike, which weren't his initials -- and like another music-message-muddled, big-and-tall candidate-man (Dem, and four-lettered when three would do, Gore) my ex-governor reportedly has slimmed down since leaving office. Getting into shape for the next run? Maybe he needs a musical makeover too . . .