STANDARD TRANSMISSIONS
Moses & Superman
By Rik Davie/The Scugog Standard

It’s been a while since I found myself in one of my patented tirades on adoption.
_Now, being adopted myself and subsequently reunited with my birth family, I do have a somewhat skewed idea on the subject. But like a former slave, I am entitled to it.
_Didn’t like the reference to or comparison to slavery? Well, think about adoption as it existed in the majority of the last century when I became a member of ‘the adoption club.’
_Women who found themselves, usually through circumstances beyond their control or abilities, in a ‘family way’ where often ostracized by their own families. Unwed mothers were virtually unemployable and landlords would not rent apartments to them. The Children’s Aid of the day hovered over them like crows on road kill waiting to snatch the babies away at the slightest transgression to be raised by so-called ‘normal’ families.
_As an adoptee, my record of birth was falsified by the provincial government with no way for me to find out I was not who I thought I was and no legal protection to say that if I needed to know - for medical purposes or any other reason - I could be told.
_The government put nothing in place to notify me of my legal status when I reached the age of majority and, if I was not informed by my parents (and I was not), I would go through life giving the wrong medical background believing it to be true.
_The province decided that the rights of my adoptive parents to pretend they had a baby superseded my protection by denying me access to my medical history and information that could save me or kill me. Anyone in your family react to anesthetic? Nope!...
_So recently when I ran into somebody who had, as I did, found their birth family - and had the door to their past slammed in their faces as surely as if it had never happened - man I got mad!
_For all adoptees, this is our past, our family history, our family ties. We did not choose the path set out for us. We did not agree to it and we did not promise anybody to stay hidden quietly in the closet like an embarrassing misstep to be kept away from the light of day.
_A mother’s or father’s responsibility to a child does not end with the signatures on a set of adoption papers, and if legislation is required to allow us ‘bastard’ kids our birthright information and past then so be it.
_I like to remind people that if it were not for the ‘bastard’ children of the Kings and Queens of England the House of Lords would be quite an empty place.
_While adoption is a much healthier and more open world now, it remains, in many cases, a dark and secretive place for the children of adoption from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and even into the 60s.
_Until that changes, nothing really changes. I mean, let’s not forget that Moses and Superman were both adopted ... and they did okay!

Don’t forget that there is still plenty of time for you or your group to donate $200 towards ‘Anne’s Tables’ - the picnic tables that will be placed in Palmer Park in honour of Operation Scugog Food Bank founding member Anne Wanninkhof.
_A plaque commemorating her and your donation will be placed on each table to pay homage to this amazing woman and her efforts to feed those in need in this township.