Commentary by Bastardette on identity and adoptee rights, and the atrocities the adoption industry and "friendly" deformers concoct to maintain The Adoption Culture of Shame and Acquiesce.
Tonight CNBC will broadcast Escape from Havana: A Secret Flight to Freedom, an original documentary on Operation Pedro Pan, which I wrote about earlier. Under Pedro Pan, between 1960-1962, a little over 14,000 children, were airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the US to "save" them from communism. The Secret Escape to Freedom covers the stories of six Pedro Pan evacuees .
I admit I'm not impressed with the show's description:
It was at the height of the Cold War when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. It was supposed to be a democratic revolution, but Castro soon turned to communism and dictatorship. Rumors began to spread among the elites and middle class that Castro would take their children away. Throughout the island, parents panicked. Then, the U.S. offered a way out: it would conduct a secret airlift of Cuban children and bring them to America – without their parents. It was an unbearable choice between raising their children in the oppression of Castro’s Cuba, or setting them free to live in the land of freedom, never knowing if they would reunite.
which fails to mention that Pedro Pan was a component of Operation Mongoose, a covert CIA operation designed by the JFK administration to undermine the Castro government. It included using refugees, particularly children as propaganda objectives. In this case, CIA operatives in Cuba created forged documents clandestine radio broadcasts, rumours to spread fear amongst anti-Castro Cubans that the government planned to terminate their parental rights and send their children to Soviet work camps. Ostensibly run by the Miami Diocese, the Pedro Pan childlift was, in fact, a joint effort of the Catholic Church and US government to purposefully break-up thousands of Cuban families to undermine Cuban culture in a PSYOP against communism. That's the real story.
The inclusion of Maria de Los Angeles Torres, childifted by Pedro Pan at age 6, suggests we'll get some of that real story. de los Angeles Torres, a political scientist and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago is the author of The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the US, and the Promise of a Better Future. She has been in a prolonged legal fight with the CIA over release of documents and is highly critical of the Pedro Pan evacuation.
A Secret Flight to Freedom will air tonight at 10:00 pm edst.
Another Utah Adoption Fiasco: Judge holds father responsible for State’s gross negligence.
Salt Lake City, Utah (May 25, 2010) - Ramsey Shaud, an unmarried 23-year-old construction worker and waiter from Crestview, Florida, wonders what more he could possibly have done to preserve his rights to his now five-month-old daughter. When Shaud’s girlfriend told him she was pregnant and planned to place the child for adoption, Shaud insisted on having custody, filed in the Florida putative father registry, and offered financial support to the mother. The mother rejected his offers and left for Arizona, and later Utah.
Shaud immediately filed in the Arizona putative father registry and contacted Utah attorney Daniel Drage. With Drage’s help, Shaud filed a paternity claim in Utah and a notice in the Utah putative father registry five days before the birth. Utah law requires an unwed father to file the claim and notice before the mother consents to adoption. Shaud’s notice was mailed on January 12, 2010 and marked received by Utah Vital Statistics on January 14. The mother consented to adoption on January 19, and an adoption petition was filed.
When notice of the adoption petition did not come to Shaud, Drage investigated. He discovered that Vital Statistics had not processed Shaud’s paperwork until January 20, making Shaud’s filing one day late. Moreover, the date of receipt on the envelope had been altered from January 14 to January 20. The adoption was then ordered without Shaud present.
“I did everything I possibly could to completely comply with Utah's strict adoption codes only to be told in court that the state of Utah held my paper work for 6 days,” said an exasperated Shaud. “This is completely heart breaking and I want nothing more than to raise my own daughter.”
Erik L. Smith, a paralegal from Ohio, who assists attorneys nationally in contested adoptions, echoed the frustration: “This shows what a sham the Utah system is. Not only are the laws burdensome, but even when a father follows the law the state can thwart him.”
Attorney Drage filed a motion to intervene in the adoption and served subpoenas on Vital Statistics employees. A judge ruled that Shaud had preserved his right to due process. For unknown reasons the judge was replaced by Judge Robin Reese, who reconsidered the matter. Reese refused to admit Drage’s evidence about Vital Statistics activities and denied Shaud’s intervention, citing Utah Code 78B-6-106(1). That statute does not excuse a parent from complying with the laws based upon any “omission of the other parent or third parties.” Reese considered Vital Statistics a third party and held Shaud responsible for the late filing. Reese rejected Drage’s argument that the State cannot deny an unwed father an opportunity to assert his parental rights.
Shaud faces a wait of several months while his case is appealed. Should he prevail, the adoptive parents will no doubt argue that the child should not be removed from the only home she has ever known.
Contact: Erik Smith edenstore@msn.com (614) 571-2999
Maryanne Cohen sent the following as a comment to Bad Day in Illinois, regarding the passage of HB 5428. I posted it there, but thought it was so good, and voices what many of us feel right now, I am posting it, with Maryanne's permission, as a separate guest blog.
I am working on a long piece on Illinois and not sure when it will be finished. There is much to say about this travesty.
******
I am so disgusted over IL signing a terribly deformed bill into law, and all these other bad bills popping up like warts all over the country. This has really made me understand the term "Adoption Deformer" used by some to describe the people who push these bills.
What is deformed?
The notion that convoluted compromise bills are "fair" and consider the "conflicting rights" of adoptees and birhparents. This ignores the fact that birthparents gave up ALL rights around the adoptee when they signed a surrender. There are no "conflicting rights" until deformed bills with vetoes write them into law. Some Deformers have the nerve to say bad bills are "better" than clean ones, and to eagerly offer to advertise them far and wide so closet mommies can file their vetoes!
What is deformed? The "we will fix it next year" delusion. Yes, your group may come back year after year in an attempt to fix a bad bill, only to find that the legislators have lost all interest. "We already addressed that issue" will be their answer for many years to come. No Deformed bill that passed has EVER been fixed. There are NO "baby steps," just one big step over a cliff for those adoptees left behind by deformed bills.
What is deformed?
The "adoptee's (sic) are dyin'" argument that mixes medical records and sentimental reunions with open records. This leads directly to unworkable schemes to extort medical information from mothers who do not wish contact, and medical registries rather than adoptee rights. "After all, isn't medical history you greatest concern?" says Mr Legislator?
What is deformed?
"My state is DIFFERENT" hence only deformed legislation can pass here, and it all our opposition's fault." All states are different, but in those where deformed legislation has been introduced it has been fought just as vigorously as clean legislation by our usual enemies, NCFA, the Catholic Bishops, ACLU, Right To Life, LDS etc. Deformed legislation does not appease our opponents. Deformed legislation comes not from them, but from "our side", Deformers who are all to eager to lie down and concede rights in the hope of getting something/anything passed.
What is deformed?
"It helps the majority, only 1% left behind." First of all, nobody really knowns what percentage of adoptees will be blacklisted in any given scheme, so the numbers thrown around are suspect. On the other hand, Deformers have an "if it saves just one" mentality about legislation that makes it easier for any percentage of adoptees to get records and search, because search is really all they are about, not rights.
When you are the one barred from getting your records because of the year you were born falling into a black hole, or because of a veto. it is cold comfort that the majority got theirs, and it is NOT A RIGHT. It is permission from Mommy, insulting to adopted adults and to birthmothers who see their grown children as autonomous adults.
Yes, I am disgusted by Deformers. With friends like that we do not need enemies.
The Chicago Tribune announced this morning that Governor Pat Quinn, over the protest of adoptee rights activists (aka "ungrateful bastards") throughout the US, will sign Sneaky Sara Feigenholtz's Adoption Industry Cash Cow and Corporate Welfare Act of 2010, HB 5428, (NOTE: The Trib has since published an longer version of this story, which I will hold back on an include in later commentary.
We are expected to jubalize because
Under the legislation, adopted people born in 1945 or earlier could get their birth certificates right away.
Adopted people born after 1945 would have to wait until November of next year -- after their birth parents have had a chance to file an objection if they want.
Note the absence of the actual Draconian restrictions on post-1946 bastards and their obc access that the bill codifies.
Feigenholtz has never mentioned, much less taken responsibility for the ugly post that came from her published email account last month to adoptee Lori Jeske that included:
Would you consider giving Representative Feigenholtz the key to your (delusional) Eutopian world where all ungrateful bastards think it's easy to pass a bill that makes everyone happy AND CAN ACTUALLY PASS ? Pass a law? what a concept !!
We "Eutopian" ungrateful bastards though, are in good company. Here's a local Fox News video from 2008 about Feigenholtz's alleged dirty tricks on fellow Dems and friends during her unsuccessful bid for Rahm Emanual's US House seat.
Mike Quigley has it right:
If you didn't do it you can deny it. If you did it you can either accept responsibility or do what's more disappointing and fail to acknowledge it exists.
It's not to late to ask Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to veto HB 5428. Quinn will make his decision on the bill by the end of the week.
Even if you have already contacted the governor's office, please do it again. Let the real voice of adoptees be heard.
Web contact (email) form: http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm
Springfield Office Office of the Governor 207 State House Springfield, IL 62706 Phone: 217-782-0244 FAX 217-763-8710 TTY: 888-261-3336
Chicago Office Office of the Governor James R. Thompson Center 100 W. Randolph, 16-100 Chicago, IL 60601 Phone: 312-814-2121 FAX 312-867-0801
Here is Bastard Nation's second letter to Governor Quinn:
Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization once more urges you to veto HB 5428, a so-called “adoptee rights” bill promoted as a progressive piece of legislation to correct Illinois’ long-standing Draconian treatment of its adoptees and their families of origin. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The bill’s stated purpose and its final product are diametrically opposed.
The introduction to the bill reads: The General Assembly recognizes that it is the basic right of all persons to access their birth records, and, to this end, supports public policy that allows an adult adoptee to access his or her original birth certificate. The rest of the bill guts the “recognition of that “basic right,” putting unreasonable and outrageous restrictions on that “basic right:”
HB 5428 separates adoptees into two classes by date of birth and then into numerous subclasses of “access” and “contact” eligibility dependent on parental and state “consent.”
HB 5428 “grants” rights to some at the expense of others.
HB 5428 criminalizes adoptees that use information from the Illinois Adoption Reunion and Medical Exchange to locate and contact families of origin.
HB 5428 dictates relationships between adults.
.HB 5428 is a bill that adopted persons and their families of origin did not ask for and do not want. It has virtually no support from adoptee rights and adoption reform organizations in Illinois and throughout the country.
HB 5428 is NOT an original birth certificate access bill. HB 5428 is NOT an adoptee rights bill. HB 5428 is NOT an adoption reform bill.
Instead HB 5428 is an abomination that stalls genuine adoption reform in the state for decades. It does not have the support of any national adoption reform or adoptee rights organization. As other states move forward to restore the right of all its adopted citizens, Illinois, under the constrictions of this bill, will continue to deny equal protection to them.
Leave no one behind! Please veto HB 5428 and ask the legislature to come back with a clean bill that treats all Illinois adoptees as fully equal to non-adopted Illinoisans.
Laura Silsby is scheduled to return to Boise around 2:00 PM today. She was released from the Haiti Hilton yesterday after being convicted of "arranging unlawful travel" and sentenced to time served. Obviously, the Haitian government just wants this albatross off its neck and around the necks of the Idaho courts where her ever-expanding business and personal problems have roosted. Better Idaho than us.
As much as I'd like Silsby to spend a lot more time in the slammer, I am not surprised at the release. After all, the Haitians have more dire things to worry about than Bible Barbie. What did surprise me was Charissa Coulter's appearance in court with Silsby. I had to play the tape back to make sure I heard right.
One of Silsby's other partners-in-crime Jean Sainvil, a Haiti-born "pastor" in Atlanta is being tried in absentia, and his status is unknown.
Silsby (showing some leg in court) told the AP "I'm praising God" and apparently made no further comment until she was interviewed at the Port au Prince airport before clearing security. Megan Mattson, spokeswoman at the U.S. State Department, told the press Silsby was looking forward to returning home to her own children. Is that's what known as a "Freudian slip?"
Central Valley Baptist Church is supposed to release a statement, but I can't find one so far.
I don't have any time this morning to comment further, but the video below from KTVB-TV (aka the Official Laura Silsby Fan Club) says more than I could write in the next 12 hours.
Once the legislative season is over, I'll have more to write about Team Silsby and Yoram Puello. I have a lot of material I've not been able to put together. It will be fun. And maybe a partial antidote for the miserable deformist crap that passes for "adoptee rights" we've seen so far this year.
On May 12, the Rhode Island House unanimously passed H7877, a bill that restricts the right of all Rhode Island adoptees to access their own birth certificates. Promoted as an “adoptee rights” and original birth certificate “access” bill, the bill, in fact, contains not only a "birthparent" disclosure veto but extends that special veto right to the parents and siblings of a deceased "birthparent.” In other words, some of the very people who may have caused the adoptee to be placed for adoption as a child are now authorized to keep the adoptee as an adult from getting his or her own birth certificate.
S2759, a companion bill, is currently in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. That bill extends the special right veto even farther to include the parents and siblings of permanently disabled/incompetent "birthparents.”
Bill promoters say they will return later to pick up the left-behinds vetoed out of their rights. In over 40 years of tiered access and disclosure vetoes, however, no legislature has ever revisited to extend unrestricted access to all. States are obligated by law to honor all vetoes on file. Legislatures cannot unilaterally rescind in-place vetoes, even if a veto provision were removed prospectively by later law.
On May 14, in an attempt to show widespread support for S2759, a letter seeking bill endorsements, under the signature of S2759 sponsor Senator Rhoda E. Perry, Chairwoman Health & Human Services Committee and Paul Schibbelhute, New England Regional Director of the American Adoption Congress, was emailed to national/professional organizations. The email solicited (1) organizational letters of support for S2759 and (2)organizational statements stating a willingness to publicize RI adoptee access legislation“when” passed. The letters are to be sent to Sen. Perrry. (The full email is at here. http://ariadnegroup.org/acone.html)
The email contained links to general obc access policy statements or endorsements for a 2004 restricted access bill in New Jersey from several national organizations,including, CWLA, AAC, North American Council on Adoptable Children, and the EB Donaldson Adoption Institute. There were no links to endorsements or testimony for the current Rhode Island bills or any indication that these organizations outside of the AAC support the the current RI bill(s).
The most disturbing claim of this letter, however, is that “…new Hampshire and Maine had recently passed similar legislation.”
S2759/HB7877, in fact, are polar opposites. Bills in New Hampshire and Maine restored the right of obc access with no restriction, to persons adopted in those states, while S2759/HB2759 restores no right to access, and restricts access through the use of an expanded disclosure veto system; thus, creating a blacklist of adoptees barred from getting their own birth certificates.
ACTION
Please write to Senator Perry today (address below) and tell her why you do not support S2759. If you represent an organization, explain the significance of your organization as well. The bill was introduced on April 6, 2010 and is being fast tracked so we need your letters now!
TALKING POINTS
S2759 is not an equal access bill.
SB2759 convolutes civil rights with interpersonal relationships
S2759 treats adoptees differently than the not-adopted. Access to the original birth certificate is treated as a favor or privilege by the state for adoptees, not as the unquestioned right for the not-adopted.
S2759 creates two classes of adoptees giving some adoptees access to the obc at the expense of other adoptees
S2759 creates a special right for “birthparents” to veto access to the obc, and extends that special right to self-appointed surrogates if a parent is deceased or incapacitated.
S2759 and H7877 are companion bills; state your opposition to both.
CONTACT
Senator Rhoda E. Perry Chairwoman, Health & Human Services Committee Room 212 83 Smith St RI State House Providence, RI 02903 Phone: 401-276-5567 and 401-571-7165 Fax: 401-222-4263 sen-perry@rilin.state.ri.us
Also contact HSS committee members:
Sen Leo R. Blais sen-blais@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: 401-823-4536
Sen. Charles J.Levesque sen-levesque@rilin.state.ri.us Phone:401-683-9194
Sen. Francis T Maher, Jr. sen-maher@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: none listed
Sen. Joshua Miller sen-miller@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: none listed
Sen Juan Pichardo (HSS Vice-Chair and co-sponsor of bill) sen-pichardo@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: 401-461-2389
Sen. James C.Sheehan sen-sheehan@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: 401-884-1077
Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski Sen-sosnowski@rilin.state.ri.us Phone: 401-783-7704
Be sure to head your testimony with the number of the bill; a brief description (ex: original birth certificates for adoptees) and that your testimony for the opposition.
The Rhode Island House yesterday passed unanimously (and here) H 7877, a bill that curbs the right of adoptees to receive their own original birth certificates.
The bill, framed in deformerNewSpeak as a records access and adoptee rights measure, creates a " do not release" option (a nice name for disclosure veto) for families of origin--in this case not only a parent, but a parent or sibling of a deceased parent-- to keep their Family Bastard de-identied and at bay. The Senate's close companion SB2759 extends the veto to the parent or sibling of a "permanently disabled " parent (no mention of proof or definition of "permanenty disabled") . That is, to people who may have pressured the parent to surrender their shameful secret into the secret adoption mill to start with. Hen meet Fox.
Would a Rhode Island legislator tolerate for one moment a law that would predicate release of his or her own own birth certificate on the desire, comfort zone, and permission of his or her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles? Of course not! And certainly the not-adopted wouldn't. Why should any self-respecting bastard be expected to roll over for this absurd bill?
The key word is self-respecting.
Deformers scurry all over AdoptionLand like cockroaches swarming after daily pottage. They sell their own birthright and then steal the birthright of everyone else in the name of privilege for some. Benedict Bastards. Class traitors. Cowards. Your "grand strategy" harms us all. Your despicable bills create a permanent underclass of adoptees. No lawmaker will return to fix your fuck up.
H7877 is about privilege. It is about adoption industry secrets. It is about family secrets.
H7877 is about special $$$ interests controlling the historical documents and genealogies of the adopted population, apparently so dangerous that they cannot be trusted with their own information.
And H7877 is about the moral bankruptcy of compromisers who fornicate with their own opposition. The people at TRACE and their supporters, in their own confused way, know exactly what they are doing. I talked to a Rhode Islander recently who told me that the only way H7877 pushers believe they can get any bill through is to accept the veto language iinserted by a long term opponent. They call this progress? Any talk of "grand strategy" and a deus ex machina is wishful at best.
In October 2003 Liam Thompson born Dmitry Sergeyvich Islankulov,was torture-murdered by his Forever Parents of six months, Gary and Amy Thompson of Galloway, Ohio. He died on his third birthday. Liam had a slightly older sister, adopted at the same time and from the same agency, Tree of Life in Portland, Oregon. We heard little about his sister then, not even her name, only that she had been placed in care and would probably be adopted by a new family.
Once, a long time ago, Ira was Irina Alexandrovna Pavlova. Then she was Irina Thompson, neglected, but not abused, by Gary and Amy Thompson. Now she is Irina Elizabeth Jean Palmer daughter of Don and Nadine Palmer and sister of Jessica and Cache. She lives in Powell, Ohio, just north of Columbus. Ira likes Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, and she's a gymnast. Pink is her favorite color. She wonders about her family in Russia. She remembers Liam.
One of the key tools in the prosecution of Liam's death was Amy Thompson's computer diary where she wrote of her disappointment in the children and how they "sickened" her. They ruined her self-esteem. With their needs and problems, they caused her to doubt her formerly "good" parenting skills. Her 15-year old biological daughter, who knew what her parents had done to Liam, tipped police to the journal. Full contents of the diary have never been published, but police used the document in their investigation. A few excerpts were introduced in court and reported in the Dispatch:*
While I am doing this (hitting children and screaming at them) it feels oddly good. I feel a sense of relief to get out some of anger, and I have to stop before I really hurt them. Afterwards, I feel somewhat guilty, but not as much as I should.
In a diary on Mrs. Thompson's computer, she wrote about how frustrated she was that Liam and a second Russian-born child they adopted had "no distinguishable personality."
Columbus Dispatch, April 26, 2010 (link at top):
I am mad at them for being so much damn work (angry) at them for not just fitting in and for having no personality.
The Thompsons apparently did not seek much professional help for the children or themselves, but even if they had...
In August, the Dispatch contacted Tree of Life for about the case:
Bianca Marcu, coordinator of international adoptions for Tree of Life, said her agency cannot be blamed for Liam's death. "Considering the adoption is completed, they are the legal parent," Marcu said. "I don't see how the adoption agency should be involved any more. It's easy to point the blame of the adoption agency."
She refused to comment later.
In 2000, Tree of Life placed Romanian 5-year old "orphan" Anton Nicolae-Danut, adoptive name Daniel Peckenpaugh, with pedophile William Delos Peckenpaugh, who videotaped his sexual abuse with the boy, and is now in prison. Prosecutors say he" adopted the boy to be a sex toy." To the best of my knowledge Tree of Life has made no comment on the case, so we can assume Marcu holds not fault there, either.
Before the Thompsons killed Liam, Gary Thompson worked for a credit union; Amy Thompson was an LPN. Gary pled guilty to one count of murder a month after Liam's death and was sentenced to 15 years to life. His first parole hearing will be in August 2018. Amy Thompson pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The judge recommended no early release. She will remain in prison until October 9, 2017. Amy's teenage daughter from her first marriage was placed in foster care; the Thompsons'son, close to the ages of Irina and Liam, last we heard, was living with relatives.
Irina seems to be doing well, and we are happy about that, but Nadine Palmer makes a troubling statement at the end of the article:
"When their names come up (the Thompsons) they try to focus on the good. "We always say that if Amy and Gary hadn't gone to Russia, we wouldn't have Irina."
We don't know anything about Irina except the story in the Dispatch. But... I hear a lot of this kind of talk coming from people trying to make sense out of disorder and tragedy, especially when they aren't the direct recipient of that disorder and horror themselves, but witness it in others. I guess it comforts them. We hope, the Palmers, through their positivity, are not forcing Irina to choke down the horror of Liam's death and of the Forever Thompson Family. To hold back her grief. Saying, virtually, that if it weren't for Liam's death, they wouldn't "have" Irina now, is not acceptable.
*I have hard copies of all articles from the Dispatch, but the originals have been moved to the paper's paid archives, so I'm linking them to Pound Pup's archives.
The trial of Brian Dykstra, charged with second degree murder in the death of his adopted sonIsaac Dykstra (original name unknown) has been held off indefinitely. The trial was scheduled to start on May 10. The prosecution and defense filed a joint motion Friday requesting a new trial date due to the complexity of the case. According to their motion more than 130 witnesses may be called.
Tonight CNBC will broadcast Escape from Havana: A Secret Flight to Freedom, an original documentary on Operation Pedro Pan, which I wrote about earlier. Under Pedro Pan, between 1960-1962, a little over 14,000 children, were airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the US to "save" them from communism. The Secret Escape to Freedom covers the stories of six Pedro Pan evacuees .
The inclusion of Maria de Los Angeles Torres, childifted by Pedro Pan at age 6, suggests we'll get some of that real story. de los Angeles Torres, a political scientist and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago is the author of The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the US, and the Promise of a Better Future. She has been in a prolonged legal fight with the CIA over release of documents and is highly critical of the Pedro Pan evacuation.
