The NY Times featured : A wallet Lost 40 years Ago is Found:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/a-wallet-lost-40-years-ago-now-is-found/
Pam Hasagawa thought this a simple kick off for us to flood the NY Times with letters.
SAMPLE ONE:
To the Editor:
A wallet lost 40 years ago touches heartstrings, but it doesn't compare with
the loss of personal and familial history experienced by
relinquished-and-adopted individuals.
I was born and relinquished in February three generations ago. That
November I was adopted, whereupon my birth certificate was sealed, my
genetic history was amputated, and my identity at birth was filed in a
vault, to be accessible only following issuance of another court order if I
could get one. I did. It cost me $600 twenty years ago.
What prevents adoptees from recovering their lost familial ties? State
legislatures in Trenton and Albany, for starters. The NJ Catholic
Conference, NJ State Bar Association, Right-to-Life and ACLU chapters lead
the opposition in NJ, demanding the right to influence compromise when none
of them lives or breathes adoption as institutions.
I'm glad Mr. Resta was reunited with his wallet. Countless family members
separated by sealed records will be glad when NY and NJ restore adopted
persons' right to reunite with their pre-adoptive selves named on their
original birth certificates.
Pamela Rolande Hasegawa
SAMPLE TWO:
Letter to the Editor
"Wallet lost 40 years ago is found" made NYTimes online headlines and touched many hearts.
More than 40 years ago I also lost something precious and far more significant than a wallet: my firstborn child, Alicia.
I had no support to violate 1967 social norms making single parenthood unacceptable. I was pressured and assured that it was "for the best" to let her go. I was assured I would forget.
But mothers who relinquish children for adoption do not forget and adopted citizens do not necessarily obtain a "better life" as they are forever denied access to their own original birth certificate, equal to that of non-adopted citizens.
Unlike wallets, the losses adoption separation creates are never recovered but we can and should restore equal access in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington where the issue is being debated.
Mirah Riben
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/a-wallet-lost-40-years-ago-now-is-found/
Pam Hasagawa thought this a simple kick off for us to flood the NY Times with letters.
- Compose and edit a 150 word count reply. (see samples below)
- Copy it from word into an email (not as an attachment).
- Include your name, address, phone.
- Send to: letters@nytimes.com
- Also copy and paste your reply to Huffington post, here:
SAMPLE ONE:
To the Editor:
A wallet lost 40 years ago touches heartstrings, but it doesn't compare with
the loss of personal and familial history experienced by
relinquished-and-adopted individuals.
I was born and relinquished in February three generations ago. That
November I was adopted, whereupon my birth certificate was sealed, my
genetic history was amputated, and my identity at birth was filed in a
vault, to be accessible only following issuance of another court order if I
could get one. I did. It cost me $600 twenty years ago.
What prevents adoptees from recovering their lost familial ties? State
legislatures in Trenton and Albany, for starters. The NJ Catholic
Conference, NJ State Bar Association, Right-to-Life and ACLU chapters lead
the opposition in NJ, demanding the right to influence compromise when none
of them lives or breathes adoption as institutions.
I'm glad Mr. Resta was reunited with his wallet. Countless family members
separated by sealed records will be glad when NY and NJ restore adopted
persons' right to reunite with their pre-adoptive selves named on their
original birth certificates.
Pamela Rolande Hasegawa
SAMPLE TWO:
Letter to the Editor
"Wallet lost 40 years ago is found" made NYTimes online headlines and touched many hearts.
More than 40 years ago I also lost something precious and far more significant than a wallet: my firstborn child, Alicia.
I had no support to violate 1967 social norms making single parenthood unacceptable. I was pressured and assured that it was "for the best" to let her go. I was assured I would forget.
But mothers who relinquish children for adoption do not forget and adopted citizens do not necessarily obtain a "better life" as they are forever denied access to their own original birth certificate, equal to that of non-adopted citizens.
Unlike wallets, the losses adoption separation creates are never recovered but we can and should restore equal access in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington where the issue is being debated.
Mirah Riben
******* PLEASE SHARE & FORWARD! ********
2 comments:
Done! And I will be spreading the word!
Good job! It's spreading on Facebook, too!
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