Good Things Happening? Sometimes.
With the recent legalization of same sex marriage across the US and legalization of recreational marijuana use in Oregon, I’d say we’ve had a good couple of weeks. At the same time, recently Oklahoma has banned an increase in the minimum wage and punished alternative energy companies with a surcharge. On top of that, my home state of Michigan has made it possible for faith-based adoption agencies to deny adoptions for same sex or unmarried couples.
One step forward, two steps back by Desert Rose Band should be the national anthem for America.
One thing I want to touch on is Foster Care. The issue of adoption is a sore subject for a lot of people, but the one thing I really don’t understand about it is even with the way the population is growing overall and with how fast foster care agencies are filling up and spilling over, people still want to throw a wrench into the process with their beliefs. It seems to me that just because you were taught a set of values (and I use that term loosely) that differs from others, you shouldn’t be allowed to control the life of another person with it. Kids are being forgotten in our foster care system every day. Sent to overcrowded homes where the adults in charge curate children for bigger welfare checks and often the children in question are malnourished and even abused, sometimes resulting in death. That’s not okay with me.
I’m not saying that this won’t happen in a same sex or unmarried household. You may make the argument that my former example is the minority, and I’d make the same argument that that would also be the case if the other side of the issue was allowed to even exist. For too long our working and poverty class neighbors have been stepped on, denied help and even bullied into leaving their communities because the actions of a few overshadow the entire group. This kind of thing is what’s holding us back.
The next step in moving America forward is abolishing the American Family Association and any other religious-based groups that control our communities and laws.
