Well, seven billion people worldwide - something extraordinary must happen to somebody somewhere just about every second of every day.
Shodan, believe me, I’ve done the same, after several pages wondering what the hell I was thinking giving the recipient exactly what he / she wanted. But it can be irresistible. And Sarahfeena, glad to hear that was your perspective.
Actually, interesting you’d both immediately follow my post, since it was you two in particular that made me want to shake her by her lapels and shout, “Cut it out, stop annoying these people!” as I skimmed through the thread. She is not worth your attention, not by a long shot; and there wasn’t even the opportunity to dispel the ignorance of others, since nobody sane believes the baloney she’s serving up.
Wow- she is all kinds of fucked up.
Her early life sounds highly dysfunctional.
I wonderd whether she was Irish Traveller or Roma because of the fortune-telling business and “family first” motif, but I don’t think so.
I think she’s been hurt terribly and has formed various belief systems to deal with that hurt by denial. I don’t think we can successfully challenge her beliefs without her world crumbling.
So, I’m suggesting we back away slowly.
She has claimed to be Roma in other threads, and I see no reason to disbelieve her.
They have some pretty atypical ideas, and a very tight-knit way of passing those ideas down to the next generation, otherwise they would have assimilated into the general population by now.
Thanks, Strat, appreciate the concern! But ideas that are that way-out don’t bug me. They are kind of fascinating in a way…and I’m still kind of convinced she is genuine.
Indeed, and as I know you know:
Early in the thread I pointed out that the Rom, (among other groups) had been subjected to forcible removal of children to be adopted out to the larger community and I speculated that someone from such an environment might take on a histrionic anti-adoption attitude.
However, her beliefs go well beyond what I speculated and I see no reason to add more misery to the world by stereotyping all the Rom.
In other news, I’ve already killed that thread.
ZPG? As in “Zero Population Growth?” Did I stumble into 1970? Cuz it didn’t work then, either.
What Sarahfeena says - it is very kind of you, but I wasn’t annoyed.
Some time after we adopted our son, I got a letter from a local crackpot who combed thru public records looking for indications of foreign adoption or interracial marriages so he could send racist letters excoriating those who were violating racial purity. Elroy Stock was his name, and being nuttier than Christmas fruitcake was his game. He mailed me a ten-page, single spaced letter, all neatly typed, that would have fit in fine to the Volkische Beobachter. I skimmed to the top of the second page, and then pitched the letter. Some attitudes you don’t argue with; you medicate. 
Much the same reaction to ZPG Zealot (once I wised up). There is no chance we will ever interact IRL, as with Elroy.
[ul][li]You can’t argue with crazy[]DNFTT[]all of the above. [/ul][/li]
Regards,
Shodan
People ask “questions” all the time that aren’t really questions–merely opportunities to soapboax. This is one of those. It’s not really “Why say Mom and Dad?” but rather “I think you’re wrong to say Mom and Dad.” They don’t really want to be informed or convinced–they just want you to show up so they can tell you how wrong you are.
… Wait, so did he think you were having sex with the kid, or what? :rolleyes:
My parents also got some anonymous hate mail when they adopted my older sister from Bangladesh. I don’t think it was the same kind of person (looking through adoption records), I think it was just some idiot who saw them around town. It was a small, almost exclusively white town.
I’ll buy THAT for a dollar!
As to the “original premise”…
I feel very qualified to explain it, having been adopted myself. The people I called Mom and Dad, for as long as they both lived, earned the titles. Anyone can breed. It takes no skill, just a working set of plumbing so to speak. However, it does take a certain extra something to raise a child, either your biological child or someone else’s, take on the responsibility put up with the grief and the attitude (and everything else). Dropping a litter is the easy part; sticking around and putting in the years to ummm, ya know, actually raise the child to adulthood is the hard part.
Lucky you. We adopted too late to get our letter…but we live out near where he does and I’ve always wondered if I annoy him…
Set it up with a friend sometime, then get the two of them together. The friend answers No to every sign. When she runs out, the friend gives the appropriate sign from the Chinese zodiac (Rat for me).
That will provide amusement.
Actually, I think he’s dead.
So now he is either in heaven, or in hell. Either way, he now knows that both places are integrated.
How did your parents react, if you don’t mind my asking? At least I recognized who wrote the fan mail, and knew that he was merely a harmless crank. Anonymous mail in a small town might have been different.
Regards,
Shodan
When we were adopting, we got a phone call from an unbalanced, well-known around here anti-abortion protester, commending me on my “unselfish” act of adopting (he got our number from an ad in the paper). It completely creeped us out.