Freedom!

So apparently yesterday was Freedom Of Information day. It does not pay to skip a day of reading my message boards. But heck, a day late and a dollar short is pretty much my motto.

It seems appropriate that one of the ways to honor this occasion would be to talk about adoptee rights - open records. It makes no sense to me that an entire section of the population would be kept from their own information because of something they didn't even have the ability to agree to. This is THEIR information. The rest of us can have it. Why can't they? I mean, really, what on Earth did adoptees do to be discriminated against? (Not that I believe those who are discriminated against generally "deserve" it...I'm just pointing out how absurd it is that they don't have equal rights...and generally when a group of people IS discriminated against, the oppressors have some bogus explanation as to why the oppressed "deserve" it.)

Later on today, I'm going to draft a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. I hope you all will do the same. Freedom of information, indeed. For ALL people. Equally. Thank you very much.

I'm going to go off track here for just a minute. I read this question earlier today on another forum: "What do you think would happen if right here in American millions of people representing our brightest, healthiest, and most culturally advanced were stolen and forced into slavery? What might be the consequence of such an atrocity?" I am not equating adoption with slavery...I think there are some fundamental differences. However, it is very important to note that adoptees have less rights than the average citizen - and consequently, they are treated as second-class citizens - and that they were not a party to the contract that created this discrimination. Only the fact that the child-adoptee is completely powerless makes this contract even possible...adult adoptions are rare, and never decided without the adoptee's consent.

Anyway, that wasn't my point (just tying the two completely separate thoughts together...hopefully in some kind of cohesive manner). My point is that I have found myself often lately shouting about victim blaming and how utterly, grossly, abhorantly unacceptable it is. The farther away from my own abusive past I get, the better I am able to see the circumstances that created my victimhood. I now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I did NOTHING to bring on my own abuse (which CAN be equated with enslavement, in some ways). I was not a party to what happened to me. I did not create my abusers. I did not ask to be abused. And I absolutely will NOT stand by while others talk about what someone was wearing, or how hard it is to coerce someone who is "strong" (i.e. only "weak" people are coerced...pfft), or how "They wouldn't be [enslaved] because they were the brightest!". These statements are complete rubbish.

I AM SICK TO DEATH OF PEOPLE THINKING THAT VICTIMS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH WHY THEY WERE VICTIMIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever heard that when women wear short skirts, they're "asking" to be raped? Guess what? She could have been wearing sweat pants and curlers, and STILL would have been raped, because rape is caused by RAPISTS, not victims. Women don't get raped when there are no rapists around.

I'm going to just copy and paste here my answer to the above enslavement question, rather than trying to reword it:

"Wow, it's really obvious that a couple of answerers have never experienced powerlessness. Their over-privileged lives have made it impossible to understand how to answer a question like this.

OP: All people have the potential to be the brightest, healthiest, most culturally advanced, etc. Often, when one is oppressed, they become the thing they are told they are - they become a self-fulfilled prophecy. When one is told they do not have rights, they FEEL that they have no rights. When one is told they are stupid, their performance drops. There are many studies that show this (have you seen the 'blue/brown eyes' study that a teacher did with her students?). And conversely, when people are held on a pedestal, told they are intelligent, etc., their performance increases, and they begin to feel they are 'better than' (as evidenced by a couple earlier answers).

This happens all the time. Each time a person or group of people are enslaved, we find out the answer to your question. This is an excellent film (although VERY tough to watch) that answers your question quite well: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Experim... It's called learned helplessness. (Lots of research about that, too.)

Victim blaming is absolutely 100% unacceptable."

I don't have a good way to tie this all up. I feel like I've had a good rant today. It feels SO GOOD to just SAY those things! We ALL deserve to have our own information! We ALL deserve to have equal rights! We ALL deserve to be treated with respect and dignity! We ALL can/could be victims! Victims are created by abusers, NOT victims! FREEDOM! (Said in my best William Wallace bellow.)