LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS to the Editor The Shores of Haiti Ibelieve it was stupid and immoral for the United States to invade and bomb Southeast Asia and to destabilize about a dozen democracies. I believe our...
...Every day they spend without parents of their own is a day of hurt that will need healing in the future...
...Matthew Rothschild Madison, Wisconsin Wonderful Workfare Laurie Udesky's article ("Workfare: It Isn't Fair and It Doesn't Work," December issue) should be worth a million votes to the 1988 Republican Presidential candidate...
...I visited three orphanages and two homes for pregnant women...
...The article's greatest weakness is that it failed to stress the importance of doing what is best for the child...
...David H, Kim Executive Director Holt International Children's Services, Inc...
...Those children need families...
...There are valid arguments on both sides, and I tried to present these fairly...
...When I first read about plastic pistols, that concerned me, too...
...But I must agree with the letter-writers who urge support for the Democratic Party in the upcoming elections...
...Interestingly, David H. Kim and Holt International did not address the substance of the criticism that opponents of Korean adoption have leveled...
...In California, some young people work as clerks and busboys, jobs scorned by one of Udesky's interviewees, while taking advantage of the state's excellent community college and university educational programs to qualify for better-paying jobs...
...I tried-numerous times—to speak with the "birth mothers" but the directors of the homes for pregnant women would not allow me access...
...Lorraine Sanders Redding, California The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...I believe our current Central American policy can lead to nothing but failure, and I'm sure the truth about Grenada is yet to be revealed...
...Furthermore, several states have had the necessary votes to rescind the convention calls, but the rescissions were blocked by minority parliamentary maneuvers...
...I spoke with dozens of social workers in Korea and in the United States who provide service to adopted children...
...There is no reason not to have a convention if a large enough number of people really want one, but we should not blunder or be bamboozled into a convention, the first since 1787, which at worst could wreck the Bill of Rights and at best would distract our attention from our real problems for a year or two...
...It would be frivolous to risk a convention for any but the gravest reasons, and putting economic policy into the Constitution does not rise to that level...
...But the issue cannot be boiled down to matching "as efficiently and as quickly as possible" those who want to adopt with those available for adoption...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...If we support a good Democrat next time around, maybe we can disentangle ourselves from the quagmire of Nicaragua and restore some sanity to our political process...
...It is difficult to imagine any of today's plastics, wonderful as they are, being able to contain the pressure and heat generated by the firing of a pistol cartridge...
...Certainly more can be done to promote adoption by Korean families, and more can be done for Korean birth mothers...
...What's wrong with uniting those children and the parents who truly want them...
...But the author failed to indicate how Korean adoption compares to other adoptions or where the money goes...
...But if there ever was a time and place for U.S...
...An orphanage life or life on the streets is no solution...
...Children can't wait...
...How about a parent's duty to support his or her children and help them, by example, to develop into responsible adults...
...Certainly any article that would criticize Korean adoption should at least consult those who are directly involved...
...There are good reasons to make certain parts of pistols from plastic, which is lighter than steel and does not rust or corrode...
...He responded to my questions, some of which relayed comments from critics of Korean adoption, and he urged me to speak with Molly Holt, daughter of Harry Holt, the founder of the organization...
...adoptions start at $10,000, or that a large portion of the money going to Korea helps handicapped and disadvantaged children who will most likely not be adopted...
...The case of the twenty-three-year-old single mother on AFDC who wants work-fare to send her to graduate school and "intends to hire a lawyer, if necessary, to obtain the level of education she feels she needs" struck me as so ridiculous that I almost skipped the rest of the article...
...That would have been too bad, because I'd have missed the clincher about recognizing "a parent's right to stay home and take care of her children...
...I talked with officials of all four adoption agencies in Korea and the Korean government...
...Well, I am impressed...
...January issue...
...The article contends that Korean adoption is big business...
...The article was critical of Holt International Children's Services, yet the author did not give anyone at Holt an opportunity to respond to his concerns...
...And don't most people still prefer those jobs to going on welfare...
...That sounds an awful lot like a "business transaction...
...Ed Doerr Executive Director Americans for Religious Liberty Silver Spring, Maryland Babies for Sale Matthew Rothschild's article, "Babies for Sale" (January issue), criticized Korean adoption, yet he did not include any comments from birth mothers, adopted Korean children, or adoptive parents...
...The detonation inside a cartridge generates tremendous pressure that must be contained, usually by steel...
...Eugene, Oregon The author replies: Any impartial reader of "Babies for Sale" will see that I bent over backward to present both sides of the issue...
...He did not say either that most U.S...
...Still, it will take years before all of the homeless children in Korea can have homes of their own in Korea...
...What's wrong with doing that as efficiently and quickly as possible...
...They made the case, in explicit and emphatic terms, that they believed foreign adoption was best for the children...
...Thousands of good families in the United States and elsewhere would love to parent those children...
...I believe our socialist friends who voted against both major parties are largely to biame for our having a President who is not only a bad actor but a bad man...
...I did speak with Molly Holt...
...But because of the Korean government's and Holt's efforts, Korean culture is changing...
...For 200 years we have amended the Constitution by the slow, deliberate process of Congressional consideration followed by state ratification...
...And I did quote her at some length...
...armed forces to intervene, the time is now and Haiti is the place ("The Shores of Haiti," Comment, January issue...
...I also spoke with Holt International Children's Services, as David H. Kim could verify by simply checking with his public-relations department...
...Anyone who says I didn't present this viewpoint simply didn't read the article...
...I had two lengthy, and one brief, conversation with John Aeby, public-relations officer for Holt International...
...George Leppert Palo Alto, California Plastic Pistol Packers The Progressive's editorial about the attempt to ban plastic pistols ("Plastic Pistol Packers," Comment, December issue) assumes that there is such a thing as a plastic pistol that cannot be detected by airport metal-detectors or x-ray equipment...
...About half of them were called without serious hearings or debate, and probably all were passed under the mistaken notion that the convention could be confined to consideration of an amendment to require a balanced Federal budget...
...In the final analysis, you have to ask the adoptees themselves...
...I spoke with groups representing adopted children and groups representing adopting parents...
...In fact, I devoted an entire section of the article to defenders of Korean adoption, including Molly Holt...
...The problem is that nearly all of the thirty-two (of thirty-four needed) state legislative resolutions calling for a convention were passed between 1975 and 1981-hardly a contemporaneous call...
...Steinmetz Altoona, Wisconsin Fear of Freedom The Progressive's editors are right, of course, when they state that if the American people really want a new constitutional convention, they should have it ("Fear of Freedom," Comment...
...Under the circumstances, the vast majority of Haitians would welcome such intervention...
...Udesky states that most jobs open to workfare participants are "low-paying" and "dead-end," but isn't that true of most entry-level jobs...
...However, a pistol made entirely of plastic makes no sense...
...The bullet itself, with much of this pressure behind it, must travel through a barrel...
...Frederick H. Condon East Andover, New Hampshire A Vote for the Democrats Our son said the other day that The Progressive is the only magazine that makes sense any more, so I picked up a copy and read it through...
...But I believe a little investigation will lead you to the conclusion that a pistol must contain a significant concentration of metal-enough to make it detectable by standard equipment...
...Kim and Holt International did not respond to charges that the adoption agencies, through their social workers, urge unwed pregnant women to give their babies up for adoption, even when the women want to keep their babies, or that adoption agencies pay hospitals, obstetricians, and midwives to funnel babies to them...
...Korean adoption is not a simple issue...
...I encourage The Progressive's, readers to do just that...
...Parents who have adopted a Korean child will tell you that calling adoption a business transaction fails to acknowledge the very real love, commitment, and emotional bonding that cements a child into their family...
Vol. 52 • February 1988 • No. 2
