Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
(Commentary) The girl behind the fast-food name tag, remarkably, had an opinion to go with my change.
And, yes, it was one I deserved to hear after asking an impertinent question — albeit an obvious one.
Before releasing the greasy food into my hands, this teenager complained about the toils of being a single mother, with two jobs. It’s all very exhausting, you see, she told me.
“Well,” I said, being more than a little annoyed at her presumption of familiarity with me. “Why didn’t you put your baby up for adoption and head to college?”
“Oh my God,” she said. “I would never do that to my child.”
I smiled and left, not letting her know that I was adopted, that “that” had been done to (for) me. Her comment didn’t offend me in a personal sense. How can one take any affront with a freckled fry peddler who likely moves her mouth when she reads, if she reads?
But her comment was freighted with a bias, full of some of the ugly stigma about adoption. With all the marches associated with the anniversary of Roe v Wade recently (one of which I watched on EWTN the other night), the forgotten option is adoption.
Instead of just taking sides in the culture war over abortion we need more people to find the common ground of adoption.
I’m not talking about a few throwaway lines in a right-to-lifer’s family values speech or some extra federal funding in your favorite liberal’s legislation.
I’m talking about a complete image makeover.
Every teenage girl in America who finds out she is pregnant should think first of adoption.
With the popularity of the fantastic movie, “Juno,” which is now in theaters and Oscar-nominated, that may just happen. It gives adoption the most important endorsement in the teen community: the cache of cool. Written by a former Minnesota stripper, Diablo Cody, the movie chronicles the pregnancy of a whip-smart 16-year-old girl who becomes pregnant after her first time.
The title character, Juno, played brilliantly by Ellen Page (who is sure to be something of a cult hero among teenage girls who’d love to have that lashing tongue and devastatingly funny dialogue) thinks first of having an abortion.
“Hi, I’m calling to procure a hasty abortion,” Juno says as she makes her first inquiry over the phone.
But a classmate who is a lone protester outside of the women’s clinic persuades Juno that the living being in her womb is just that by telling her about a child’s congenital fingernail development.
So Juno decides to put her child up for adoption.
And what I loved about the character was her clarity with this, an understanding of something most people miss in most things in life: you can’t have it both ways.
She wanted no visitation, no future with the child. She was going to give the baby his greatest gift — life — and then leave the parents and child to be. No tearful “Oprah” reunions. No double-deckering the poor kid with a confusing parental structure. None of the sideshows that make adoption look ridiculous, full of future drama for the biological mother. None of the deterring factors that make abortion seem like the clean-break, fast-break solution. She just wants to make the right choice and move on with her life, allowing her baby to do the same.
“Can’t we just like kick this old school?” Juno says. “You know, like I stick the baby in a basket, send it your way, like Moses and the reeds?”
We can only hope that this smart movie gives more of our young people that Biblical wisdom.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter