Babies and controversy
What is it lately with all the baby controversy on television? There’s Nadya Suleman, a single mother who just gave birth to octuplets even though she already has six other children (3 of which have developmental issues). And of course there’s Alfie Patten from London, who recently became a father at the crazy young age of 13. A quick entry into Google can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about both of these stories.
I think people are so shocked at the conditions surrounding the births, that they are almost forgetting about the babies. They didn’t have a say in all of this and are forced to be at the center of it all. In the case of the octuplets, their position seems the most unstable. They will have all the complications of being super premies in addition to being children numbers seven to 14 in an already very stressed family. These kids are going to need the best support system this world has ever known.
Little Maisie, the daughter of Alfie, does have a great support system. But she’s going to grow up knowing that her birth was a nation-wide sensation. And the other kids are not going to let her forget about it. If British society is anything like that in the good old USA, that little girl is in for a rough childhood.
I think that the media needs to focus more on the children and how they can be helped. Sure, the stories are huge. But they’re out now, so it’s time to look at what’s really important for those tiny lives that are at stake. Yes, it’s controversial. Yes, people will be curious as all get out and desperate for more information. But that’s no longer what’s most important. It’s time to think about the kids.
Racial divides? Think again
It’s always seemed curious to me how people refer to races. I’m just about as white as they come without being albino. How does that classify me? And why in the world should I be classified by the fact that I’m white? What the hell does race mean anyway?
Race is a socially constructed idea. There’s actually scientific proof that there are less genetic differences between “races” than there are within a certain “race.” I can only think that the idea of race was placed into our society in order to deem ourselves superior to others. Africans were enslaved for supposedly being inferior. Millions of Jews were slaughtered for supposedly being inferior. There have been genecides and wars over such a silly concept as race.
But race is such a part of our society and our collective thinking that it’s hard to get past. We’ve been raised knowing that there are significant differences between “races” – a false ideal that much of the world still believes. Here at home in the USA, the main difference seems to continually be white versus black. But few people know that since slavery and the interactions between masters and their slaves, our genes have intertwined. Most, if not all, Americans have African American blood running in their veins, even if only a drop or two.
Think about it.
