European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 11, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday december 11, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes of age 13matching blocks kids from at first it sounds like a scene out of the old South or the old South Africa. People Are assigned at birth to one racial Community or another. Those called Black Are doomed to wait endlessly until a opening comes up in their separate world while places among the Whites go wanting. But Inis time we Are not talking about schools or jobs or seats on a bus. We Are talking about another valuable resource families. We Are talking about Black or nixed race children Avo need parents and White adults who want to adopt them. What keeps Many children and parents apart is not the old time segregation created by Whites no oppose racial mixing. Its the newfangled Segre a Ellen Goodman Tion now supported by a Small but powerful group of Black americans who support Quot racial the concept of Quot Matching parents and children came from the Days when adoption carried a stigma and was often kept a secret. Parents wanted children who looked As much like them As possible a red haired or Blond italian or English. In the Early 20th Century Legal adoption occurred largely in the White world and trans racial adoption was As rare As an Integrationist at a Dixie rat convention. It Wasny to until the civil rights movement in the �?T50s and �?T60s that White parents began adopting children of color. But suddenly in 1972, the old policy of Matching found a new source of support. The National association of Black social workers began to Call trans racial adoption a Quot particular form of since then the nabs has said a Black children should not be placed with White parents under any need they and a few others have argued that its better for Black children to be in Foster care or institutions than with White parents. Well be care nil what you wish for. Today about 40 percent of the half million children in Foster care Are Black. Out of 22,000 babies abandoned in hospitals 74 percent Are Black. Tens of thousands of these children Are waiting for adoption and the median length of time they wait is nearly three years. V. The Black Community has made efforts that Are nothing Short of heroic to care for the children and the grandchildren who lose parents to drugs aids and the Side effects of poverty. But Black americans Are Only 12.5 percent of the population. The numbers simply done to �?omatch.�?�. So this year in some belated recognition that the Matching that matters most in a child a life is with a family Ohio a sen. Howard m. Metzenbaum sponsored the Multi ethnic placement act. It was designed do eliminate the racial and ethnic Bias that can keep children in a Foster care limbo. But a funny thing happened to this Bill on the Way through a Senate committee. It ran into the opponents of trans racial adoption. The original Bill said agencies should not delay placement of children in order to match them. The Compromise version of the Bill says they should t Quot unduly delay placement. The original Bill said a trans racial placement is better than Long term Foster care. The Compromise says that adoption Quot May be or implicitly May not be a preferable alternative. What a difference a few words makes. A move that promised change instead authorizes and legitimizes the very racial Matching that would keep Foster children in place. Its not hard to understand the visceral reaction of some african americans to trans racial adoption. Some hear echoes of slave Days when Black children were bought and sold by White families. Others share anger about policies that help break up Black families and now would award the offspring to White folks. Still others genuinely worry about a Black child a struggle for identity in a trans racial family in a still racist world. All things being equal Given two sets of available parents one White one stack i would agree to place children with parents of the same race. But All things Are not always equal. Randall Kennedy an african american and Harvard Law professor argues against the notion that Black children Quot belong to the Black Community and arc Quot lost when adopted by Whites. He Calls this thinking an example of both Quot naked racialism and Quot the impulse to View children As there is something equally sorry in the idea that we would allow children to languish in Foster Homes for months or years in order to protect and respect racial identity. Harming Black children to a a save the Black Community is like destroying a Village to save it. If children belong anywhere they belong in a family. If children need a sense of identity they get it first of All and Best of All As a son or a daughter. C Tbs Boston Dob what comes after peace asks old Warrior Park Ridge n j. A Quot there a a Storjo behind every one of those ornaments a said Richard Nixon looking More robust than he has in years showing me the Christmas tree in his Home. Lest sentiment intrude he quickly turned to the purpose of my annual visit a review parts on the record of what a ahead. Stacked on his desk is the manuscript of his latest Book. On the 20th of next month the 25th anniversary of his first inaugural address the 37th president who will then be 81, will bring out beyond peace. The theme of this 150-pager a Likely to be his eighth nonfiction Best seller a is Quot after peace Breaks out we usually have periods of stagnation we must find challenges As stimulating As in his nonpartisan years has not lurched leftward Quot when the rest of the world is turning away from big government we be turning toward it. The problem with a reinventing government is that they want government to be doing better the things that government be doing in the first place. He Hopes that president Clinton keeps his centrist Naftal coalition together dropping the Mcgovern the left Over the Side. But do voters really care about foreign economic policy that a not the Point Quot the Public a interest in Naftal was not in the Issue but in the though the Battlefield on which Clinton feels most at Home is Domestic affairs Nixon a the old Moscow sum Mither a thinks this president should not hesitate at next months Moscow Summit to share with russian president Boris n. Yeltsin what he has recently Learned in the Naftal fight. A Clinton could give Yeltsin Good counsel Quot says Nixon a Rqn How to Deal within a multiparty system. Its the kind of hard earned advice that Yeltsin can use can we help relieve the tension building Between Russia and Ukraine a your line to Ukraine should not be to Deal with them just because they have nuclear weapons but because they have 55 million people and you done to want a William Safire rogue he a High on Ukraine a Leonid m. Kravchuk and thinks the United states could be a broker in the delicate nuclear disarmament. Nixon has urged Yeltsin to press ahead on privatization. Quot to paraphrase Churchill the free Market is the worst economic system except for All the others. But the Centra question in Russia is can democratic capitalism provide Progress better than communist capitalism the kind they have in China Quot he gave me a mock suspicious look. A we rent to you the one who put me up to saying a we Are All keynesian now Well we Are All capitalists now. If democratic capitalism fails in Russia that will be water on China a that a Why we should encourage Reform a movement greater than individual reformers in Russia. What about India a democratic nation where capitalism is lagging a India which will be More populous than China in the next Century must ask itself this question can democratic socialism compete with communist capitalism Quot to pose the question is to answer it a Only capitalism however modified can compete with capitalism a but 1 had never heard it posed before. Nixon is too much the pragmatist on China preferring quiet diplomacy and Bonds of Trade to Public pressure on human rights Quot economic Freedom will open up any closed but his newer theme is Quot there Isnit any third world anymore. Only two worlds Rich and poor. Wealth divides China East and West Europe the North and South on 1iot-Button issues at Home he remains progressive. Abortion Quot the state should stay out Don t subsidize and Don t gun control to go further than the Brady Bill. Guns Are an from this i deduce he is not running in�?T96. On to violence Quot Hollywood thinks America is sick a. Hunh they re the sick he a against the balanced budget amendment a a a meat a when you need a stiletto but it la probably pass a and in favor of term limits Quot incumbents have asked for assessments of the Clinton presidency and the Republican Field As Well As his views on initiatives on health education and welfare await appearances at publication Lime. For now its inspiring to see the old Warrior using every minute As a Golden Bullet staying Well by staying productive a never never quitting. Cd the no York times a
