It’s not enough that Scott Simon is glorifying adoption through his new book, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption. Simon, the host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, is now pimping for an adoption agency.
He’s coming to Portland, yes, super liberal Portland, to do a benefit for Journeys of the Heart Adoption Services. His appearance is co-sponsored by Bouneff & Challey, Portland’s oldest adoption law firm, operating under the name Adoptions Northwest. John Challey is one of the co-founders of Oregon’s largest adoption agency, Open Adoption & Family Services. (Bouneff is no longer practicing law).
Journeys of the Heart Adoption Services is Oregon’s second largest adoption agency, marketing both domestic and foreign adoptions. While total non-related infant adoptions in Oregon declined from from 402 in 2008 to 364 in 2009, Journeys increased its adoptions from 18 to 27. Journeys employs the usual seductive advertisements designed to convince young women that their infant would be better off with one of the glamorous couples whose pictures adorn the website than with its own mother.
What’s really appalling about all this is that Simon knows next to nothing about adoption. Simon became a father for the first time at age 50, adopting Elise from China in 2004 and returning to scarf up Lina in 2007.
According to Simon:
“Adoption is a miracle. I don't mean just that it's amazing, terrific, and a wonderful thing to do. I mean that it is, as the dictionary says, "a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of divine agency."Simon wipes out little Elise’s and Lina’s birth families and cultural heritage without a bat of an eye lid. Scott, when you come down to earth, I urge you to read the E. B. Donaldson Adoption Institute report: Beyond Cultural Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption.
"My wife and I, not having had children in the traditional, Abraham-and-Sarah-begat manner, have learned to make jokes about the way we've had our family. ("Pregnant! Why would you do that? Those clothes! And you can't drink for months!") … But we cannot imagine anything more remarkable and marvelous than having a stranger put into your arms who becomes, in minutes, your flesh, your blood: your life.” Scott Simon's Family
Simon is using his NPR connections to publicize his book and his celestial view of adoption. He’s been a guest on Minnesota Public Radio and Terry Gross’ Fresh Air. He's appearing on Think Out Loud, an Oregon public radio show (91.5 FM in Portland) on Monday morning, October 4 at 9:00 PDT. The show will be rebroadcast at 9:00 PM and available as a podcast. Call-in questions at 1-888-665-5865 or post them at on the website. Tell your adoption story at Think Out Loud: Adoption and Adaption.
This is do disturbing. I hope you do not mind that I linked.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda,
ReplyDeleteReaders are always welcome to link FMF.
I find this man very disturbing!Has he no insight or shame?!This is the latest episode in his adoption saga.
ReplyDeleteJust Yecchhhhh! What a disgusting, insulting ass. Aren't you "lucky" he will be in your area, Jane!:-) "Adoption is a miracle". I didn't know miracles were for sale.
ReplyDeleteWe need some Portland bastards & first parents protesting in front of this kool-aid fest.
ReplyDeleteApparently he's speaking at the "Politics and Prose" bookstore in D.C. - their events are often broadcast on C-Span's "Book TV" series so I'm hoping it will be aired. Would be interesting to see if anyone challenges his sophmoric point of view or if they all just ooh and aah.
ReplyDeleteI have a better title for his book: "Adoption, in praise of myself: how an over-the-hill white guy bought an exotic baby from a foreign land and then made oodles of cash parading around the country talking about my awesome self."
BTW, that flesh and blood comment of his is just f#cking delusional.
These quotes are sickening. How nice for Mr. Simon's wife that she did not have to suffer through maternity fashion and abstaining from alcohol for nine months. What a "miracle" that is!
ReplyDeleteI attended Mr. Simon's reading and book signing at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC on October 2. I intended to ask him if he will be willing to dedicate as much time and effort to helping his daughters find their first families if they choose to do so as he and his wife dedicated to securing their adoptions. However, the bookstore owner closed questions after a mere 5 questions (mine would have been question #6)...having opened the q/a by stating that she did not want the conversation to degenerate into an argument about open versus closed records. With that sort of supportive censorship, I fear that Mr. Simon will continue to publicize his one-sided version of adoption.
ReplyDeleteack! While reading the EBD report might be helpful, remember that Simon and the EBD are in the same came.
ReplyDeleteTorrejon:
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the q&a was introduced by saying "she did not want the conversation to degenerate into an argument about open versus closed records" means that at other readings, it had! My guess is that Simon is not getting off "scott" free on this one and while his book is doing well among the adopting class, other voices are being heard and he is asking the book store owners to derail that discussion.
To which I say: You go ladies!
Torrejon,
ReplyDeleteIf you missed the show -- moderator, Emily Harris, asked your question which you had posted. Simon gave a vague answer. Then Harris asked more directly if he wanted to find the girls' birth mothers. "Oh, yes," he said. "I want to thank them!"
Clearly, this is all about himself.
Everyone should listen to the last 15 minutes when simon whats his name is on. It is downright nauseating...adoption is not a trauma...it's a blessing...and many more really frustrating comments about adoptees. I think his kids will be well versed in what is and is not acceptable - to him...
ReplyDelete"Then Harris asked more directly if he wanted to find the girls' birth mothers. "Oh, yes," he said. "I want to thank them!"
ReplyDeleteHow noble of him..."hey ladies, thanks for being trapped in a life of utter despair and desperation such that your only option was to give up your children."
What a douche.
" . . . a work of divine agency".
ReplyDeleteClassic Quaker-speak. Unfortunately sometimes that Inner Light is nothing more than the ignis fatuus of a greedy ego.
Heaven preserve us from the God-struck.
["Then Harris asked more directly if he wanted to find the girls' birth mothers. "Oh, yes," he said. "I want to thank them!"]
ReplyDeleteI -hate- it when people automatically assume mothers who gave up their children would have been abortion-contemplative monsters.
Believe it or not, some women actually didn't consider abortion! *shock*
Very disgusted about how he is pedaling such a heavy and serious topic. Very disgusted at not respecting the importance of his adopted child's culture; a true sign of lack of respect for the birth family. Tree bark has more redeeming value.
ReplyDeleteThose poor kids! Having this self-involved NPR brand liberal for a dad is almost as bad as being adopted into one of those nutso fundamentalist mega-families who collect children because Jeebus told them to.
ReplyDelete