Leave them kids alone!

I'm an adopted child. Big deal. It means I don't share DNA with the rest of my family. That family has a long and proud history in America, and I thank God every day that I am a part of it.

Adoption is about the second-most intimate thing in the life, structure, and values of a family. Outside of the knowledge of the parents, and the sealed records of the legal procedure of adoption, it's nobody's damn business about the origin of the child. A life was created, it has a value assigned by both God and man, and it is permitted to go forth and flourish as it sees fit.

I had two loving parents. They weren't my "birth parents" who made the DNA milkshake, but they were kind, patient folks who did their best to raise me into a functional human-type being. Their love for me was as unconditional as if they'd done the sweaty, painful process of bringing my life forth.

I never pursued the identity of my "birth parents" beyond ascertaining that by the time I was adopted at three days of age, they were both deceased. The intimacy of adoption was an issue that consumed my parents' attention far more than mine. They loved me, and as a newborn I could've been tossed into a dumpster, as today's values dictate as the solution for unwanted children.

This all comes to mind today, as the New York Times, the official party publication of the Obstructionists, seeks to unseal the records of the adoption of one or both of the Roberts children. Those People are reaching a new low in behavior. Judge Roberts, nominated for a postion on the Supreme Court of the United States, is subject to examination of his curriculum vitae as a jurist. In their lust to oppose anything President Bush might want to do, the Obstructionists are looking for...what, exactly? Judge Roberts is a "safe" nominee for the high court; he's a precursor for the walk-down gunfight that will break out when Chief Justice Rhenquist retires, as he surely must.

The fact of my adoption caused me far less emotional trauma than my parents' conflict over telling me the truth of my origin. My concern here is for the Roberts children. They are doubtless the objects of the same unconditional love that my adoptive parents lavished upon me. That these children will be made to suffer because of some misguided political partisanship is unforgivable. While there are experts like Bob Beckel, Susan Estrogen, and countless others who are all too willing to explain away the behavior of Those People, can they wax honest for a moment and explain the relevance between the adoption procedure and Judge Roberts' qualifications for SCOTUS? I thought not.

Quoting the shout from Pink Floyd's "The Wall": "Hey, mister, leave them kids alone!"

Attack Judge Roberts on his record as a jurist all you want. It'll take the American people five minutes more to figure out the Obstructionist agenda, but at least it's coloring between the lines. Involving the gentleman's children, and what they may or may not know, is beyond the pale.