Last week, I published a letter from a man who adopted two kids from Guatemala: Rebekah, a Mayan Indian, and Isaac, a mestizo. The father himself is “a Jewish kid from Chicago” with ancestors from Lithuania and the Ukraine. He wrote,
“It took me two years and $40K to adopt my two kids . . . I am pleased with Arizona’s new law. We have borders that need to be enforced, and I dislike line-jumpers.” And “anyone who wants to call me a racist can kiss my Hairy Hebraic Hinder.”
Well, this occasioned a fair amount of response. A man wrote,
“Just wanted to second what your letter-writer said. Both my kids were adopted from Korea at considerable expense and after jumping through flaming hoops to ‘qualify.’ There are multiple ‘persons of color’ in various branches of my family, including black and Hispanic. No racism here, thank you. And I fully agree with the Arizona immigration law: You wanna come to America? Super, we welcome you, but first get in line.”
I had been charmed by the thought of a Mayan named Rebekah and a mestizo named Isaac. A reader wrote,
“Here’s a couple of more names you might enjoy for foreign adopted kids — Gabriel and Levi for two young Chinese boys. Those were the ‘American’ names given to them by the orphanages. We liked them so much that we kept them as their legal names. (Although the youngest one’s Chinese name is too good to resist when he’s in trouble: Dang You Guan.)”
Loved that. The reader continued, “I’m neither Jewish nor religious, so anyone who calls me a racist can kiss my Hairy Heathen Hinder.”
Not all reaction was positive. Responding to the father of Rebekah and Isaac, a reader wrote,
“Check back with him in a few years when they’re cuffed in a holding cell with drunks and meth-heads because they left their papers at home.”
And then he let loose with more sarcasm. There are some people who think that the new law is really anti-human. They have genuine concerns about those affected. And there are some people who oppose the law simply because they deem it “Republican” or un-PC. At least that is my impression.
These are interesting, swirling times in America. Aren’t they all? Yes, but some times are more so than others, I think.