Family Connections

I saw a picture in the paper today. People sitting a courtroom, looking much friendlier than they typically do at a trial or jury selection day. The bench is piled with teddy bears and other cuddly critters. In the foreground, a man hugs a little girl while his wife, decked out in a corsage, wipes away tears. The caption says this girl, age 5, was one of 25 local kids who got a new “forever family” on Adoption Day.

A note under the caption directed me to more photos on the website. I found more photos of the little girl with her new parents, and photos of another couple who adopted three boys to add to the three kids they already had. It was a happy occasion all around. Each adopted child got a stuffed animal to take home, and a necklace or bracelet engraved with his or her new name.

Papers, Please!

For the past week, Texas has been on fire. At least 1,400 families have lost their homes and pretty much everything they owned. Some of those are people I know. And the fires are still burning.

As I sit here wondering what I can do to help those friends and co-workers, I find myself fretting about important documents they may have lost. Thirty years ago, that would have been way down my list of concerns. But in this polarized, post-9/11 America, it seems you can hardly do anything without a document that verifies your right to exist.

Taxing Questions

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything in this space. Not because I had nothing to say. I just didn’t know where to start.

I still don’t, really. But today, I’ll start with taxes. We’ve heard a lot about them in recent weeks. Federal, state and local governments are strapped for cash. They’ve been slashing budgets with a vengeance. Liberal/progressive types think we could stand to raise some taxes -- especially on wealthier Americans, who, they say, are not paying anywhere near their fair share. Conservatives just want to cut.

As a taxpaying American, I wanted to find out where I stand in this equation. So I did a little exercise this week. I dug out all the paperwork I could find and added up the taxes my household paid in 2010. It came to 26.27% of our total pre-tax income. Just over a quarter of each dollar we made went to taxes.

Pro-choice in the 21st Century

Back on the subject of abortion, I appreciate this op-ed that appeared last week in the Washington Post. Written by the former president of Catholics for Choice. Like I said a few weeks ago, a lot of us fall somewhere between the extremes on this issue.

Anchor Babies in Arizona

Sometimes when I feel a great need to write about a burning issue of the day, and I'm still thrashing about for the words that will best express my thoughts, I open up my morning paper and find that Leonard Pitts has nailed it.

Today's bull's-eye was on immigration. So I'll just hush and give you a link to Leonard's column.

My Opinion on Abortion

It’s complicated.

I don’t think abortion is a good thing. I can’t imagine, really, that anyone would. About the best thing I can say about it is that under certain conditions, it may be a lesser evil.

I know there are plenty of Americans who would disagree with that. Who think nothing could be more evil than terminating an unwanted pregnancy. Some of those people are my friends and relatives.

I take back what I said at the beginning of this post. Actually, I can state my opinion in very simple terms:

In a perfect world, there wouldn't be any unwanted pregnancies.

...and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

The Mentally Ill Among Us

Okay, maybe it isn’t fair to blame the Tucson shootings on Sarah Palin’s cross-hairs map.  Or the weapons-and-combat imagery in the campaign ads of Jesse Kelly, who tried to unseat Gabrielle Giffords in last year’s Congressional election.

Don’t get me wrong. I deplore the hateful rhetoric, the name-calling, the demonizing of anyone who sees things differently, that dominates our politics today. We could all stand to tone it down. But I’m not sure it would have made a difference in this case.

A Decade Remembered

The 21st Century isn’t a new thing any more. As of today, we’re into its second decade. The first decade swooped in and took off again before we came to any real consensus on what to call it. The Aughties? The Naughties? The Zeroes?

Maybe it’s appropriate that we haven’t come up with a name. It’s been a pretty uncertain decade.