Wrong is Wrong, whatever the reason!

       This infuriates me! The law by which this child is being taken from her foster parents of four years was meant to prevent the barbaric and too common practice, which existed some decades ago, of taking American Indian children from their homes simply as a source of adoptive and adoptable children for childless white couples. The assumption, and rationale, racist and misguided beyond belief, was that the child would be better off for having been "raised white." 

     This case bears little or no resemblance to that grossly misguided intent. This child was taken from her addict and felon mother at the age of two and the only stable family she has ever known has been the Page family, who, for two years have been trying to adopt her. Both parents have long since given up custodial rights and all parental rights, so who's taking Lexi?

                        Lexi with foster father and would be adopter Rusty Page and his wife (green shirt)

       The Choctaw Indian nation, citing a 1978 law which was aimed at protecting Indian children from having their heritage and stability ripped from them by cross culture adoption, has decided that because Lexi's biological father (who gave her away, remember?) is 1/64 Choctaw, Lexi is Indian. Although the only stable life and culture she has ever known has been provided by the Pages, who love her, the Choctaw Nation ABC News in an earlier statement that they want what is "the best for this Choctaw child." "The tribe's values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us," the statement added. "Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child."

      At this point allow me to interject that this point of view was exactly the reason cited by Indian activists in opposing sending Indian children East to "Indian schools" like that at Carlisle PA, where they were forced to abandon their cultural norms and become "good little white children" , even to the point of being punished for speaking to each other in their native languages. This however, is analogous to what the Choctaw nation is proposing to do in the case of Lexi!  "Lexi doesn't know another home," Rusty Page says. "She finally knows what mom and dad means and they want to take that away from her."

     Wrong is wrong, political correctness notwithstanding, and this is not political correctness anyway, as the law is being misapplied. If being 1/64 of any ethnic group makes you a member of said culture, then I'm Greek, because a distant relative 20 generations back left Greece and migrated to Germany around 500 years ago. All the intervening German, Scottish, English, etc infusion means nothing, at least it wouldn't to the Choctaw Nation, who in fact are also transplants, having been uprooted by Andrew Jackson's unconstitutional Indian Removal Act and relocated from Mississippi and Tennessee (both Indian words!) to Oklahoma. 

     One might think that having been forcibly removed from their cultural roots in 1830 would have inculcated a sense of understanding of the hardships represented by such actions, but apparently that isn't the case. Shame on the Choctaw nation and shame on the state of California for ignoring what is best for this child.