The Birth of a Nation

Tomorrow July 4th marks the 230th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America. Currently the USA is probably hated by more humans on the planet than ever before in its history yet I believe half of them if given the opportunity to live and thrive here would jump at the chance to make a better life for their families.

There was an article published two days ago in the Sunday NY Times City Section titled "World Court: Basketball in Queens" which discusses how outside Russell Sage Junior High School in Forest Hills, Queens you will find kids and adults of all nationalities and backgrounds playing basketball together in informal pick up games. The author discusses how over the decades the nationalities of those playing has changed along with the influx of new immigrants to Queens and to NYC.

On this birthday we celebrate the opportunities made possible by the creation of this nation. Whatever your political views are the concept of this country is an amazing one. In the movie "An American President" the actor Michael Douglass as the US President makes a statement that to live here you must pass Advanced Citizenship.

Now what does this all have to do with DI? To be a DI parent requires an additional specialty degree in parenting. The DI parent needs to process their own feelings and thoughts regarding
DI and to demonstrate through their love for the chid that even if the child indicates they want contact with their biological donor that they, the parents, are there and suport them.

One of the funnier stories about the birth of the colonies into a nation that always makes me laugh is the one that Benjamin Frankling wanted the national bird to be a turkey and he envisioned the birth to be that of a turkey chick natching from the mother egg of England. Now thank heavens John Adams prevailed and we got the eagle. But can you imagine how these men felt wondering if the revolution would success to deliver a baby eagle or that of a turkey. The story is played out beautifully in the play 1776 and the movie version is hysterical.

Where I am going with this is that our children must be made aware that despite what half the world thinks of the United States that this country and the ideals and possibilities created by it's birth are ideals worth celebrating even if we could have ended up with Turkey as our national bird.