Be Positive!

One of the cultural beliefs of the department that I work in is titled "Be Positive." It goes on to say, "I contribute to a positive and optimistic work environment."

An article in Saturday's LDS Church News (see here, subscription and login required) made me think about this cultural belief in relation to my blog posts. Am I truly contributing to a positive on-line environment? The article says, "In this society, with its newfound high tech forms of media, there seems to be a new license to blast away at will, especially anonymously. Certainly authors of angry comments on the Internet can't be as hateful as they sound. Can they? Or are they more childish than children?"

I'm going to try and take this issue to heart and be more positive in my posts. A wise rabbit once said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."

Texas Governor defends Boy Scouts of America

The Washington Post posted an Associated Press article (see here) talking about Texas Governor Rick Perry's new book, "On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For." The article describes Gov. Perry's feelings about the ACLU attacking the Boy Scouts of America. It quotes him as saying of gays he knows, "I believe in valuing their lives like any other, as our God in Heaven does," but, he says discussion of sex has no place in scouting. I couldn't agree more. I guess I have a book to add to my wish list.

Adoptees Lose Again

The Utah House of Representatives voted down HB289 today. I have posted some of my feelings on this bill before. I want to make it clear that this bill will not affect me at all as I have already found out identifying information regarding my birth parents. I listened to the floor debate regarding this bill. The vote was close with 35 representatives voting for the bill and 36 representatives voting against the bill. During the floor debate, Representative McGee noted that the position of LDS Family Services was against this bill. I found it very interesting that Representative McGee would point this out and I'm sure that this had an affect on this bill failing. Representative Janice Fisher spoke in opposition to the bill saying it would be devastating to have someone knock on the door 30 years after making "the terrible decision" to "give up" a child. This speaks volumes to me as it shows that Representative Fisher has not been involved in a adoption case because if she had, she would not have used the terms that she did. Several representatives spoke in favor of the bill pointing out that adoptees have the innate desire to know what the circumstances are surrounding their birth. I would like to publicly thank my representative, Representative Barrus, for voting for this bill.

I'd like to express some additional feelings about adoption and about this bill. There are many reasons why adoptees want to know who their birth-parents are. Some of them are for health history. Others are just wanting to know what the circumstances were surrounding their birth. I love my parents. They are the ones who raised me. They are the ones who taught me the things that I know today. Nothing could change the way I feel about them. Having said that, there were still some questions that they couldn't answer. They couldn't tell me if certain health issues were in my genes. They couldn't tell me why I was placed for adoption. These are questions that I wanted answers to. The only way these questions could be answered was by contacting my birth-family. I believe that any adoptee would have told their state representative to vote for this bill.

Where's the backlash?

It's President's Day, and I haven't read a single article about how the Utah State Legislature should not be meeting today. When the legislative session began on 21 Jan 2008, there were several articles about people saying that the legislature shouldn't meet on Martin Luther King Day. So where is the same clamor for not meeting on President's Day? Was MLK really better than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others?

Here comes 80 MPH?

HB406 is making it's way through the legislative process. This bill would allow the Utah Department of Transportation to increase speed limits above 75 MPH in certain circumstances. I can think of some great candidate areas on the interstates in Utah. The drive on I-80 west of Tooele would be a great place to increase the speed limit. I think this bill has some well thought out scenarios which would make raising the speed limit acceptable.