The Girls Who Went Away

IP is over the quota
IP is over the quota

I just finished reading Ann Fessler's The Girls Who Went Away. Her book is about women who placed children for adoption post-WW II up until the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973. She traveled the country interviewing, meeting and recording their stories. For many, that interview marked the first time they had ever revealed their adoption experience.

As a counselor and birthmother, I have spoken both publicly and privately on this topic for the past 10 years. It never ceases to amaze me that when you throw out the word "adoption" in a room, you can just see the ripples. While dealing with the aftereffects of my own adoption in 1987, I had no idea how bad it had been for so many women. The stories Ms. Fessler included were astonishing.

Out of all the stories and research, I think the thing that struck me the most was the shame of it all. My parents claimed they loved me, yet when it came to such a pivotal time in my life and my development and my health, they rejected me. For so long the line "this is what's best for you" made me question if it wasn't the best thing for them.

It was the same for the women in the book. They were just sent away to deliver, then expected to resume life as normal, as if nothing ever happened.

Though decades later, that was my experience. When I came home, my family moved across the country, bought a business and got on with life. And while I understand that 'getting on with life' means getting up every day and putting one foot in front of the other, I was given no room to grieve, no place to deal with my loss and allowed no words to try and tell what was going on inside of me. I was not allowed to talk about it. And it wasn't until five years later that I finally did.

But when I did finally start talking about my experience and all the thoughts and feelings surrounding it, I couldn't stop. The only way I've been able to get through the loss and grief and all of it is through talking and sharing and writing and speaking. To be silenced by the shame must be awful!

I think my mom would be more comfortable if I would stop talking, to be honest. I love her and we have spent many years building our relationship, but this is a subject we just don't talk about. It's kind of awkward for me since this is what I speak about, write about and can't shut up about.

I applaud Ms. Fessler's efforts in making the effort to tell so many women's stories. Her time and listening ear have relieved those women of carrying that burden alone like they have done for decades.

Birthmother and family therapist Terri Gake's book, Heart of a Birthmom, was released earlier this year. She has been speaking on her own unplanned pregnancy and adoption experience for 10 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in marriage and family therapy. Ms. Gake's experience includes both staff and volunteer positions at two local pregnancy resource centers as well as her home church. Her past positions include live-in houseparent, development staff, client advocate, board member, Bridges team member and Director of Client Care.

Her professional experience also includes in-home therapy with children and families, crisis counseling, counseling with families involved with social services and an internship in drug and alcohol counseling.

Connect with Terri on Facebook, BirthMom Buds or http://TerriGake.com/.

Book Review: Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway

IP is over the quota
IP is over the quota

The irony about the science of global warming is that there is a broad consensus of opinion amongst scientists that it is happening, that it is an empirically proven fact. Yet the population at large thinks that controversy still rages in the scientific community as to whether the climate is changing as a direct result of humans pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Merchants of Doubt, by science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, seeks to explain how the science on major issues like acid rain, tobacco smoke, holes in the ozone and the dangers of DTT, has been distorted once it leaves the science academies and is regurgitated in mainstream media.

The most instructive aspect of Merchants of Doubt is the long historical perspective the book gives, demonstrating a pattern of information distortion and manipulation by a small group of the ideologically driven. In the scientific controversies that Oreskes and Conway cover, such as the deleterious effects of second hand cigarette smoke on human health and the holes in the ozone caused by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the authors show how complex and highly nuanced science can be picked apart and virtually re-written to sow major doubts in the public's mind.

How Science is Rigorously Tested by Peer Review

Importantly, Merchants of Doubt offers a crash course in the scientific process. Oreskes and Conway show that science is very much a collaborative effort, with a lot doubts and caveats built into the process. The information and conclusions drawn from scientific reports and papers generally lean to the conservative side. Rigorous checks and balances are built into the system of peer review. Any scientist wanting to submit their work for publication to an established journal must have their paper reviewed by a panel of scientists, disciplined in the area of study. During this peer review process errors are picked up, comments are made, ideas and theories are challenged. Science is therefore not opinion, but proven by critical testing.

All of the scientific 'controversies' that are described in Merchants of Doubt were subjected to this rigorous process. Yet all of the science we now take for granted, like the links between cigarette smoke and cancer, were hotly contested even after they had been established by a process of peer review. How did this happen, when the science on things like global warming and acid rain had a clear scientific consensus?

Cold War Warriors Confuse the Science

Now here's the bit that will confuse even further. A small group of scientists worked against the peer reviewed science to try and sow doubt and confusion in the public's mind. Why would a scientist do that? For the most part, this group of wrecker scientists were physicists who'd done most of their work during the cold war era, being heavily involved in the development of nuclear war technology. They saw the lean towards any sort of environmentalism as a slippery slope to Socialism and Communism.

In a larger sense, the argument between these cold war physicists and the peer reviewed science on such environmental problems as global warming and acid rain, was one about money and power. They saw the environment as a cash cow that could be exploited ad infinitum, with no deleterious effects. At a nationalistic level, they wanted this large slice of the environmental pie for America, to maintain economic power. The peer reviewed science, however, showed that by pumping so many pollutants into the environment, that damage was being done. This put the American economic model under question.

The cold war physicists were dishonest in trying to cloud over the truth of the peer reviewed science, and the world is much the worse for it. If the peer reviewed science, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has settled the question of climate change, then any delay in taking action is madness. If the IPCC claims that on balance, the science is 90 per cent certain that global warming is under way, then surely taking action constitutes a prudent insurance policy against disaster that is highly likely.

With its long historical perspective and stunning detail, Merchants of Doubt demonstrates in clear and accessible language for the lay reader how mass confusion and obfuscation has been created by a small group of determined cold war ideologues. For those seeking clarity over the scientific debates of the past fifty years or so, then Merchants of Doubt is the book to clear away the confusion that today's debates create.

Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Published by Bloomsbury Press. ISBN: 978-1-596-91-610-4

Chris Saliba is a book reviewer from Melbourne, Australia.

His other book reviews can be read at: http://chrissalibabookreviews.blogspot.com/