Re: Adopt-A-Steet Program

[Don Coombs <dcoombs@uidaho.edu>]

I think we're missing the key concept here, which is that parents CARE FOR
their adopted childred, and to some extent people who "adopt" sections of
highways care for them, enough to pick up litter.

It's "reaching" to think adopted children will think they are like
highways or streets because of some anti-litter program.

People also adopt customs, some admirable and some not. The word
"adopt" has lots of meanings, many of them having nothing to do with
children, and nothing posted on Vision2020 will change that.

Don H. Coombs

Oh yes: As the publisher of a mushroom magazine, I wish people wouldn't
refer to "mushroom clouds" or say that certain kinds of problems are
"mushrooming."

 On Thu, 27 Jan 2000, Lois Melina wrote:

> Dear visionaries and The City of Moscow,
> 
> Nationally, the adoption community is very much opposed to these "adopt-a"
> programs. The idea of "adopting" a street in Moscow as a way to "clean up
> the litter" is a particularly offensive concept. Imagine the message this
> sends to adopted children who already wonder if they were rejected by their
> biologic families because they weren't good enough, weren't loveable, or
> were too much trouble? If you "adopt" a puppy from the pound and then have
> to give the dog away because your new apartment won't let you have a dog, or
> you have to have it put down because the dog bites someone, the message
> children get is that you are adopted until it isn't convenient or you don't
> behave well.
> 
> As an adult,  I can differentiate between the emotional appeal of these
> kinds of campaigns and the actual adoption of children. Children, however,
> are more concrete.
> ....

> Lois Melina