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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 2001)
)tember 20,2t|-Thursday, September 20, 2001 Page 7EC t of MOTHER NATURE A MOTHER’S NATURE act MMaternal instincts supersede a woman’s age Akin )n in ny eve nee a had abl | camps-. I Democr Sanchez to beat Pi high-prc i the ticket, lout in that li tic voting bloc he had offic lis campaign uch earlier ins over his clr ; relationship. esident ire many factors that come into play and change ir alter their original plans. The desire to be a mother may never go away, just simply be was bede' Relayed. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has stated she lad the desire to be a mother for many years. Lyn; But she has had many other desires, and many whether he eu mher accomplishments that took up her time relationships v, iiong the way. Now at age 58. Hutchison has nates during: idopted a baby girl and is receiving unfair neg- itive feedback from the media for simply ful- ilitical consata filing a normal human desire. Adoption should said Akins strategy by ge Republ i every office aid. that people to do, fill all 3 es. Eliminate f nnocratic Pitt] . Beth Me. ' rats “are ■ong ticket m in 2002 :sman Mike vas not asked rrnor’s race. “I' ecision,” he sac Irom childhood, many women dream of being a mother. The dream may be very specific when girls are young, such as knowing that they would like to get married at 22 years old, have their first child at age 24 and so on. But as women grow older, there for an older couple to adopt a baby, it simply would not be allowed. Alice O'Neil, a Houston lawyer who specializes in adoption, said, “It’s not harder for older couples to adopt.” The Hutchisons are not selfish; they are two parents wanting a child to love. Their situation is not different from many families, except the media is exploiting them. The new parents Senator is too old to begin raising a small child T here is nothing more I interest of that child. Their desire to have a noble than to lovingly I || baby should not take precedent over the best raise a child in a family. I * welfare for the child. T here is nothing more noble than to lovingly raise a child in a family. Part of loving that baby is to place its needs above your own wants, desires and needs. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is a senator and a TOM CAMPBELL r* ar '* v iave only one focus: finding a good home for a child who needs one. Hutchison’s child is not ;ratic Party, v.Bust in a good home, she is in a wonderful shut out of i ionic where her parents love her dearly and Tices. The pi' will do everything in their power to raise her ield of candidi: he best they can. The concern is that Hutchison is 58 years Id, and her husband. Kay Hutchison, is 68. The ages of these parents are indeed a worthy con- ern. No one wants to see a child lose his or nd and chw-*1^ P arents at a y° u ng age, but realistically this hild could be 20 years old before either parent ffort by pam dies of old age. Aside from age, the chances of aid. “That's i ^ er parents dying are just as great for Kathryn Bailey Hutchison (to be called Bailey) as they ire for any other 4-month-old child. It must be stressed that the Hutchisons are two well-educated people who have given a great deal of thought to the effect their age will have on their daughter. If Hutchison need- d any credentials, she has worked specifically ith adoption issues as a member of the ongressional Coalition of Adoption, ccording to an article from The New York imes, of the 162 members of this coalition, at least 15 have adopted children. 1 " The Hutchisons are not alone in this adop- ion. They adopted Bailey through a licensed idoption agency, a legal and safe method of fedoption for everyone involved and a process lhat is becoming more popular. In addition, Ihe age problem is not that uncommon. Julie Mason of the the Houston Chronicle f tj ftaid, “Later-life adoptions are becoming more J g I frequent [according to experts] as women put areers or struggle with fertility issues for years —jefore deciding to raise children.” Wg | Finally, adoption is not an easy process, f M ^0 BThere are waiting periods and a great deal of paperwork involved, and sometimes a tempo- ary placement of the child is required before he adoption is final. Adoption agencies are gen- rally extremely careful and take great care for he well-being of the child. If it was detrimental a a a AMEY BHAN •THE BATTALION! akes filial >hip p.m. litchell described Bailey as “beautiful beyond belief, except for a few occasions at 3:30 a.m.” Her parents will be with her in the middle of the night when she cries, and they will be there for many years loving and providing for her. Bailey Hutchison has not been mistreated or had her best interests overlooked. She is a very lucky little girl. Melissa Bedsole is a senior psychology major. lawyer, and has held many elected offices, including Texas State Treasurer. She has accomplished all of this, earning many awards on the way, but did so at the expense of her dream of having a child. Sen. Hutchison and her husband, Ray, have recently adopted a baby girl to fulfill that desire. Unfortunately at their ages, 58 and 68 respectively, raising a baby is not in the best interest of that child. Their desire to have a baby should not take precedent over the best welfare for the child. People in their retirement years do not have the energy that they did when they are young. It is difficult enough to see a 25-year- old woman struggle through midnight feed ings required by a newborn, let alone a woman who is 58 years old. A 70-year-old should be watching the grandkids every now and then, not caring for a child full time. Because caring for a newborn child is diffi cult and requires a lot of energy, adopt.org states that the acceptable range of ages for parents wanting to adopt is 25 to 50. This is not to purposely exclude anyone, but only to maintain the best welfare of the child. Ray Hutchison is a partner at the law firm Vinson and Elkins in Dallas, and Sen. Hutchison is a member of the Senate, sitting on four committees. Both of these jobs can be very difficult and taxing physically. Having two parents who spend much of their time in different cities with separate full-time jobs is not in the best interest of any baby. All children need loving parents, and every child who does is lucky. No doubt that the Hutchisons could give that love to a new baby. The problem is that thousands of other couples are already waiting to adopt. The wait to adopt a newborn baby is about seven years, according to the Website adopt.org. For every baby given for adoption, there are often six or seven couples wanting to adopt that child. All couples on this seven-year waiting list go through an extensive home study and a series of meetings with social workers. The Hutchisons bypassed this and adopted direct ly from the baby’s birth mother. A better alternative for the Hutchisons would be to become foster parents or to adopt an older child. By adopting an older child, the Hutchisons would still have a young person to share their love and to nurture, but their age would not be as detrimental of a factor. According to the Adoption Institute, there are over 117,000 children over the age of one that are waiting to be adopted. The average time they wait to be adopted is 46 months. The Hutchisons do not even meet the age requirements, which are there to help provide the baby with the best possible situation. 11 the Hutchisons truly feel the need to share their love with a child, they should pick one of the 1 17,000 that are waiting for a home. The child’s best interest involves many things, and one of them is having a parent that has the time and energy to keep up with them. As the Hutchisons reach their 60s and 70s while working long hours in stressful jobs, they may not be able to give that to the child. Tom Campbell is a senior agriculturaljournalism major. Cartoon indecent of the Day was : REE HAUS g Center) in • • • tember! i FREE Load |§n response to the Sept. 14 Cartoon of the Way "Commercial Aviation for Terrorists:” \ We are highly upset and disappointed that you chose to print the illustration. We often wonder about the material in The Battalion, but this cartoon crossed the line. We have lost faith in you and your staffs ability to cover the news. Because of that, we will no longer read The Battalion. Steven Hatcher Class of 2002 MAIL CALL Just fly the flag In response to the Sept. 18 mailcall "Show respect for the flag:” I agree with you that the flag should be dis played properly, but I feel as if you are miss ing the point in this new-found patriotism. In our country's time of mourning, it seems rather petty to be so concerned with how the flag is being displayed. To this date last year, a nationwide business recorded selling 10,000 American flags. Last week alone that same business sold more than 200,000 flags. That alone speaks volumes for the patriot ism and unity spreading over our great nation in the aftermath of its greatest tragedy. The flag is a symbol of unity, and to be concerned with the way it is displayed at a time like this only jeopordizes the overall importance of it being displayed. A person's ignorance of how the flag should be flown does not make them any less of a patriot. Rather than attacking this ignorance it would be nobler of you to attempt to educate them on the subject. It is better to fly the flag improperly than to not fly the flag at all. Todd Wolford Class of 2003 Bikes need to stay off sidewalks, in bike lanes Recently, I have seen more and more bikes on the sidewalks. Bike lanes are made for bicycles and sidewalks are made for pedestrians who are walking or in a wheelchair. If sidewalks were made for bicycles, they would be called bike walks or some thing. If the University is going to issue citations to pedestrians who cross the intersections with no walk signal, than I think they should issue citations to the bicycle riders who ride their bicycles on v the sidewalks. \ Some side walks on campus are excep-; tional, especially those in the middle of! campus, but for those sidewalks that| have a bike lane that runs right beside it? there should be no exceptions. It aggravates me when I have to movej over on a sidewalk because a bicycle is* either coming towards me or coming! from behind me. So to PTTS, I hope that you will consider this and act upon the> cyclists who ride on the sidewalks where! there is a bike lane running parallel to! the sidewalk. Mark Woelfeb, Class of 2001[ i • The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author’s name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters also may be mailed to: The Battalion — Mail Call 014 Reed McDonald • MS 1111 Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (979) 845-2647 Mail Call: mailcall@thebatt.com Email: opinion@thebatt.com Submissions made to old hotmail.com accounts will not be published. Attachments are not accepted.