June 11, 2009

"Gotcha!"

Gotcha!
© Photographer: Armand | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Word Spy announces a new (ridiculously insensitive) "holiday" called "Gotcha Day"...
n. The anniversary of the day on which a child was adopted. Also: gotcha day.

Example Citations:
They reach out empty arms. Children from another land move into them, and people who waited months or even years for these moments think, "Gotcha!"

That memory inspires many of these parents to informally celebrate "Gotcha Day" — the anniversary of their child's arrival, celebrated much like a second birthday.

But this year, Chicago's Spectrum Press, declared Sept. 15 as the first annual international Gotcha Day celebrating all adoptions, overseas and domestic.
—Sandra Pesmen, "'Gotcha' for good," Chicago Sun-Times, August 29, 2005


*"Gotcha" describes exactly what adoption entails, unfortunately. It implies a possessive "taking" without regard to the life-long effects experienced by that which is "gotten". Adoptees should not be forced to "celebrate" the day they legally lost their original identity, place and family. It is like "celebrating" a funeral, with no respect or regard for normal feelings of grief or loss. It forces adoptees to further disassociate and deny any congruence of emotion, thought, or identity at the expense of a "celebration" for what others have gained. Not a humane idea in the least, in fact, it is abuse. Even adults adopted as children are viewed as perpetual children in the eyes of society and the law, with their right to obtain their original birth certificate withheld indefinately, for them and their children after them. Until adoptee's "best interests" are TRULY upheld in this fiasco called "adoption", I will continue to speak out against such insensitive practices as this.

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