I was just waiting for Anderson to return to his old haunts of pre-recorded ? news ? segments before I commented any further and true to form, this night he not only returned to a completely pre-recorded and safe propaganda initative he justified it with an emmy for the underground sales of fertility drugs.
That Anderson is an expose' and NOT the news. So, get it right.
Sanchez had an interesting survival segment on this Thursday.
The rest of the show was a rerun of the segment on fertility issues. The expose' was to do more than expose people to the reality of the 'underground' but it was to illustrate the high cost of overcoming infertility and the extent people will go to have a baby of their own.
On Wednesday, an admirable segment on Mary Cheney and her pregnancy and the fact there is deep seated hatred of variance of sexual identity by the Religious Right, an extremist element in the American Landscape. No there were no words as graphic as that during this segment, we all know how a poorly accepted WORD will come to rule the entire point of view regardless the merit. But, there was a very important focus that was revealed:
COOPER: Well, as Mary Snow pointed out, conservatives and gay rights advocates are already weighing in on Mary Cheney's pregnancy. Up next, the possible political ramifications. We'll hear from two more sides to the debate. And a tragic end to the search for a missing father in Oregon. What happened to James Kim? When this special edition of 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A live picture from our nation's capitol. As we told you before the break, Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, is expecting her first child. Joining me now for reaction on the announcement from Seattle is Dan Savage, syndicated columnist. And from Washington, Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LeHay Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America. Appreciate both of you being on.Janice, let me start with you. You described this pregnancy as wrong and even unconscionable. Why?
JANICE CROUSE, SENIOR FELLOW, BEVERLY LEHAY INSTITUTE: Well, it's not really about Mary Cheney. It's about the baby that's going to be born without a father. We have in this country right now a real tragedy that one third and more of our children are being born without a father in the family. This has ramifications that are disastrous for those children. You know, so many people talk about doing this, that or the other for the children of this country. Well, the best thing you can do for a child today is to marry the father and have a family.
COOPER: But isn't this...
CROUSE: That would be the best arrangement for that child to grow up with, the best environment.
COOPER: Others would say, look, the most important thing is for a baby to be brought up in a loving home with two parents and sets of grandparents and that's what this baby will have.
CROUSE: That flies in the face of all the experts who say from the left and the right, Anderson, they agree totally on this that the best family for a child is a married couple, mother and father.
COOPER: Let me bring in Dan. Dan, what do you think?
DAN SAVAGE, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: The studies that she's citing, many of which have been debunked show that the best case, the best thing for a child, is to have two parents in the home. A lot of the studies have shown the negative impact of there being a single parent family are children who have experienced divorce where usually the father who's gone. So the studies measure the impact of the missing parent, which is typically in our culture the father. But what we're really measuring in the studies is the impact of having just one parent. All the studies of gay and lesbian families, families headed by gay and lesbian couples, have shown that children are just as healthy, just as well cared for, just as likely to identify as heterosexuals, or lesbian and gay, when they grow up. And just the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Child-Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, all these groups and more, who are primarily concerned with the welfare of children, have signed off and approved of and endorsed the rights of gay and lesbian couples to start their own families.
CROUSE: Anderson, those are...
SAVAGE: Because we are good parents, and our families are fit.
COOPER: Janice?
CROUSE: Anderson, those are political statements. What you have are scientific studies by the Urban Institute, which is the most liberal organization here in Washington, D.C. And they have said unequivocally that if you compare household arrangements, any arrangement you want to look at, the married couple, mother and father family, is the very best, not just the good, but the very best way to raise children.
COOPER: But Janice, there's huge divorce rates in this country. There's so many different kinds of families in this country. You seem to be holding up this one set, you know, the mother and the father. Most people agree, OK, yes, it would be great for a lot of people. But short of that, I mean, many people grow up in a single family home. They grow up without grandparents. They group up, you know, in broken homes. This child will have two parents. This child will have grandparents. The child will have access to a great education.
SAVAGE: We have -- we have to acknowledge...
CROUSE: This child will be...
SAVAGE: This child is going to be in better shape than Britney Spears' and Kevin Federline's children. Having heterosexual, opposite sex parents is not some sort of magic ticket to the kind of love and support and commitment and responsibility that a child needs from their parents.
CROUSE: The research says very differently. You know, you look at the -- any other household arrangement, you're going to find those kids are very vulnerable to all sorts of negative outcomes. They're going to drop out of school more. They're going to get into drugs more. They're going to start drinking earlier. All those things...
SAVAGE: With all due respect, that's simply not true. That's simply not true, with all due respect.
CROUSE: I'm sorry, but the research shows differently.
SAVAGE: Those studies have been debunked. Go on Google and debunk everything she's saying in five seconds.
COOPER: Dan...
SAVAGE: What the studies show is that single parents...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let Dan finish.
SAVAGE: All the studies show it's preferable to have two loving, committed parents. And this idea there is an ideal, well, what are we going to do about that ideal? Like ultimately, this is not my business, it's not the doctor's business, it's not Anderson's business. This is between Mary Cheney, Heather Poe and their sperm donor, whoever he is. For all we know, this child will have a father in his life. With my adopted child -- I have an adopted child. His mother is a part of his life. We adopted through open adoption, my partner and I. So we don't know where this is going yet for Mary Cheney's child. It's very presumptuous to even have this conversation.
COOPER: Janice -- Janice, isn't there is a sad irony to this that Virginia, where Mary Cheney and her partner lives, is one of 27 states with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage? Heather, Mary Cheney's partner, will have no legal rights to this child. It's kind of a sad irony.
CROUSE: No, it's not about Heather. It's not about any of those instances, but it's about what is best for children. And in this country, when you have so many children who are born without a father in the family, we're looking at terrific ramifications. It is a matter of the whole culture, because these kinds of incidents change the culture. And what we have is a situation where our schools and our communities are going to be very affected by children who are angry children and...
SAVAGE: So then what do you propose to do?
COOPER: Let me give Dan -- I've got to give Dan the final thought. Dan...
SAVAGE: Does she propose to take this child away from Mary Cheney and Heather Poe and maybe give it to Britney Spears or Andrea Yates? Heterosexual parents are not the magic ticket to a stable home life and a stable home environment for a child. There's so much evidence out there that that's just not the case.
CROUSE: The magic ticket is a mother and father.
SAVAGE: There have been 500,000 children in foster care, waiting to be adopted, who have been abused, neglected and abandoned by their heterosexual parents.
CROUSE: Which has nothing to do with the situation with Mary Cheney.
SAVAGE: ... they're adopted by gay and lesbian couples.
COOPER: We're going to have -- we're going to have to leave it there. Dan Savage, appreciate you joining us. Janice Crouse, as well. Appreciate both of you for joining us. Thanks very much, guys. Straight ahead, more on the Iraq report from the man who co- chaired the committee, James Baker, and Lee Hamilton on Iraq, dealing with Iran and more. Also, is this the end of what some have called cowboy diplomacy from the Bush administration or the last two years bring more of the same? And the final chapter to a story everyone hoped would have a better ending, the discovery of the missing dad in Oregon, how he was found and how close he came to getting help for the rest of his family. You're watching 360.
What JANICE CROUSE, SENIOR FELLOW, BEVERLY LEHAY INSTITUTE is all about is pure unadulterated bigoty. This woman will stand in the face of happy and achieving children and state without a father you are not whole.
Buloney.
I was a wife of a man that was a pillar of the church when I was first married at twenty years of age. He was twenty one. We were farmers, he was a manager at an agricultural farmer wholesale market after having a four year college at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which I helped pay for. I would spend Sunday mornings in the nursery with the children of people in attendence so the children could be exposed to their Christian time at play as well as their parents. Uninterrupted and fulfilling.
DON'T TELL ME ABOUT SINGLE PARENTS OR SINGLE MOTHERS. I know about being a single parent and about being a single mother.
I had our first child, a son, within the bounds of matrimony at the age of 23. When I was pregnant, AT HIS INSISTENCE, with our second child my husband decided it was time to play and embarked on a life of substance abuse and adultery. Methamphetamines. Hash. Marijuana. All wrapped up with people that were perfect strangers to me that shared each other's bedrooms for frolic and rest.
DON'T TALK TO ME. DON'T TALK TO ME.
When the adultery happened I discovered it by myself within a week and told him it was over. Just that simple. I had already acquired a vaginal infection that week that I didn't understand and neither did my obstetrician except for the concerned look that told me what I already expected.
I went on to give birth to our second son although according to my then still spouse it was okay if I decided to get an abortion. A pillar of the church, my eye.
I went on to raise my sons into adulthood mostly alone and under very difficult circumstances. Expect for the farm and a high diploma in College Prep I had no skills.
Today, my youngest son, the one that wasn't supposed to be born if upto his father has an independant taxi business and an infant son of his own. He's lived a good life. Never broke the law, never had issues with alcohol or drugs or sexually transmitted diseases. He is a high school graduate and for a young man with some learning disabilities that I am convinced were due to a traumatic pregnancy, he could not have done better in life.
My oldest son is a university graduate in Business Administartion with a minor in International Finance. His first job out of the university was as an auditor for a well known bank in the Southeast. He has a very nice life and there is every indication his 'live-in' will someday be his wife.
These young men and I have seen it all. Homelessness and living out of a Chevy Nova to a very comfortable lifestyle due to an income that came to be expectionally comfortable due to a career track I chose shortly after getting into housing when the boys were age 5 and age 3. I put up with plenty for years before all that happened, but, I always put the boys first in caring for their emotional needs as well as their physical well being.
I raised those two young men to lives of success and happiness. There father was absent for most of it and completely out of the picture until I was completeing a degree that would take me into a comfortable lifestyle. He wanted to 'come back.' We were divorced by then for over 2 years after 4 years of separation where he was mostly untraceable as a Dead Beat Dad.
DON'T TALK TO ME !
I have been through it all.
Witnessed it all.
The ONLY thing that brings children into an adulthood of decency and success is the love of ONE parent of any gender. If they have the love and devotion of more than one of any gender then they have more than mine did and it just can't be bad.
enough
