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To the Editor:
I have to agree that when it comes to individual couples who want to adopt, that they should be taken case by case. I don’t understand how a couple such as the one in Florida, with 18 years behind them and a track record of helping kids overcome obstacles that most kids are lucky enough not to have to deal with should have to defend themselves. Under what authority does the Florida State government have the right to tell them who to choose as a partner.
I am a father of five children and have been married to my wife for 18 years. I feel a genuine bond and a great deal of respect for a couple that takes on the challenges that these guys do. I am also a practicing Catholic who would tell anyone who thinks these two are of the devil to look at John 10:37-38: “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe in me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Surely, these people in Florida are doing holy work.
Thanks for speaking up.
Tim McWilliams
Class of ’81
To the Editor:
Recently, the fate of Andera Yates was determined by 12 jurors. She was given life in prison as a punishment for her crime. I have some serious issues with this decision made by the Texas jury.
It disgusts me to think that up to $50,000 will be spent each year to help Yates deal with her “mental illness.” However, there is something much more fundamental that we as a society must deal with. How are we to explain this to our children?
I was watching the final moments of the Yates trial when my 12-year-old sister walked into the room. She had just come home from another day of school.
How was I to explain to my sister that a mother in Texas had murdered her five children? How was I to sit her down and explain to her that Andrea Yates suffered from a “severe mental illness?”
To a 12-year-old this term does not mean very much. As difficult as it had been I had somehow managed to discuss with her the Sept. 11 tragedy. However, sitting her down and explaining to her what Yates had done was and is still beyond me.
She seems to have an understanding of what is happening, but this only scares me more. As a superpower of the world is this what our children will grow up with? Is it normal for a 12-year-old to have to deal with issues such as this?
There is no textbook that can teach my sister how to deal with such issues. I am hoping that we can come up with a solution for all this because otherwise we will soon find ourselves developing a textbook titled “Dealing With Life and It’s Tragedies” for use in sixth grade classrooms throughout the United States.
Sejal Patel
Nursing
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