Friday, May 25, 2007

eugenics in america

Elaine Riddick's form refers to "community reports that she was 'running around' late at night" and her "promisicuity" and her "inability to control herself" constituted grounds for sterilisation.
So she was sterilized when she delivered a baby at the age of 13 without her knowledge.
"I didn't know anything about it until I was 19. I got married and tried to have a child. The doctor told me I had been butchered."
Policies were drawn up in over 30 states in the US to sterilise women, men and children who were considered to be physically, mentally or morally 'defective'.
And they have a nice name for this, eugenics.
State records conservatively estimate that between 1943 and 1963, over 63,000 people were sterilised under the eugenics laws in America.
and
Whilst five states, including North Carolina, have issued apologies for the sterilisations carried out under eugenics laws, the federal government has never acknowledged that any sterilisation abuses have ever taken place.
Remembering a readers digest article about physically and mentally challenged kids being taken away from their homes to live in a facillity, the whole idea being driven by eugenics policy in USA.
All text in green from this bbc article.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

a new bed place

The small bed lies on the floor alongside a lot of rubbish and another bed. I have a small night lamp beside it which was made from pieces of a toy bullock cart. Then there is the bunch of doris lessing books, a pen stand which doubles as mobile phone stand. Its quite away from the world as tv is in next room, but quite close due to those books. My other companions are a bunch of mosquitoes.

I think the new bed place is giving me back some good dreams, though finding it hard to remember them clearly.