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The GoodLetter Thursday, April 18, 2002
GoodThings, Inc. :: Stories, actions, ideas, and greeting cards that connect us.
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This Week's Feature
No Coincidences: A Story of Safe Havens for Children
The impassioned work of a dedicated advocate for children saves a life and lends energy to a movement.
Fellow GoodLetter readers,
I was struck by the fact that there really are no such things as coincidences in early February of this year. I received a call from my friend Jean Morrissey in Massachusetts. Jean and I had met several months earlier via the Internet. I had been corresponding with a colleague of hers in Florida who worked for the Bonnie Babes Foundation (a miscarriage and stillbirth support organization). Jean had been scheduled to be on my public-access television show, Robyn's Nest, but had taken a fall that day and was unable to appear. Little did I know at that time, how important our relationship was to be.
In November 2001, Jean contacted me about a newborn baby that had been found by local schoolchildren in a cemetery near Boston. The perfect little baby girl, who became known as "Baby Rebecca Mary," was found dead, apparently from exposure to the frigid temperatures that blanketed the area around Halloween. I was heartbroken. I had recently heard other upsetting stories of abandonment, one about a baby found alive in a trash bin in Connecticut, the other of a baby left to drown in a toilet in a New York courthouse. I was remembering a story from several years ago, when I lived in Florida, of a young couple who stood trial for killing their newborn, and I found myself crying. How could anyone do this? I kept trying to make excuses in my head for the kind of hopelessness that led these parents to do these things to their babies. My mind was racing with possible explanations: "They must be very sick...they must be on drugs...maybe the mother was beaten by a boyfriend." I was confused and bewildered, but what was clear to me at that moment was that I had to do something.
In 1998, the most recent year for which such statistics exist, there were 105 documented cases of infant abandonment in the US. Clearly, fear of prosecution among parents not prepared to take care of their newborns was resulting in unspeakable tragedies. I learned about the concept of "Safe Haven" laws, which protect parents of unwanted babies in 35 states from prosecution for dropping off newborns at hospitals and other designated "safe havens." These laws give abandoned children a chance and offer unfit parents a humane choice. What I also found was that in my home state of Connecticut, a so-called "Safe Haven" law had been signed into law in 2000, but no one seemed to know about it. A baby had just been left in a restaurant garbage can several months before.
I decided to tape a show on the issue and contacted Jean again. She told me that Massachusetts was among the 15 states that don't have "Safe Haven" laws. Apparently, a proposed Massachusetts bill had been languishing in legislative committees for something like three years. We taped a 30-minute show featuring Tim Jaccard, founder of the New York-based AMT Children of Hope Foundation, an organization that last year alone counseled 3,411 people considering infant abandonment via its toll-free hotline. Tim was joined on the show by Connecticut State Representative Ann Dandrow (sponsor of the Connecticut "Safe Haven" law), Massachusetts State Representative Tom O'Brien, and Jean and Mike Morrissey. Later on the evening of the taping, when we learned another baby had been abandoned in a public place in Massachusetts, we knew the show needed to air soon.
The show started airing in Connecticut the first week of February 2002 around the time my family and I left for vacation in Florida. We were changing airplanes in Cincinnati when I received two voice mail messages, one from Tim Jaccard and one from the Morrisseys. Among the nearly two dozen phone calls to the Children of Hope hotline from Connecticut residents that week, one was from a young man who called the hotline wanting information about relinquishing a 30-day premature infant who had been born at home that very day. The caller stated that he had just seen the Robyn's Nest show on safe havens! The crisis worker informed him that since he was calling from Connecticut, not only could he drop the baby off at any hospital emergency room without fear of prosecution, but also he and his girlfriend could have up to 30 days to change their minds. What the crisis worker didn't know was that the baby would soon be left in Springfield, Massachusetts, which happened to have the closest hospital to where the parents lived. Safe-haven advocates commended their action, because being left at this "safe haven" probably saved this baby's life. But since it was Massachusetts, unfortunately a non-safe haven state, local law enforcement intended to press charges (although to date, they have not been able to locate the parents).
Of course, the circumstances of this child's first few days were heartbreaking, but the child is alive today, which is better than what can be said for the unwanted children of parents who don't know about the concept of safe havens. I must admit to having been ecstatic at what's happened since. The case of this particular child put into motion a sequence of events leading to pressure on the Massachusetts legislature to move forward on its proposed "Safe Haven" bill (House Bill 4453). While the bill is still making its way through committee, it has moved two giant steps forward in the process.
No doubt, the decision to abandon a baby is a desperate one, and I would never argue that we should encourage use of safe havens as an option unless it's the very last option. But "Safe Haven" laws work, and where child welfare is concerned, that means everything to me. Through my connection to my friend Jean Morrissey, I'm thrilled to have played a small part in moving something forward that I truly believe makes a difference.
:: Robyn B. Surdel
Tolland, Connecticut
Robyn is a mother of two who took her quest for parenting information from the Web to television and print media. She hosts and produces Robyn's Nest, the Parenting Network television series in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, writes a newspaper column on parenting, and designs and maintains RobynsNest.com, an interactive parenting Web site. Her favorite goodthings? "A sunny beach. The smell of a newborn baby. The sounds of my young sons' giggles. A good book in front of an open fire."
(Thoughts on Robyn's GoodLetter? Inspired by what you've read? E-mail us
-- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.)
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Favorite GoodThings 2001 Spotlight
Every other week, we use this space to remind you about the extraordinary work of one of our Favorite GoodThings 2001 campaign honorees. The profiles of our honorees -- a wealth of ideas, actions, and organizations for a better world -- have a special home on our Web site. Check them out and be sure to let us know what you think.
This week, in keeping with the GoodLetter about improving life for the smallest among us, we're happy to feature our "Favorite Resource for Strengthening Families":
PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support)
Raising healthy children is a daunting and difficult task. A multitude of resources exists for parents, but sometimes what's really needed, especially for first-time parents, is a supportive community environment where new parents can share concerns and ideas and lend encouragement to one another. PEPS facilitates such parental support groups, believing that "parents who are confident and connected to positive friends and resources will enjoy their children more and help them to reach their highest potential." Parents participate in weekly neighborhood support groups and community-based educational discussions. Through their "Teen Parent Program," PEPS offers young parents the opportunity to build a supportive network of peers and learn about positive childrearing practices.
:: Learn more about
PEPS.
We love to hear from you about anything: ideas or situations that are inspiring you or challenging you to think, as well as organizations, programs, and people that contribute to your community and the world everyday. Please drop us a line.
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The Upshot
Monday, April 22 marks the 32nd annual Earth Day around the world. How do you plan to celebrate? The earth's never needed your support more than it does now.
Want to know what Earth Day events are planned near you? Check out Envirolink's helpful Earth Day 2002 Online resource guide. Nothing planned in your part of the world? Use the Envirolink resource guide to take the lead and make something happen.
Explore Earth Day Network's Web site for more ideas.
Want to do something to support your favorite environmental issues to commemorate Earth Day?
:: Lend your support to the effort to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling. Take a beautiful photographic journey through ANWR, courtesy of the Wilderness Society.
:: The earth is mostly water, and there are few ecosystems more threatened than coral reefs. Learn more from the Coral Reef Alliance.
Are you a teacher? The Wilderness Society is among the great Web sites with cool, interactive resources to use with your students.
Are you doing something for Earth Day 2002 that's extraordinary? Tell us about it! Send an e-mail to editor@goodthings.com -- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.
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Good Gravy
Please click through to our Web site to see what we're reading, watching, and listening to and, while you're at it, let us know what we're missing.
Music
Great New Music!
Rain & Mud & Wild & Green Christine Kane (2002)
Thanks to Amy Jurskis of Atlanta, Georgia, for this Good Gravy recommendation! Says Amy: "I would love to see you do a review of singer-songwriter Christine Kane. She is one of the most talented women artists out there, and her songs are all full of that 'goodthings' spirit."
The voice of Fairfax, Virginia-born Christine Kane will feel like home to music fans who think women like Nanci Griffith, Patty Larkin, and Jonatha Brooke hung the moon. Kane's new album -- the wonderfully, vividly titled Rain & Mud & Wild & Green -- is rich with the kinds of spirited songs Griffith, Larkin, and Brooke could have written themselves, celebrating strong women like those in the pages of Kane's literary heroes, Anne Lamott and Barbara Kingsolver.
But Kane's perspective is her very own. On the dreamy Times Three, she imagines being "the one who hung the moon" and waking "up all the love inside of me / times three." The album's title comes from the song Everything Green (inspired, writes Kane, by environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill) on which she ponders a time "Back before hopelessness, long before greed / When everything must have been green." Kane is clearly passionate about independence and individuality, as on All the Relatives, where she revels in what some of her family members must think of her "crazy...radical ways." Still, like all good singer-songwriters, she struggles with her own nagging sense of nostalgia on The Way Clouds Do or the album's most moving song, Or Just Heading Home ("Where are all your children? Do you miss your mom and dad? What was the best dog you had?"). Fear not, though -- Kane also does comedy: (No Such Thing As) Girls Like That is a life-affirming laugh riot.
Like Griffith, Larkin, Brooke, and singer-songwriters like them, Christine Kane deserves a huge fan base as wild and passionate as she is. Here's hoping that's just on the horizon. [To order Christine Kane's new CD, please visit the GoodThings Web site.]
Also check out:
Good Books
Good Films
GoodThings on Public Radio
Have you been checking out GoodThings on Public Radio? Here are some of our favorite public radio pieces this week (follow the link below to the full summaries on our Web site):
:: Children Helping Children -- The founder of the Smile Power Foundation has helped inspire children to change the life of a young Bolivian boy.
:: "Enough of Blood and Tears" -- Words spoken by the late Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin in 1993 have a way of rising above the current fray.
:: Love Over All -- Joined by a shared experience at Seeds for Peace, a couple from both sides of the Middle East divide try to secure their future.
:: "Goodwill, Confidence, and Guts" -- The hopeful people of Afghanistan are electing decision-makers to send to Kabul as "tools for peace."
:: Removing Incentives to Sprawl -- In effort to curb the devastating effects of suburban sprawl, Sacramento considers sales tax sharing.
:: Seeing Things Differently -- A blind German woman's Braille interpretation of the Tibetan language is opening people's eyes.
:: Reinterpreting Globalization -- Non-governmental organization Oxfam International states a radical new position: globalization might have benefits for poor countries.
Visit our site to read full summaries of these stories and listen to your favorites.
Talk to us:
What's the best public radio story you've heard this week?
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