But what about the American children?

By Olivia Biagi
Collegian Reporter
March 21, 2007

BBC News recently reported that Angelina Jolie has adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam named Pax March 15. This is Jolie’s third adopted child, all of which are from outside the United States (Maddox is from Cambodia and Zahara hails from Ethiopia). I firmly support Jolie’s generosity and think it’s wonderful that she wants to help orphaned children, but doesn’t anyone else wonder why she chooses not to look to her own country to help a child?

After all, a September 2006 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ program Administration for Children and Families (ACF) says an estimated 513,000 children were in foster care Sept. 30, 2005. Of that number, only four percent were placed in pre-adoptive homes. Only 51,300 children that year were adopted, while 114,000 were waiting. Twenty-one percent of those children have been in continuous foster care for five years or more.

It is apparent, then, that there are plenty of American children in need of a good home. And while I understand that Jolie is adopting from poverty-stricken countries, the United States also has its fair share of problems. The 114,000 children waiting to be adopted are the future of this country. What chance will they have to succeed if no one shelters and cares for them? I realize that other countries have far worse problems then the United States does, but, for once, can we focus on our own country?

Let’s worry about fixing things here before we try to change the world. Apparently, Jolie doesn’t love the United States as much as other countries. The March 19 issue of People offers a quote from Jolie in 2003: “If you’re going to adopt an orphan… adopt from a country you love.” So far, she has chosen Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam over the United States.

Or maybe Jolie can’t find a good-looking enough American child to adopt. Has anyone noticed she somehow managed to find the two cutest orphans anyone has probably ever seen? They don’t look anything like the poor children I’ve seen on those infomercials asking to send 30 cents a day to sponsor a child who can’t afford shoes.

In an article in Us Weekly, a source said that Pax is “normal, healthy and very good-looking.” What about the children who aren’t very good looking? You know, the ones who people glance over because the adopting couple thinks they are too old, too ugly or too unhealthy? They act almost like breeders, trying to determine which horse is the best, strongest and fastest to purchase in order to breed other superior horses.

We have so many children in this country who, on a yearly basis, get lost in the system; so many children who fall through the cracks. All children need love and a good home, but so few are lucky enough to have that. I wish that those who are able and willing to adopt would stop focusing on the age of the child they adopt, or going out of the country for a faster process or whatever the reason is, and take into their home a child in need, a child who has been waiting years for someone to love him or her.

biagio1@lasalle.edu