The New York Times notes that a big change is occurring and white parents are now adopting black children in significant numbers:
In 2004, 26 percent of black children adopted from foster care, about 4,200, were adopted transracially, nearly all by whites. That is up from roughly 14 percent, or 2,200, in 1998, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect at Cornell University and from the Department of Health and Human Services.
"It is a significant increase," said Rita Simon, a sociologist at American University, who has written several books on transracial adoption. "It is getting easier, bureaucratically and socially. With so many people going overseas, people are also increasingly saying, Wait a minute, there are children here who need to be adopted, too."
The 2000 census -- the first in which information on adoptions was collected -- showed that just over 16,000 white households included adopted black children. Adoption experts say there has been a notable increase since 2000.
The reasons for the increase are varied. The Multiethnic Placement Act [PDF] and its amendments prohibited federally financed agencies from denying adoption based on race. The foster care system has sharply changed in recent years and now includes financial incentives for finding more adoptive families.
The combination of legal changes and greater embracing of multicultural families -- Americans have adopted more than 200,000 children from overseas in the past 15 years -- have lessened resistance from both blacks and whites. The long wait for white children and the high costs of international adoptions -- typically $15,000 to $35,000 -- also play a role.
And agencies are offering courses to help adoptive parents enter the process with more cultural openness and awareness.
The National Association of Black Social Workers has some words of caution and concern about placing black children with white parents.
Here is a treasure trove of resources on trans-racial adoption.
And here are some more resources for you as you pursue this story:
Motorcycle Medics
Here is one of those ideas that seems so obvious you wonder why it has not come up before. Florida's Miami-Dade County fire/rescue department has started using "medic motorcycles" and has cut response times to emergencies in half.
Think of it as a motorcycle cop -- only the person on the bike is a medic. Motorcycles can get to emergencies a LOT faster than an ambulance or a fire truck. The Miami Herald reports that the motorcycle medic team responded to 1,300 emergency calls during its first year of operation, and response time averaged three minutes -- half the time it usually takes larger vehicles.
In Miami, each Harley-Davidson Road King carries a defibrillator, an oxygen cylinder, bandages and medical assessment equipment. An EMSResponder.com story says the idea is spreading -- and departments in Seattle, San Francisco, Texas, New York, Maryland, Florida and Virginia have expressed an interest in creating their own motorcycle response teams.
EMSResponder.com has more.
The College Freshman Bloat
One rite of passage in college seems to be the inevitable freshman-year weight gain -- and sometimes it's a lot of weight.
The Associated Press reports:
Gaining weight is common in college. Free of their parents' monitoring, students often chow down at all-you-can-eat dining facilities and [grab] pizza and other fast foods as they rush through studying and classes. Parties heavy with alcohol expand the waistline, too.
Researchers at Cornell University reported in 2003 that a sample of college freshmen had gained an average 4.2 pounds during their first 12 weeks on campus. The weight gain was 0.3 pounds per week, almost 11 times more than the weekly weight gain expected in 17-and 18-year-olds and nearly 20 times more than the average weight gain of an American adult.
The story says one reason for the weight gain (in addition to the beer bashes) is that students, faced with new stress, eat for comfort. See these articles for more information:
Dorm Decorations on a Budget
What is the well-appointed college student taking to school this year?
Last year, The Washington Post hosted an online chat between students and professional designers. Furman University has a fun site, called "Furman Dorm Room Makeover," where a film crew follows four freshmen as they decorate their first dorm room.
See the fully automated party dorm room built by MIT students. For some reason, students seem to love to share videos of their dorms.
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal is running a dorm-room design contest.
New Seat Belt
Within a few years, Ford may replace the three-point seat belt with a new contraption. The Detroit News said the seat belt of the future "may look like a belt and suspenders and hook on like a backpack, with a strap over each shoulder." The belt of the future may also have an airbag strapped to the belt itself. (Click here for more.)
Ecological Burial
Here is an idea that just makes sense to me. In Sweden, a company has come up with a way of burying people that does not involve embalming fluid or burying a big casket that never decomposes.
Instead, they freeze the body in liquid nitrogen, then shake the brittle body with vibrations until it turns to a dust. They separate the metal parts (like hip implants or silver from the teeth) and bury the dust in a cornstarch box in a shallow grave. The box will decompose in a year or so, and the dust becomes soil. Cool.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited
story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well
as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
I remember when I lived in London more than 15...
