Now, this is child abuse

With all the "sixties scoop" bs, I got to thinking about B's early childhood in India.  When he was four, he was mysteriously packed onto a train with his man servant and shipped across the continent to live with his paternal grandparents. 

He saw neither his mother nor sister again for 15 years.  The "abuse" part, in my view, was that he was never told why he had been taken from his mother, who was never mentioned again.  How does a little four-year-old grasp that?  He doesn't.  He started wetting his bed and tried to forget about his family.  Unlike the "scooped" kids, he didn't get to visit her on holidays and he wasn't permitted to write to -- or even mention -- her again.  At seven, his clan (B's grandfather used to call them 'The tribes of Israel') left India for England, finally settling in Montreal, where he grew up.  We have four grandchildren under the age of 10 and when I think of their being torn from their mothers, I weep.  It is so cruel.

After winning a scholarship to the London School of Economics, B left for England where he at last found his mother and sister and learned that the cause of his having been riven from them was divorce.  His father won custody, but as a sea captain was only home about two weeks a year.  So he rarely saw him and never his mother. 

In my case, I was adopted at six weeks old, so don't remember my birth mother.  My adoptive family became mine and I did not miss or remember anyone.  His case was entirely different, but in spite of it all, B became a very successful and accomplished man in the private, public and sports sectors. 

A few years ago, we invited past Ontario lieutenant governor James Bartleman to be guest speaker at the Royal Commonwealth Society's annual Humanitarian Dinner.  I thought he would be interesting and have some wisdom to impart, but no.  He wasted the entire talk wailing about his time at a residential (boarding) school and trashing the Canadian government.  The whole time!  I wanted to hide under the table, I was so embarrassed, because I had been the one who had suggested him.  Last time I checked, James, were it not for your time at school and the education you received, you would not have become a successful lawyer and eventually lieutenant governor of Ontario with a big salary and fat pension to boot.

Don't bite the hand that feeds.  My point it that no one needs to "drink the kool aid" and dine out on having had a rough or imperfect start.  I'm sick of it.