There’s nothing I can do. I heard that statement during the August Operation Identity (OI) meeting. We were talking about the atrocities committed by “the establishment” against adoptees in the name of secrecy. My contention was that we need to band together and force changes in the laws to allow adoptees and birth parents access to basic information like medical histories and identities. During a heated part of the conversation, I heard, “There’s nothing I can do.” I tend to get passionate about things I believe in. There are two things I believe above all else: Even adoptees have civil rights, and system inequities can be changed given the proper application of persuasive force and civil disobedience. The statement “There’s nothing I can do” fired my passion.

Under our system of government it should be easy to right social wrongs. Of course, we know that isn’t true. But, there is a mechanism for change that eventually works—if we don’t give up; if we never believe there’s nothing we can do. If we form a nationwide coalition of triad members and supporters, unified in purpose and voice, we create a powerful lobbying structure to whom Washington DC would have to listen. The hardest part of that equation to carry out on a day-to-day basis is for each individual to remain strong and continue to fight even when the stone walls thrown up against us seem too high to scale. None of us can have the luxury of saying “There’s nothing I can do.”

What could a national coalition accomplish? Let’s look at one such organization for a moment to illustrate. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has successfully lobbied every state government and the federal government to eliminate or modify gun control laws time and again. The NRA is strong enough to challenge the political careers of officials who support gun control, and do it all with a national membership of about 2.5 million. How many birth parents, adoptees and supporters are there nationwide? One conservative estimate I heard recently is over 10 million. If the NRA can do all it does with only 2.5 million members, what kind of political pressure could 10 million unified voices bring to bear?

Part of the success of the NRA stems from their ability to focus their power on a single specific concern at a time. They don’t use a shotgun (pardon the pun) approach to political activism. We have to learn that lesson and focus our energies on one aspect of the adoption problem at a time. I’m convinced we have to stop attacking single unenlightened judges or officials in individual states and zero in on getting federal acknowledgment that adoptees and birth parents have the same civil rights afforded other US citizens. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 mandated no one could be discriminated against for any reason. Yet adoptees and birth parents are discriminated against daily across the country. That’s where our focus must be, to force the federal government to give you back your rights. If the US government does that, the states have no choice but to comply.

Each journey begins with a first step. Our first step has to be a change in our attitude that nothing can be done. We need a unified, passionate approach to political activism. There’s no room in our fight for complacency, acquiescence or passivity. The time for those is long past. Once we all have the right attitude to begin the battle, all we have to do is get every support group across the nation to band together in a single political force. Then, and only then, can we mount the assault on Washington DC and demand change. Ten million voting voices will be heard even over the din of stupidity rampant in DC. The politicians desperately want to keep their jobs. If we put their political careers in jeopardy, they will listen.

For change to occur, people must know an inequity exists. Part of our problem has long been “the conspiracy of silence.” It’s difficult for people to be passionate about something they know little about: There are far too many of us, inside and outside the triad, who don’t know how encompassing the conspiracy is. The more people we make aware of our plight, the sharper our political sword becomes. As we become passionate and vocal, others will find out what’s really going on in every state in this country. The more of us who are aware, and make others aware, the more support we can find in those who would have always been supportive, if they had only known; like me. I was completely unaware there even was a problem until Robbie Mander entered my life and showed me the horrors of being an adoptee searcher. Change is necessary and possible, but only if there are enough people who believe it.

I know it’s hard to stay passionate when it seems no one cares. But, passionate is just how we have to remain, now and always, until we win the war and are granted the basic civil rights all of us deserve. Our support groups can help us stay passionate when we feel beaten. That’s what support groups do best. None of us can ever again allow ourselves to think “There’s nothing I can do.”