Ronnie Burns Died

You probably don't know who he is. Most of us don't. I didn't, till I saw his obit in the Chicago Times, in the little section where they list famous, or almost-famous people who have passed on.

He was the son of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

But that's not what I read. Here's what I read:
"He was the adoptive son of George Burns and Gracie Allen."

Huh? WTF? Why the hell does it matter? Did they love him any less because they didn't birth him? What is it the Chicago Trib's business to point this out? Does this change the fact that he's dead? No.

Do Angie and Brad love Shiloh more than Maddox, or any of their others? I doubt it. Did George and Gracie love Ronnie less? I doubt that too...What about Meg and her daughter from China? What about my friends A&A, do they look at their precious twins every morning and say "well, not a bad consolation prize"???? Hell no. They pick them up every morning and thank the heavens above and the earth below that these two souls came into their lives...no different than my other 20 friends or so who have birthed their kids.

On the RQ site, a wise man posted something that was in the back of my head, but I have never pulled to the front of my head, and even thought out all the way, but it was what was nagging me all along...he said:
His daughter was adopted. Past tense. She is not "is adopted." Adoption was an event that happened in the past, and it will affect all their lives for years to come, no different than if the kid had had any kind of various traumas in their life otherwise...that's the truth. She will always be just "my kid". Never, ever, ever, "my adopted kid".

I wish the rest of the world would just get that.