Cut that out, WBEZ

I love NPR!  Really I do.  I think it's a smart, well-researched radio station, and I literally grew up listening to WBEZ in the car (when I wasn't listening to Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter or hearing my dad tell the Christmas Carol story) on the way to school.  I don't necessarily think it's a liberal program but rather a news program in the way that news should be--well researched and truly balanced.

But can we talk about their um, interesting, ad campaign?

Whenever I go into Chicago, I never fail to see it.  Damn signs on the el telling me to "get a room already and put a crib in it."  Damn big advertisement on the side of the building and visible all the way out to Waukegan telling me that they "want my babies."  Damn ads popping up on my iPod telling me that "interesting people make interesting people" and that I need to "do it for Chicago."  They even have an "interesting people" dating app now...

Really, WBEZ?  While I guess I should be flattered that you want me to have a healthy sex life (although, seeing as you are not my gynecologist, I fail to see how that is your business), I would like nothing more for you to fire whoever the idiot was that came up with that ad.  While you might be trying to mix it up and do something different with your ads, surely you could do better than urging your listeners to produce little future listeners or assuming that your listeners all want to or can do that.  And do LGBT people exist in your world?  Your dating app is for straight couples only!  Honestly, those damn ads are so full of wrong I really could take this in all sorts of directions, but let me say this main thing...

I expected better from you.

I would have thought that a station with a reputation for being intelligent and free-thinking would understand that families come in all forms, not just one way.  I would have thought that you'd see that it's important that we all decide when and if to start our families on our own terms, not someone else's.  It's really not that complicated.  At the end of the day, only we can make that decision, as we'll have to live with the decision.  For a longtime listener like me, I know that I absolutely could not have a child right now.  I am not at a point in my life where I could afford it financially or be emotionally present enough to care for one.  And to get very personal on you, if I do decide to become a parent, I want to adopt.  I've wanted to do that since before I could even drive, as I think adoption is awesome and that the most precious gift you can give a kid is a family.  And who better than me to give it?  I can't tell you all the criticism I've received for that, even from supposedly well-meaning people.  I've had people tell me I have "good genes" that I "need" to pass on.  (Who knows which genes the kid would get??)  I've had people tell me I'm "not really an adult" until I give birth.  (How do you tell that to someone who is infertile?)  Hell, I've even been told that it's just a second-rate option and that I "couldn't really love" an adopted child.  And those are some of tamer things I've heard!  (Some of the others would really make you sick.)  While I am not in a place in my life where I would want to adopt just yet, that is the only option I would want if I decide to be a parent.  And I can assure you that even if I didn't "make" him or her, I know they would be interesting.  You know why?  Because interesting has nothing to do with genetics!  It's more to do with how you were raised and how you choose to live your own life.  Surely you should know that.        

I don't need someone telling me what I should and shouldn't do.  I don't need a dating app trying to set me up with someone "interesting."  And I do not need any auditing of my reproductive or relationship choices.

WBEZ, I just want you to stick with what you do best--news.  You are not an opinion  program.  You are not FAUX News.  And you aren't a tell-people-what-to-do program.  You are a news program.  Please stick with the news and leave the relationship and reproductive auditing out of it.