Note – Starting in 1966, the commander of the United States Seventh Army was “dual hatted” as the Commanding General, United States Army Europe. Limited access to European markets and the economic aid that Greenland got from Europe – $23 million a year – didn’t seem like adequate compensation. In the end, Greenland ultimately got control over its own fishing grounds, with the understanding that European fishermen would get limited access, and the Europe would cough up about 10 times as much aid, according to a recent newspaper account. But they didn’t stay permanently apart; In 1976, Algeria negotiated the first of several trade, labor and financial agreements with the Europeans, and today participate in various EU programs through the European Neighborhood Policy. For the first time this year, the US Army opened its Ranger School to women applicants; 381 men and 19 women got approved to undergo the training program, and two women made it to graduation alongside 94 male peers.

Andrea Ross is a lecturer in the university writing program, University of California, Davis. Anne Deighton, a professor of European International Politics at the University of Oxford’s Wolfson College, writes in an email. Greenland, the world’s biggest island and a territory within Denmark, was compelled to join the European Economic Community in 1973 when the rest of the Danish nation did, even though 70 percent of its residents had voted against membership. But in 1982, after Greenlanders gained a greater degree of political autonomy within Denmark, they held their own referendum, and voted 52 percent to 48 percent – a similarly narrow margin to Brexit – to quit the organization. Some Brexit opponents have called for Scotland, which voted two years ago to remain in the U.K., to pull a “reverse Greenland” and stay in the EU, even if the U.K. Thirty years ago, shortly after my medical scare, I began what became a long and circuitous search for my birth parents. A month ago, I became aware of Colorado’s legislative change and sent in the necessary paperwork to get my birth certificate. Colorado’s is $875, for example. Additionally, if Leave proponents are looking to Greenland as an example of post-EU survival, they might want to reconsider.

But there’s also a much bigger example. It’s a game that gets people killed when some people inevitably fail to realize that it’s really about proving how much better the player is than those icky liberals, but the players don’t give a damn about that. In 2016, when Colorado amended its laws to allow adopted people access to their original birth certificates, I was nearly 50 years old. Following ethnic conflicts, refugees and internally displaced people were unwilling to return to homes in ethnically mixed neighborhoods when peace returned in both Bosnia and Lebanon. Start now to secure your legacy and peace of mind. Only 10 states in the country now offer U.S.-born adoptees and their birth parents unfettered access to original birth certificates: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island. The manufacturer must replace the defective vehicle with one that is comparable to the original vehicle (usually same make, model and accessories) and acceptable to the consumer, minus the mileage used. In Pennsylvania, an adopted person must achieve a high school diploma or GED to be eligible to access their birth record.

Intermediary services are often cited by those opposed to legislation allowing access to original birth certificates. Adoptees and other proponents of legislative changes allowing original birth certificate access argue that knowledge of one’s own identity is a basic human right. Access is granted only through a court order. And, of course, that cooperative role of a court in the legal system constrains the arguments of parties to a dispute: however strongly they are inclined to twist the language of the law (and however strongly they may feel that the other side is twisting the language of the law), they need an argument that will persuade an institution that is committed, at least in principle, to cooperative interpretation of lawmaking acts. But in 18 states, from Arizona to North Carolina to Wyoming, a court order is required to allow adoptees’ access to the originals. Wisconsin’s Senate Bill 483 would allow adoptees 18 years or older access to their “impounded” birth certificate. There is a legal mechanism for leaving the EU – Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, signed by member nations back in 2007, which requires the EU to negotiate departure terms with any country that gives at least two years’ notice.