I've been wondering lately: is it just me experiencing far too much of the dark side of humanity, or is the whole world going through a phase where extreme nastiness is popping up.

This story out of Montana would indicate that, at least in the adoption world a few determined people are pretty darned determined to be horrid.

In Bozeman, a pleasant community fundraiser for an organization that helps local families adopt orphans from overseas was protested by a guy holding up a sign that read, "Stop Immigration, Keep America White."

The group has plans to bring seven children from Philippines to the area for a "Summer of Hope", as part of its work to find homes for older children, an offensive concept to a racist.

“Immigration is absolutely a racial issue,” McGuire [the protester] said Saturday. “Within 30 years, whites will be a minority in our own country. And in our democratically controlled system, we'll lose control of our own government to alien invaders.”

By immigration in this case, he means international adoption. Are we to assume McGuire is a Native American name, then?

Apparently, the protester was once on the ballot for the Bozeman School Board. Once his status as a member of the National Alliance white-separatist group became public, the people of Bozeman reacted by showing up at the polls in twice the usual numbers so he was trounced, receiving 157 out of 4,039 votes.

Although it's great that he lost so significantly, I'd worry about the 156 other people who put an X in the box for him.

And while we're on older children adoption, the Heart Gallery has opened in Delaware to highlight the needs of the 932 children in the state's care -- 130 adoptable now.

Yet another adoptive parent contribution to the lives of children and betterment of adoption, the Heart Gallery was started in 2001 by photographer and adoptive mother Cathy Macier Callanan when she convinced officials in New Mexico to open the first exhibition introducing children waiting for families to the public.

The Heart Gallery is designed to win hearts and homes. To achieve that goal, over 150 of the world's top photographers are volunteering their time and talent to create intimate, compelling portraits of foster children in New Jersey. The children featured are typically considered the "hardest to place" — those who are at least 3 years old, minorities, and/or in sibling groups, and are now available for adoption anywhere in the country.

A sweet story on step-parent adoption made the Fathers Day news.

Dropped like a hot potato from her biological father's life, the nine-year-old suffered feelings of not being "good enough" to deserve love from him. Her step-father going the extra mile to officially adopt her went far to heal that wound.

" And it took a lot of courage to do something that he didn't have to do, but the only reason he did that was because he loved me so much."

So, today's news on adoption ... some bad, but a whole lotta good.