I come bearing good news - for once! There’s a new paid family leave bill in town (DC, that is), and I’m happy to say it’s good stuff. The states have been hard at work on this one, but in my mind paid family leave should be available to all parents, regardless of what state they live in. Moms Rising says we real-live mamas are a make-it-or-break-it force on this one, and I believe it. They also acknowledge that ‘it’s going to take some heavy lifting to get the co-sponsors and momentum this bill needs to pass.’
So step right up and e-mail your U.S. Senators and Representatives NOW and ask them to co-sponsor this bill. Ask them to represent us, their mamastituents, on this one. Voting for it when (if!) the time comes is one thing, but seeing co-sponsors from my state would make me feel truly represented in our nation’s capital. Wonder if your Representative has already co-sponsored it? If you live in AZ, CA (of course!), FL, GA, MA or NY, you’re good to go. Out here in Oregon, not so much.
What would the bill do? Some impressive stuff, mamas:
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Posted in
Call to Action,
Daily by
Lisa F on May 14, 2008
I’ve been meaning to gloat since way back in April ‘07, when I did it for the first time. Buy nothing I didn’t need, that is. But I’m finally sharing my personal triumph because of an article I recently uncovered about buying only used stuff: Some simplify by saying bye to buying new. Inspired by the book Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, this (very admirable) woman quit buying anything new. Pretty cool, but the one MAJOR downside is that it takes time, a whole lotta time to find the good used stuff. And what parent has time to browse…all over town? Not this one.
So… instead of buying used stuff, we tried to buy no stuff. Eek. Not my preferred approach to life, but one my spartan husband aspires to. My husband had also been intrigued by the Buy Nothing authors. When asked if I were game, it took, oh, two seconds to say: You gotta be kidding. Me?
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Posted in
Shopping by
Lisa F on May 13, 2008
Now that Mother’s Day has passed, perhaps you are looking at some wilting flowers. My husband rarely gives me flowers. Not because he is an unromantic soul; we have two abyssinian cats that will eat anything with a leaf no matter where it is placed, and then proceed to get sick. About a month ago, my husband told me about how the typical cut flowers we would purchase on Mother’s Day are grown with dangerous pesticides harmful to the workers. So what did I tell me husband? Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in
Fair Trade by
Sarah on May 13, 2008
by Ann Bibby To my continuing shame, I am still a plastic bag girl. Despite owning enough Lululemon bags (another shame for another post) to easily carry a week’s worth of groceries for our family of three, I find myself standing at the checkout bag less and once again accumulating more plastic sacks. I even allow double bagging. It’s that bad. The time has come for me to declare myself a BooBs girl for the good of the planet. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in
Environment by
Ann on May 13, 2008
Now more than ever it seems like a good time to initiate Meatless Mondays. I only call it that because it is catchy and an easy way to remember this handy little economy/environment helping tip: For one day, eat no meat. For one meal, eat no meat. See it’s zipadeedoo easy. And yet? It helps in so many ways.
It is not just that the production of meat is terribly energy inefficient, sucking up vast amounts of resources, with it typically taking up to five to seven pounds of grain to produce just one pound of pork. It is about double that for one pound of beef. Grain production is in decline due to the rise in ethenol production now too. This in turn is making our world’s food supply diminish. John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution, estimates that “you’d save more water by not eating a pound of California beef than you would by not showering for an entire year.”
Think of this as well. Eat less meat for just one day or one meal (no need to go vegan or vegetarian if that is not your thing) and you…
1. You could lose a few pounds and lower your cholesterol when you eliminate some meat from your diet. Particularly red meat.
2. Save money in your precious and ever escalating weekly food budget.
3. You help save valuable energy and water.
4. Produce less waste and lessen your carbon footprint.
5. Reduce your risk for cancer. By taking away some of the carcinogens that meat adds to your diet you reduce the cancer factor in your life.
For ideas, recipes and more general eat less meat/help the earth knowledge visit here. If anything, your colon will thank you.
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What is the sound of mothers Arising?
This Mother’s Day, MAU Mavens across the country will be strapping on stilts, baking pies for elected leaders, hawking fair trade roses and singing in the streets! Reclaiming Mother’s Day events - now in their sixth season - celebrate Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation. This year, MAU invites YOU to celebrate her call to Arise by gathering your family and community together through cakewalks, letters to the editor, Standing Women events, mama’s open-mic nights, or . . . the sky and your imagination is the limit! When mothers* publicly express our commitment to children, our communities, media and government sit up and take notice. Let’s sing it out in the streets, “We will protect our children with our personal & political strength - wherever they live on earth.”
Thanks to MAU Mavens and partner organizations, MAU is excited to present the very 1st ever “Top 10 Ways to Reclaim Mother’s Day“:
1. Holy Symbolism! Step outside your comfort zone, and get up on stilts. Parade, prance and promenade with a loyal spotter by your side. When we lift our voices AND our bodies together on behalf of the world’s children, we become a GIGANTIC force to be reckoned with.
2. Dare to be a Joy Warrior! Deliver pies to your local members of Congress as part of the Department of Peace’s 4th Annual Mother’s Day National Action: Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie Campaign.
3. Posies with a purpose: Ask for or send fair trade flowers through Transfair/USA. Fair trade benefits every person along the path, from seed in the ground to blossom in the vase.
4. Review Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers Report (2008 report availably May 6). Learn simple solutions to stop the deaths of nearly 10 million children a year; educate your community with a letter to the editor on this topic.
5. Part your purse strings, because giving matters. Donate to MAU, inspiring and mobilizing mothers* to advocate on behalf of the world’s children. Your donation, in honor of a mother or other, allows MAU to reach out to a million mamas with templates, tools and recipes for actions that prioritize the lives of our children.
6. Press the candidates for Prez to take action for the world’s children. Take a photo of your family at brunch this Mother’s Day and send to the presidential candidates, letting them know you are a Mother Acting Up who wants Global Action for Children.
7. There is an elegant beauty to simplicity. Stand with Standing Women at 1 pm (your local time) on May 11 in support of a better world for our children.
8. Host a 1Sky climate change event, make a banner calling for serious climate action and then upload pictures and drawings of your children and families alongside the banner as part of a national call to action to Congress.
9. Join with CodePink mamas at the Mother’s Day Picnic for Peace in Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle, walk across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, or gather at Merchant’s Gate at Columbus Circle in Manhattan for the 2nd Annual Mother’s Day Peace Stroll.
10. Find a MAU Mother’s Day Reclamation event near you, and revel in it, mama! Gather round, hand out Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation, eat cake, birth strategic plans to act locally and think globally. Together, we can change the world.
Most important, report word of your reclamation activities to MAU Central!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
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*cue Twilight Zone theme *
Did you know that just 6 media conglomerates control most of the media in the US?
This may seem unimportant to you and your family and I assure you there are some folks that are banking on that and expecting you will be passive, but don’t be fooled; it’s important to the freedom of all Americans.
Have you ever wondered why some news stories, even really important ones, are buried in the back of the newspaper or only mentioned in your alternative weekly? Ever wonder why the media makes almost no mention of certain alarming or newsworthy topics and other topics (Britney Spears’ escapades, Anna Nicole Smith’s death) get non-stop coverage?
In a free country, media concentration hinders vigorous public debate and limits the news, viewpoints and perspectives presented to citizens — often to their detriment.
The problem just got worse when Bush’s FCC basically gutted a rule that limited the number of both newspaper and television stations giant media conglomerates are able to buy up in the same city.
Right now a few major corporations with with ties to many special interests are controlling the news and influencing your world view.
And independent or dissenting voices are being silenced.
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Just this weekend the kids and I were dawdling in my favorite local bookstore. The very friendly and knowledgeable woman who rang us up had her two young kids (and curiously her husband, too!) with her at work. Sure didn’t bother me, but then it seemed to fit the type of business - kids in a kids’ bookstore, why not? And on a (not) recent (enough) trip to Mexico, my 5-year old asked several times “how come so many mamas have their kids with them at work?”. An obvious difference compared to the stores we frequent here.
So how come we don’t have our babies at work? Or do we?
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Posted in
Family by
Lisa F on May 9, 2008
What do you get when you take two TV personalities/journalists with little chemistry, one popular blogger and ask them to discuss moms who blog? In the case of Heather Armstrong’s interview on the Today Show’s fourth hour, what you get is not a discussion at all, but a look into what is wrong with mainstream media. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in
Media by
Sarah on May 7, 2008
By Ann Bibby, new contributor for Moms Speak Up
Up to his elbows in soapy water and surrounded by pieces of the broken dishwasher, my husband Rob made a startling announcement.
“I’m giving up recycling.”
To understand my shock better it needs to be said that Rob is a greenie, a veritable Kermit the Frog shouting out the virtues of environmental responsibility in the urban jungle since a time before most people found greenness a virtue or recycling at all necessary.
What caused Rob, a die-hard Greenie, to consider giving up recycling? And how did this family solve the problem?
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Posted in
Environment by
Julie Pippert on May 7, 2008
