“For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”
— Michelle Obama, March 2008
image of Occupy Wall Street Demonstration: abcnews.com
image of students being maced at University of Tennessee OWS protest: abcnews.com
Image of OWS arrest: wsjonline.com
How about now Michelle?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”
— The Constitution of the United States of America
The proposed United States Budget, currently before Congress, includes a little-publicized, no-drama, brilliant piece of funding and legislation.
This is brilliant.
This is long overdue.
Currently, in the United States of America many disability insurance programs do not include pregnancy or birth, nor are they legally required to. Never mind that you’re not medically allowed to work for six to twelve weeks due to the fact that you pushed a human out of your vajayjay or the fact that they cut your stomach open to remove a future tax-payer, before sewing it back up. It’s currently legally allowed for employers to say, “too bad for you new mama.”
This causes unnecessary plunges into poverty for young families, increases the abortion rate, increases gender wage gaps, and discourages people from having children.
The President’s budget proposes a grant program which would cover the start-up costs if a state decides to start a family leave insurance program.
This empowers girls in two ways – first, their mothers and families benefit now by having mothers who are allowed paid leave to give birth to them, care for them, and bond with them during their first months as Citizens of the United States. Second, we as parents and citizens, acknowledge that many of our daughters will take advantage of family leave insurance programs when they themselves begin having children and taking time off work.
It is our obligation to our children to make it easier for our daughters to pursue both work and family.
Societies that value families and value motherhood provide the necessary support to mothers and families.
To write your legislator to encourage this portion of the bill be included in the final budget please click over to Momsrising.org. It takes two minutes to change the work/life balance of current and future generations of new moms and young families.
President Barack Obama announced that Michelle Obama, First Lady and mother of two First Daughters Sasha and Malia, will be taking on Childhood Obesity as her pet cause. In this MSNBC story Michelle Obama admits to a very similar story as the one I’ve told here on The Girl Revolution – the doctor says, “Hey your kids are in a risky place BMI-wise.”
I could not have been more thrilled. You know, Tribe, that I am very concerned with the negative consequences resulting from apathetically allowing obesity to consume our daughters: early puberty, higher insurance premiums, preexisting conditions like diabetes, higher risks of breast cancer, infertility, and those are just the gender-specific risks.
I recently read an article in The New Yorker about the fact that the military is having a problem finding youth who meet the physical requirements of enlisting to defend our country. It’s never happened before in the history of America.
I remind my own kids, “Did you get your hour of play today?”
From the MSNBC article, Michelle tells us how she handle the shocking news that her daughters were too high on the BMI charts,
‘Small changes, big results’
The first lady said that over the next few months she made some small changes that got her daughters back on track. No more weekday TV. More attention to portion sizes. Low-fat milk. Water bottles in the lunch boxes. Grapes on the breakfast table. Apple slices at lunch. Colorful vegetables on the dinner table. “It was really very minor stuff, but these small changes resulted in some really significant improvements, and I didn’t know it would,” Mrs. Obama said.
It’s true. Small changes do lead to big results. I know it from my own health, my kids’ health, my lifestyle changes. Small changes are easy and achievable and if you do them often enough you do get big lifestyle changes.
I am so happy children will have a champion for the very important cause of childhood obesity. There could not be a more visible champion.
There’s more to this childhood obesity epidemic than our kids are too lazy, we’re not good enough police about what goes in our kids mouths and our little people don’t get enough play and exercise though.
I just saw Food, Inc. on the Watch It Now feature on Netflix.
It really highlights facts like these: if all the animals we eat consume corn and they feed them corn to make them fatter faster . . . .does it surprise us then that we and our children are also fatter faster? Not to mention all the other products, around 80% of what’s in the grocery store, are made of . . . corn, corn syrup, and other corn sugars?
Food, Inc. does one thing well. Outline just how seriously our government is involved in what we’re eating – which flows into the rising costs in our inefficient health care system – and just how much influence a few Corporations have over our childhood obesity problem, our national obesity problem.
Happily, and the movie highlights this truth very well in the end: it is ultimately CONSUMERS (read parents who buy their kids’ foods) who decide what supermarkets carry, what farmers farm and what corporations sell.
If you’re feeling a little powerless as you fork over the extra dough for the healthier foods let me point out one tiny little trend which should raise your feelings of empowerment: When I began writing about the issue of early puberty the issue of hormones in the milk supply came up, non-hormone milk cost quite a bit more than milk from cows given growth hormones. It was worth it. Not just to me, but to enough people that Walmart – the biggest retailer in the world – doesn’t carry growth hormone milk anymore. They don’t even stock it.
We – PARENTS, CONSUMERS – stopped the practice of feeding growth hormones to milk cows by refusing to buy that milk.
That’s how capitalism works every.single.time.
Next on the chopping block – high fructose corn syrup, a product that’s probably in 80% of the food supply and that’s making us and our kids fatter faster.
Michelle said she plans to roll out her childhood obesity campaign over the next few weeks. I am sure she’ll be planting the garden in the spring too. I can’t wait!
Want to ask questions and talk about health care reform? As in how will this really impact women and children?
There’s a phone call tomorrow and you’re all invited. It’s just another amazing thing Momsrising.org is doing to make sure mothers are represented in Washington.
From a recent email:
Simply sign up to join Momsrising.org on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 9 p.m.EST/6 p.m.PST by clicking here:
It’s as easy as pie. After you sign up, we’ll send you call-in and log-in information via email. Sweat pants and bathrobes are very appropriate attire for this high-powered conversation.
Why this kitchen table conversation now? The coming weeks will be critical for making sure that health reform benefits kids and families. Learn more about what’s in the current healthcare proposals, and how to make sure that the White House, Congress, and leading advocates for women and kids know our priorities. We’ll be taking notes on what you think and writing a blog, as well as sharing your thoughts with leaders after our conversation.
Here’s more information: We’re calling this our “kitchen table” chat because it’s going to be an informal opportunity for you– from the comfort of your very own home–to hear from experts, ask questions, and share your ideas about how to support health reform, as well as why you need health reform. Your call will include:
* An overview of major issues for women and children in health reform from experts Jocelyn Guyer from Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families and Lisa Codispoti from The National Women’s Law Center, two of the leading national advocates for women and children in health reform.
* Questions and comments: Our experts will answer your questions and you will have a chance to share your highest priorities for health reform.
* What’s next? We will ask for and share ideas on how we can help in this final stretch of health reform. We also want to hear about why you believe health reform is important. And we’ll share your ideas, thoughts, and priorities with the White House, Congress, and our partner organizations.
Sign up now to join us around our virtual kitchen table and chat about women and kids in health reform today!
