It's a Moms World...Not!

In a recent edition of Brain, Child (Fall, 2007) Tracy Mayor informed that it's no longer a soccer-moms world http://www.brainchildmag.com/toc/indexfall07.asp. Apparently, Soccer moms are no longer the desired demographic. The new demographic is labeled the "Single, Anxious Woman". The "SAW" is fearful and under-educated. She wants the laws to be tougher on criminals, is on the fence about choice and is willing to swing. Nonetheless, now that the soccer-moms have been passed over for a new, younger model the debates have moved far away from education. Even the Health care debates are more about which democratic candidate is less afraid to sound like a socialist then they are about the realities of un-and under-insured kids and families.

I attempted to watch the Republican debates last night, but failed as I drifted in and out of sleep (winter colds have left me seriously sleep deprived as my two year old has now decided that "mama's bed" is the new hot sleeping destination). Still, I watched a lot of the pre-game show, Tucker (whom I usually refer to by a name that mistakes the "T" for an "F") and Chris Mathews seemed to think that Giuliani is out unless he makes a run with Huckabee and that Hillary is just plain unelectable. I think that Huckabee is making a real run and I have to say, Huckabee scares me. He seems like he could just emerge at the top getting the "good-guy" vote from folks who are watching TV, but not listening to what he's saying. He's got a "compassionate conservative" jive going on and I'm worried.

What's hopeful about the soccer-moms loosing their desired demographic status is that perhaps that means that we've stopped swinging. That eight years of GWB has forced us to realize that republican's just aren't for us. Let's hope that we SMs out number the SAWs because I think that this election is starting to feel like 2000 all over again.

Oh Bama!

Did you see Barack Obama on the Jon Stewart show recently?

I saw the rerun last night. Amazing. The question came up about narratives -- the stories that the media tell over and over. For this campaign, the narrative is that Hillary has more experience and Barack has more appeal.

Barack's response was right on. Basically he said, what people mean by someone having experience is that you trust them to make good decisions. He went on to say that Cheney and Rumsfeld had long resumes, which means lots of experience, right? But that didn't turn out to be such a good thing.

His key message of the night was that he is to be trusted to make good decisions. I commented to my husband that Barack seems genuine, real, while Hillary is a politician. "Manufactured" was his word.

Leah may have something to say about all this though. Any other reactions to experience vs. appeal?

V-Day campaign in Congo

I've known about Eve Ensler and her creation, The Vagina Monolgoues, for years since I saw the play in Baltimore. But I wasn't aware of the depth of her work overseas until I read about it in the Asheville Citizen-Times today (of all places to find interesting international news!). Here's the link to the V-Day site: http://www.vday.org/contents/drcongo. I could try and summarize it, but her words are more powerful than mine. This made the pit of my stomach hurt more than anything I've come across in a long, long time. It's worth reading.

Brand sandwich

Our blog covers all things related to motherhood and families, which includes the politics of food. The results of a recent study revealed that children prefer food if it's in a McDonald's wrapper, even if it's carrots. Here's a summary of the findings:

"By the early age of 3 to 5 years, low-income preschool children preferred the tastes of foods and drinks if they thought they were from McDonald’s, demonstrating that brand identity can influence young children's taste perceptions. This was true even for carrots, a food that was not marketed by or available from McDonald’s. These taste preferences emerged despite the fact that 3 of the foods were from McDonald's and only the branding was changed, indicating that the effects were not due to familiarity with the taste or smell of McDonald's food. Even the children with the lowest frequency of eating food from McDonald's had average positive total preference scores, indicating they preferred more of the branded foods ."

You can read the full report from the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at:
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/161/8/792?tr=y&auid=2909446.

The sad thing is that I'm not even surprised. Over three years of coordinating a childhood obesity prevention program showed me how far and deep the work needs to go to completely change the youth food culture of this country.

What do you think?

On Message

As a public relations professional, I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about messages. Key messages, staying on message, getting our message out there. This morning in a meeting, a colleague brought up an example of how Hillary Clinton is a pro at staying on message.

During the debate monday night, John Edwards critized Hillary Clinton for appearing on the cover of Fortune magazine. (The headline was: Business Loves Hillary!). Edwards said we'd never see him on the cover of Fortune stating "I am the candidate that big corporate America is betting on.") Edwards turned to Clinton for a response. What was Hillary's reply?

That's she's here to unite the party. As my colleague observed, Hillary came off looking like the peacemaker. Edwards attacked and Clinton didn't bite. She stayed on message. And came out looking the best.

For more commentary, also check out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/07/edwards-slams-hillary-for_n_59571.html.

Got questions for Councilwoman Cape?

For the Asheville locals --

This week on Listen2Women, we'll be interviewing City Councilwoman Robin Cape. The show airs on WPVM 103.5 FM on Thursday, Aug. 2 from 5-6 p.m.

If you have a burning question for her, you can post it on this blog and I'll make sure to add it to my list. Partisan elections? Local immigration concerns? Asheville going green? Or maybe you want to hear about life as a political mom? Or her band The Buckerettes?

She helped start the Listen2Women show several years ago, so it will be great to have her in the studio. We'll also be taking calls live during the show if yould like to chat with her on-air (828-258-0085).

Tune in to WPVM 103.5 FM or listen live at http://www.wpvm.org/ this Thursday, Aug. 2 from 5-6 p.m. If you miss the show live, you can listen anytime on the WPVM archives.

ranting at the Times

It's hard to say away from the national elections. At some point when my schedule clears (enough so I can see over my desk) I'd like to spend more time exploring local activists and politics. Nonetheless, I read something every week that sparks an idea, a thought or an outrage.
In this Sunday's New York Times magazine (7-14-07) Matt Bai made a grievous error in his rush to make a point. His article, "What Does It Take?" seeks to explore the lack of "Washington experience" that the current candidates have. His thesis, however, delves more deeply into why a lack of experience is palatable for the American people. His point is a good one, but he lost me with this statement, " Today most of the leading presidential candidates have other kinds of experience that are arguably just as relevant to the presidency as years logged in statehouses or the Capitol--living at the White House..."

LIVING AT THE WHITE HOUSE????? Thank you Mr. Bai for acknowledging that there might be "other kinds of experiences" that make a candidate viable for the highest office, but to reduce Hillary Clinton's contribution to the Clinton Administration (or any First Lady's contribution to the presidency for that matter) to a mere "living at the White House" is outrageous. The role of the First Lady is tremendous and Hillary carried a full calendar both as an international ambassador and policy wonk. Actually, the chief complaint of her time living in the White House was that she was too involved. Hillary was so involved, and dare I say, effective that she was subject to a full scale GOP attack that she weathered with quite a bit of grace.

This involved role of the First Lady is not new, Lady Bird Johnson took the beautification committee to the next level ensuring the protection and expansion of wild areas and flowers. I won't even go into the role of sweet Mrs. Roosevelt.
I for one am not going to let the media get away with reducing our contributions to politics. Within the walls that have been set around us women have done great things. So many, in fact that we have our first female candidate for president who might actually get the nomination and quite frankly, she's the most qualified candidate for the job.

How Barack Obama brought me back to Jesse Jackson

A friend went to hear Barack Obama speak in South Carolina recently. I wanted to live vicariously through her experience and I asked her to tell me all about it so we could post her comments on the blog.

First she told me that there wasn’t much to talk about, which made me even more interested. As a researcher at heart, I was intrigued by what wasn’t there, what was missing from the experience – that is as telling as what did happen. Here’s what Marin had to say:

“I wish I had something important or interesting to offer from my experience! In fact, is was pretty uneventful...we got there a little late and it was really crowded. I had to wake up [my son] to go inside and he wasn't all that happy about being there. We couldn't really see or hear him well from where we were in the auditorium and after about 10 minutes I ended up outside with [my son]. [My husband and my friend] tried to work their way up closer to view and hear better, but alas, we left early and ended up in an hour of traffic coming home!

I was impressed with the crowd, the gathering of people was black and white and excited...which was exciting to me. I had an impression of how important it would be for the African-American population to have a president who shares their ethnicity. My impression of this may be skewed though, as I have never attended something like this before, and definitely not in S. Carolina...a more diverse crowd is probably to be expected, just new for me coming from Asheville (and Davis, CA).”

What to expect when you’re electing? Her experience reminded me of going to a rock concert. You make a big effort to get there, take your friends, spouse, kids even. But then you get there and it’s crowded and you end up going outside for air. But, you remember the people, the vibe, the energy.

My most profound protest, mass movement experience was hearing Jesse Jackson speak at a rally when President Clinton was on the verge of being impeached. It was in Washington DC. He spoke so eloquently and passionately and with such enthusiasm that I got swept up in his words. I was cheering for health care for hospital workers. He was asking us how the very people that change bed pans and care for others could not get care themselves. I cheered on. I had never cared about that before, but I did then. And I cared because the rest of the crowd cared. The energy pulsed through the people gathered together. I felt the power of what a truly charismatic speaker can create.

Who will do that for me today? Is there a candidate out there – local, state, or national that will sweep me up in their words? Will motivate me to take action? Will bring people together?

A phenomenal endorsement

Maya Angelou, the original Phenomenal Woman endorsed Hillary Clinton. Here's the video. I'm still undecided, but Maya's poetic endorsement does work some magic.



On a side note, Oprah endorsed Barack and her mentor Maya endorsed Hillary. I'd love to hear their conversation about the candidates. What do you think?

Friends are gettin' fired up!

Our friend Kate recently sent Leah and me this email about the last round of Democratic debates. I asked her if we could include her thoughts on our blog as "guest commentary." It's always good to hear what a fired up mom has to say about the upcoming elections. If you saw the debate too, what was your reaction?

Hi Ladies,

I stayed up way past my bedtime tonight to watch the democratic debate at Howard University. It was great, mostly. Hands-down, no denying it, the best performance, most skillful, direct, informed answers on EVERY issue came from one of our own -HILLARY! Barak actually seemed to lack some depth; John was a close second, knowledgeable but not always appearing sincere; Dodd was good, really, but why even continue that conversation and same with Biden, although the later could not refer to minorities without interweaving them with poverty and crime (ouch!).

I'll tell ya', I am bit fired up. Let's get Hillary to Asheville and get her on a certain radio program. Haven't we been waiting for this? A woman who really has a shot at the White House because of her credentials? Should we get off the fence?

Cheers!
Kate

Time Outs & Crocodiles

I think I just found my favorite blogger of the day -- Melody Townsel at the Daily Kos. Leah and I mentioned her blog on the radio show last night. Basically, the author's seven year old daughter said that Ann Coulter should go in to time out for the way she treated Elizabeth Edwards.

Now I could write about the newsiness or political aspect of the story, but what it really does for me is that it reminds me of how children are mirrors to ourselves. They absorb and repeat what they hear. Mostly from parents, at least at the stage where my daughter and I are -- toddlerhood. She's two and says the most interesting things. Sprinkles of Spanish from our trip to Guatemala and watching Dora the Explorer. Quirky sayings from her father and I. And somewhere along the way, she picked up a thing for crocodiles. Some days they are funny, and some days, like today, my green flip flops on the floor resemble the creatures a little too much. She ran in to the kitchen saying "Mommy, help, two crocodiles! I'm scared." I had to hold her while I removed the dangerous flip flops from the room. One day she may come running in to tell me to turn the TV off, she's scared of some crazy news pundit on the tube.

In the meantime, check out what Melody has to say on the Daily Kos and stop by Mother Talkers.com while you're at it. Mothers all around us are making insightful and intelligent observations about the world.

What about you? Who else needs a time out? Or what has your kid said lately that sounded just like...well, just like you?

(And is newsiness a Stephen Colbert word, or did I actually just make that up on my own?)

To Support or Not to Support? That is the Question.

In the car on the way to a work-gig, my business partner Kate and I got into a productive discussion about whether or not to support Hillary. It's a bigger question than any of us would like to admit. Where we agreed, was that all of our lives we'd been waiting for a woman to run. And here she is and she's pretty darn qualified. But would we support Hillary if she were a man? As far as I can tell, that's sort of an unfair question. Women don't get to be were Hillary is by being like women, that's for sure. But you can't unlearn all the lessons in life that being a woman teaches you and that's a good thing for women who climb the ranks of men. I like Obama's idealism because at heart that's what I am, but I recognize the need now, perhaps more than ever, for a realist in office. Will we overcome the myriad of obstacles set before us by trading one kind of idealism for another? I'm not sure.
So, all this is to say that I'm going to get my Hillary Clinton for president bumper sticker and go the distance with her. She may not win, but that wouldn't be as surprising as if she did. What I believe is that if she won, she'd do very good things. She'd support universal preschool, she'd support a woman's right to health care, and she'd pull together the smartest minds to figure out a way to get out of this crisis in the mid-east. I think we need a woman in the White House. Right now a woman is running and I think I would regret it if I didn't support her.

The Seasonal Native Diet

Last week, while at the corporate books store (so that my son could play with the "domas" train set) I spied Barbara Kingsolver's new book, " Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life". I can't stop talking about it. While being didactic, Kingsolver is never condescending. The book is by turns a diary, an exegesis on food politics and a garden manual. Just when you think that there's no hope for humanity, Kingsolver brings it back to home and heart with her loving descriptions of root vegetables and asparagus.
This book makes me want to experience food on another level. It makes me think that there is something out there I'm missing out on. Since I hate to miss out, I'm starting a garden. There can be nothing more important then what we put on the table for our children. And if I've learned anything about food politics in the last year, it's that consumers shape the market. Spending a few extra cents now to buy local will make all the difference in the future.
To find out more about buying local go to the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project's website: asapconnections.org.

Mother's Day Roots

Mother's Day Proclamation, by Julia Ward Howe
Written in 1870

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

For more on making Mother's Day a celebration of peace and reconnecting with the day's roots, visit www.rediscovermothersday.org.

In Asheville, NC, consider joining the peace vigil at All Souls Cathedral at 5:30pm on Mother's Day or the Women in Black silent vigils every Friday from 5:00-6:00pm at Vance Monument downtown.

Mom is one smart CEO!

Here are links to two recent articles about motherhood:

Mom Deserves a Raise in 2007
http://www.salary.com/aboutus/layoutscripts/abtl_default.asp?tab=abt&cat=cat012&ser=ser041&part=Par639&isdefault=0

Looks like a stay at home mom's annual salary is estimated at about $138,000. Yes, she's super mom. She's a cook, housekeeper, janitor, and CEO of the home.

and

How Motherhood Makes You Smarter
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/emotrecovery/1428975.html

This is how we earn the big bucks, so to speak.

As always, these articles get me back to how women's work and families are valued in our community and in our country. How are we recognized and compensated for our work and contributions? I think it can be more than just Mother's Day.

Hating Hillary

The January/February issue of Mother Jones featured an article by Jack Hitt on why we hate Hillary Clinton. His article guides the reader through modern archetypes that highlight why there is such hatred for Hillary. The article helped me to reevaluate my own thoughts on Hillary. Of course now that Oprah is endorsing Obama there may be no more reason to explore our misogyny.


http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#4336

Marketing to moms video

I came across a video on Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog about marketing to moms. I admit, it made me laugh out loud. Check it out at http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/comments/marketing_to_moms/. It's marketing, MTV, moms, and minivans all in one. Oh and by the way, it's actually a commerical for Zima.

And I have to add this, because some have asked -- what does this have to do with mothers electing? It's because if we are this big a demographic -- a force to be reckoned with, and marketed to -- politicians will do the same. And I'm curious to see how the 2008 candidates market themselves to us.

Politics & Pearls

I caught the last half hour of the Democratic debates last night on MSNBC. Enough to see Hillary Clinton talking tough on terrorism, Barak Obama responding to a question about the envrionment, Dennis Kucinich give an empassioned and compelling case about being the only one to want to impeach Dick Cheney, and yes, I tuned in with enough time to see Gravel unravel.

But what really got me was the post-debate commentary. Chris Matthews liked Hillary's pearl necklace and thought Michelle Obama looked great too.

What is this?? We had all 8 democratic presidential hopefuls together, acting respectful towards one another (thank god), and speaking to today's most important issues. And all they can say afterwards is that the women looked nice? Give me a break.

Yesterday I had the good fortune to interview three radical writer-mamas who were on the Ideals & Crazy Dreams book tour in Asheville. Ariel Gore, founder of Hip Mama zine and author of her latest book, How to be a Famous Author Before You're Dead; Annie Downey author of Hot & Bothered; and China Martens, long time zinester and auther of a new zine-book, The Future Generation. The interview aired on WPVM-LP 103.5 FM Asheville on the show I co-host with Leah, Listen 2 Women. After the interview the women all said how nice it was to be interviewed by another woman; the questions were good and they really enjoyed themselves.

Makes want to find a way to get women covering women during the upcoming presidential election.

I can guarantee we'd ask questions about things that are really imporant to American women. And we wouldn't end the interview saying "Thanks honey, love the pearls."

Preaching to the Choir

This has been a week of tragedy and its hard to get my head around anything else. As the story in Virgina unfolds we start to see yet another example of the absence of real mental health care as well as a failure for our school system to nurture our children. At the same time, there are people working steadfastly to second class women in health care by legislating what kinds of relationships they can have with their doctors and procedures they can access. This week I had to take a lot of deep breaths and remember to be present and mindful. These are challenging times as a kind of dark ages mentality eclipses the taken-for-granted season of enlightenment thinking. I'm taken back to my early college days and the words of Hegel, "...from where we stand we can see no land" these words became a mantra for me; they became a way for me to remember that the future is always ours to create. And so, it is with that that I'm surviving these days because I can see an alternative future to the one that is taking shape. I can us shaping a future of sustainable living, residing in an ethos of caring and developing a place for everyone in our society. In this future there are museums for guns and gas stations, rather than trees and butterflies. In this future mother wisdom will nurture us all.
Next week I'll write more about healthcare. This week I needed to purge.

Universal Health Care

April 8, 2007

The New York Times Magazine (April 1, 2007) contained an article by Jonathan Cohn on "universal health care". It's worth reading just to ensure against the Big Business co option of the discourse regarding real universal health care. What Steve Burd, CEO Safeway and Lee Scott, CEO Wal-Mart are interested in is relieving the burden of caring for workers. At its most extreme the system they propose will look like auto insurance complete with an across the board Federal mandate that everyone purchase health insurance from private insurance companies. At its best, this system will develop into a two-tiered health care system where most of us making $40,000 a year or less will receive substandard care at clinics established at places like Target and the wealthy will be able to afford preventative care and real medical professionals. I'll keep an eye on the thread of this story to see how the media uses it to shape the conversation about health insurance for children (the plan that Big Business is proposing doesn't seem to figure children into the picture at all).

Expectations

We need to back up a bit. We decided to blog for several reasons, but we first want to be clear about expectations. Our goal is to post something new at least once a week.

You might think as a team, two moms would have lots of time to muse and write everyday. We both have work commitments outside of the home. We each have a toddler. A husband, a house, families, and friends. A community we care about. A radio show we do together on a regular basis (check out Listen 2 Women every Thursday from 5-6pm on WPVM 103.5 FM Asheville or on WPVM archives.).

We’re also really excited about this blog and the potential it holds to share information and start dialogue. Our title is about “electing” – but I really think it’s about participating in general. Being engaged, participating in life. Knowing what happens in your neighborhood, your town or the world. It’s about getting good information out in ways that women find useful. Too many times I’ve found out about an event after it happened or the news was so convoluted I couldn’t make sense of how the issue would really impact my life.

Our initial vision for this blog is tied in to the 2008 elections. We will write candidates locally and nationally, asking the candidates to respond to various questions related to issues we care deeply about. We’ll post our letters, the responses – or non-responses – we receive and let you know about the process all along. We'll also write about other things that get us fired up.

We plan to use MomsRising.org's MOTHERhood platform as a starting point. The MOTHERhood 6 issue platform focuses on:

Maternity & Paternity Leave
Open Flexible Work
TV & After-school Programs
Healthcare for All Kids
Excellent Childcare
Realistic & Fair Wages

Join in, let us know what you think, and let’s get started!

Sunday Studio Time

Leah and I took a few hours today in the WPVM production studio to edit our interview with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of Momsrising.org. It will air on Thursday, March 8, 2007 which is International Women's Day. We've got a short show planned because we're also airing women's radio programs from around the world before and after the show. Tying in these international shows gives me hope that Listen 2 Women is part of a larger movement -- to bring more women's voices to the media. Which means more women's voices in to politics too -- since today you can't have one without the other.

We also came up with a new section that we'll add to the blog as we get going: WWME?

Who Would Mom Elect?

March 1

Yesterday Shelley and I had the great pleasure of interveiwing Kristin Row-Finkbeiner, the co-author of the Motherhood Manifesto and co-founder of momsrising.org. She is just an amazing woman. The interview will be aired on March 8 at 5pm EST on wpvm.org. The most shocking thing that she shared with me was the fact that policy makers, employers and politicians believe that mothers are poor workers. It's amazing to me that such a bias against mothers in the work force exists. We must speak out and work towards eliminating this kind of bigotry. Our children depend on it.
As a working mom, I know that I not only work just as hard as I did prior to having my son, but I work smarter. I'm not willing to waste my time because I have so little of it. I really have to do everything right the first time because I can't afford to do it again. I amaze myself with what I can do in 10 hours a week.
I want thank Kristin for spending her time with us, we interviewed her at 6:30 in the morning her time, and for the good work she is doing on our behalf.
VIVA LA MAMAS!
Leah