;)
Mother's Day, Part 2: Make it Meaningful
Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 2:22PM Ileana noticed the business about mothers in the U.S. Congress this week.
Our government is, indeed, quite weird sometimes. Many of the strange things they do can be attributed to ceremony and tradition. Often the gestures they make are symbolic. Yep, we’re going to vote to have Mother’s Day this year, or Nurse’s Week, or a national symbol of some kind or other. But it’s not always even as simple as that.
Turns out Mother’s Day is even complicated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/08/AR2008050802999.html
After unanimously voting in support of Mother’s Day, in a revote 178 Republicans voted against it. The move was blamed on “procedural shenanigans.” Uh huh.
Whether the House supports Mother’s Day or not, however, is really rather meaningless. It is merely a recognition (or not) of mothers. A holding up of a symbol, so that they can say they love moms and all they do. But it doesn’t carry any practical support that mothers can use. Take for instance the recent vote about fair wages for women, famously criticized by John McCain, who thinks we just need more training and experience and we’ll get the same pay. Yeah.
Or how about paid family leave, the promotion and protection of family-friendly work spaces, protection and encouragement of breastfeeding, fair and affordable healthcare?
A consortium of mothers called MomsRising is working to aggregate information and support of legislation that can practically, meaningfully, and substantially show support for mothers and families in the United States. Check out their mother’s day e-card for a synopsis of where they stand on Motherhood.
In that vapid little rag, Parade Magazine, this morning, Sarah Jessica Parker, who claims to want to be the world’s most fabulous mom, ahem, she points out that if you put a bunch of liberal moms in a room with a bunch of conservative moms, we’d all want basically the same things for our kids. Her penchant for shoes aside, I have to agree with the former Square Peg. Mothers and Fathers want and need to have the tools to raise healthy and successful families in the United States.
If any of this moves you, whether you’re a mother or not, share it with other moms and dads you know and consider subscribing to the MomsRising list. You’ll get notifications about petitions and movements in Congress. Kick those congressional representatives in the pants and help convince them to pack a little action with those words.
Reader Comments (2)
Amen, Sister.
Astraea
aka Momma of Adopted Kittens and Auntie to many human munchkins
(Struggles to get brain around the idea that holidays can be about something more substantive than cards and random declarations of affection...)
Yes! My pet peeve: the "working world" pays women a fraction of what it pays men, but requires them to wear clothes that are twice as expensive to buy and to clean. Grr.
Okay, so now I'll quit complaining and go write a letter to a member of Congress...