The Soccer Mom Vote

want to really make a difference?

When I was eleven-years-old, I remember being in a car with my dad as he drove us down the 15 freeway. My father pointed to an unfinished off-ramp marked "Mercy Road" and told us how a young woman, Cara Knott, had just been killed there by a police officer named Craig Peyer. He then went on to try to explain that sometimes people who are supposed to be good are simply not. It wasn't an easy thing to understand at eleven. To be honest, I still don't fully understand it.     

When I was fifteen and my dad was teaching me how to drive, he taught me something that no father should have to share with his little girl. He instructed me, "If you ever get pulled over by a police officer, and they want you to stop somewhere remote or dark, I want you to refuse." He went on to say that I should drive to a well lit, populated area and if the officer gets mad, just tell him that I remember Cara Knott. He said that if it was a good officer, he would understand. I remember how afraid this made me feel.

When I grew up, I met John. An unassuming, warm, likable man, John easily fit into our circle of friends. After a year of poker games, late night music musings, dinners and laughter, I learned that his sister was Cara Knott. I met the rest of his family at holidays: Cara's mom Joyce, a woman who welcomed me and our new baby into her home and made us feel like we'd known her forever and a pair of sisters who laughed and joked with us like we we're part of the family. I never got to know Cara's father, who died of a heart attack and was a tireless champion of victim's rights.     

Today I got a letter from my friends, telling me that the man who brutally murdered their sister and daughter was up for parole again. That this man, who taught me at eleven that not even police officers are safe and made me fear getting pulled over by a CHP officer, could possibly walk free.

They need your help.     

Please help keep Craig Peyer where he belongs; where he can never put another family through such hell; where he can never again viciously strangle and bash in the skull of a beautiful, warm young woman or terrorize the hundreds that came forward after Cara's death. Help us keep this generation of little girls, girls like my own Lily and Anya, grow up without this man preying on them.

Here's what you can do:     

• View this letter from the Knott family.
   
• Peyer's parole hearing is at the end of January, 2008 and letters make a huge impact.  If you can, please write and mail a letter yourself.  Think about how this case affects you personally, whether you be a parent, love someone who has been lost to violence or simply are invested in a more peaceful planet.  Tell the parole board why you personally need this man to stay behind bars. 
   
• Link to this post or email those people who you feel can help, whether it be to someone who can pass on the message or someone who can write passionately on Cara's behalf. 
   
• Don't have the time or energy to write a letter of your own?  That's OK, volume still makes an impact.  Download this letter and modify before mailing it in.  Of course a personally written statement has more impact, but the form letter still expresses sentiment and adds volume to the public outcry, so please do that if nothing else!
 

Letters should be addressed and mailed to:    

John F. Monday
  Executive Director
  Board of Parole Hearings
  P.O. Box 4036
  Sacramento, CA 95812

 

Re: Craig Peyer, CDC# D-93018    

and to the prison where Peyer resides:   

California Men's Colony
  Highway 1
  P.O. Box 8101
  San Luis Obispo, CA 93409-8101
  Attn: C&PR

Re: Craig Peyer, CDC# D-93018

Please be sure to reference Peyer’s name and CDC identification number in your letter: D-93018 and mark the letter "CONFIDENTIAL."    

Let me know when you've mailed your letters as I'd like to let the Knott's know how many people are backing them up out there.  This is a good family who have suffered an impossible loss.  You can help.  Please choose to do so.

Universal Healthcare is the Best!

hello everyone,

i am literally boiling over about the healthcare issue and must voice some perpective to all my fellow american citizens who have never lived in a country that has universal healthcare. i was born and raised in the usa (most of the time without health insurance) and after falling in love, have lived in montreal for 11 years.

in short, canada takes care of its own on the healthcare game, HANDS DOWN. i luckily grew up "healthy enough" in the states that i didn't end up having a situation like John Q (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqFiFhGpB34 and tell me what YOU would do as a parent!), or like some of the people in michael moore's new must see film SiCKO. he's taking the film one step further to encourage americans to SPEAK OUT about their own healthcare challenges in the usa to help lobby congress at:(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEFoq_5RbC4

i have to tell you, after living on both sides of the fence (so to speak), that canada's universal healthcare is an AMAZING system that americans could only be so lucky to have! that is the plain, simple truth. those who disagree are most likely either:

a. americans who have never lived in canada themselves &/or are misled by the majority of advertiser-agenda-controlled american media.

(or)

b. canadians who have lots of money and would like to be able to have private healthcare so they don't have to wait in line for a medical check-up... which i hate to say is why alot of americans don't believe in universal healthcare -- because they can afford private insurance (and the preferential treatment that comes with it) and don't want to pay higher taxes to subsidize those who cannot afford it. it is a very selfish POV, if you ask me.

and as the film SiCKO reveals, even having private health insurance in the states is wrought with horrific stories of scandal and greed-driven, inhuman cases of dying humans being left in the lurch by insurance companies unwilling to help them!

to further illustrate my point, i shall kindly refer you to an american tv clip below, which takes the healthcare crisis even one step further... how pharmaceutical companies and government have A LOT to gain by people getting sick in the first place. this is the hard truth and i'm sure is too difficult to swallow for most people. check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXXTCc-IVg&eurl=http://widget-91.slide.com/widgets/sf.swf

the point of the clip, to me, which mirrors my views in general, is that the problem ultimately comes down to our FLAWED ECONOMIC MODEL in the usa.

capitalism is about greed and profit. until we prioritize the greater common good over the individual on issues of health and education in the usa, nothing will EVER change. even if everyone could afford private insurance, the system is based on giving the least amount of care so insurance companies can make MORE money for their dear shareholders. only universal healthcare can give you a system where a doctor will prescribe what you need, not what an insurance company TELLS him or her that you need...

canada is a socialist society, which means (among other things) that citizens believe that it is a basic, human right to have equal access to healthcare and education. as such, they agree to pay higher taxes to make that happen! and they even throw in public television and the arts as well (ie: our national public broadcaster CBC -- the PBS of canada -- is subsidized by taxpayers!).

it boils down to priorities. if you believe that we are one big family on this planet, then we should put our $ where our mouths are. pay higher taxes and help EVERYONE have these basic rights like the citizens of places like canada, france and sweden.

our children, and our children's children, deserve better than what we have given them so far. PLEASE take the time to speak out about this issue. it is time that americans brought back the humanity in democracy. it is not too late!

i look forward to your feedback! and if you're ever in montreal, let me know and i'll give you a personal tour of our healthcare facilities!

sincerely,

soccermombobbijo

Modesty: What are our kids wearing?

“The way we dress . . . is a sign of who we are and how we wish to act in the world. It is vital that we get this language right.” – Carol Moynihan

When one reads about the issue of modesty in dress it is almost always related directly to religion. When I Googled “modesty in girls” about 65% of the articles I found were religion-based. This bothered me because I am not religious and I have a real problem with what passes for modesty in our society right now. In Michelle Malkin’s wonderful Clare Booth Luce Institute speech she discusses at one point a network that encourages Catholic girls to “stand up for their faith and their values in an increasingly secular and hostile world.” Although I agree with just about everything Ms. Malkin has to say in her speech, I want to point out that not all of us secular moms are hostile or condone the sexuality that is passing for morality in our society today. In fact, I know many secular moms who find themselves in the same boat as the moms citing scripture and we’re all fighting for the same thing: modesty. This isn’t only a religious issue. For me it is a family issue, a societal issue. I feel strongly that my daughter be raised modestly and that she and I have choices that do not include thong underwear, t-shirts with double entendres, and dresses that look like something adults would wear to a disco.

We are living in a society that no longer delays gratification. We don’t have to. Everything we desire is a click or a phone call away. We can overnight it. It can be delivered to our door in 30 minutes or it’s free. As adults we are so used to getting what we want when we want it that we forget it wasn’t always that way. We pass this sense of entitlement on to our children. Have we forgotten that some things are worth waiting for?

My daughter and I were playing dress up one day. We even did each other’s hair and make-up. My daughter then wanted to take a trip to the mall to show off our finery. I said no. She demanded to know why. So we sat down and as I cleaned off her make-up and took down her hair I explained that we were only pretending. She was still a little girl and little girls have things to look forward to. If she were to have everything given to her at once (like going out of the house with make-up on) she would not have anything to look forward to and she would not appreciate the day she could finally wear make-up out of the house. We have had to have this discussion about several things and she has taken it well. She understands that with growth and maturity come responsibility and privilege. She understands, too, that those things are earned.

Last year, when my daughter turned six, I did a post on a particular toy and why we could not keep it. I have complained about inappropriate toys and clothing to my friends, but I have not done anything about it. I simply do not buy them. Then last year Jules at Everyday Mommy began a discourse on modesty in children’s clothing. I began looking online to see what I could find and what other people thought. This post is a compilation of what I found.

Back in 2004 11-year-old Ella Gunderson wrote a letter to Nordstrom’s telling them she didn’t much like their limited choice of clothing options and that she felt she had to go around half naked if she shopped there. She caught the attention of two Nordstrom executives and the media. Nordstrom’s promised to try to provide more variety. In a FoxNews.com article More Girls Push Retailers to Sell Modest Clothing fashion experts said “a more modest look is in.” A Seventeen magazine fashion editor is quoted as saying, “If modesty is what she’s looking for, it’s going to come full force in the fall. We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty. It’s such a different feeling but still very pretty and feminine and sexy. It’s just a little more covered up. It’s kind of like a sexy take on a librarian.”

 I want to point out a few things here:

• This is the fashion editor for Seventeen. Not Elle. Not Cosmo. Seventeen. How old were you when you read that magazine? I was about 13. Think about the fact that they are pushing sexy librarian clothing to tweens and early teens and saying that it’s modest (“We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty.”).
• Either they are missing the point (we do not want sex sold to our children) or they think we are idiots and we will be so enamored with the ideas of Miss Modesty and librarian we won’t notice the word sexy thrown in there.
• Do any of you remember the Hot for Teacher video from Van Halen in the 80s? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the sexy librarian a fantasy for most tween/teen/men? This is not what I want being marketed to my daughter.
• This article is from 2004. It’s now almost the end of 2007. I don’t remember any of this coming to fruition so it’s all kind of moot, isn’t it? It appears to me that we are simply getting a lot of lip service and very little action.

 In her speech Ms. Malkin brought up something else I was completely unaware of: In 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch marketed thong underwear to size 6x and above (honestly I have no idea if they are still marketing this). This underwear (can you even call it underwear?) had the words Eye Candy or Wink Wink written on the front. Hampton Carney, spokesman for A&F, called the thongs, “cute and fun and sweet.” Malkin gives the definition of “pedophilia chic: A grown man getting paid to say that he thinks dressing pre-teens in rearless underwear is ‘cute and fun and sweet.’”

Disturbing? To say the very least. In what alternate reality is this acceptable? Every parent that shrugs their shoulders and just goes with the flow because their child whines and says all the other kids are doing it should be shot. Your job as the parent is to set limits and enforce those boundaries. Show some strength and stamina and raise these kids! Pick your battles, yes, but make sure you are picking the right ones. At some point our children may decide to rebel. It is the nature of the teen to look for shock value and re-test those boundaries. As parents that time will undoubtedly be stressful. I hope I will have done a good enough job instilling a sense of modesty and self esteem in my children that no matter where they go or how far they push they will have in themselves a sense of when to stop.

I’m pretty laid back. I make mistakes. I say live and let live. Some things, though? Some things I cannot let go. Some things I will fight for that may seem to make no sense to others. Some things I will go to the mat for on principle alone. I will fight and argue and stew even when there is no point in going on simply because of the principle. Is this one of those issues? Does this issue have no hope? I think it does have hope. I know it has principle. Let’s pull together and make a difference. A real difference. Not a difference that would have happened anyway because that’s-the-way-the-trend-was-going, but an honest to goodness we-heard-you-and-we-get-it difference. A we-respect-you-and-your-child difference. We can do this. Go sign Jules’ petition. Write your own post and link it up. Grab the button and put it on your site. Let your voice be heard.

Don't let the SCHIP sink!

Soccermom Joanne alerted us to the debate happening last month in Congress over the state of the SCHIP, a federal healthcare program for poor and uninsured children.

The program was set to expire in September without any action from the legislators.  Both houses passed the bill to fund a $35 million dollar continuation and expansion of the program with a 61-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax.  By all reports, the support for the bill was largely bipartisan, and voter support for the measure is high.  Despite that, President Bush vetoed the bill this morning.  As a result, over 6 million children could lose coverage beginning in mid-November.

There are enough votes in the Senate to override the presidential veto, but the House is short by around 20.

Rallies are planned tomorrow to demonstrate to our lawmakers that we think taking care of children's health is important.  You can look for a gathering near you here.

Lisse's recent words ring true for me on this one.  "How can we possibly claim this is a 'Christian nation' when we have all but abandoned, by way of policy, the sick and the poor?"  (And, of course, the non-voting population of children.)

Personally, I'm getting pretty tired of a president who thinks he can veto legislation that has bipartisan support in Congress and huge voter support.  (Stem cell research, anyone?) 

It's time to remind our lawmakers that they are here to serve the needs of the people.   Get out and attend a rally with your family.  E-mail or call your members of Congress expressing your support for this bill.  Let's be the voice for the children whose lives are impacted by this power play.

 

The League of Maternal Justice

If you haven't already learned about Facebook's deletion of photos of nursing mothers - on the grounds that they violate the site's terms of use - I really can't summarize it any better than this blogger already did.  While many of us have been writing about our bewilderment with Facebook's reasoning, he went a step further and corresponded directly with a Facebook representative about the situation.

As you might expect, this exchange shed little light on the subject.  Additionally, the situation is compounded by the presence of pro-anorexia groups that Facebook allows to remain intact.  Basically, bloggers have been asking "What gives?" with respect to the inconsistent application of the terms of use.

And now the rest of us are taking it a step further as well.  Behold, the League of Maternal Justice!

We're calling for bloggers - parents or not, lactating or not - to deactivate their Facebook accounts, and TELL FACEBOOK WHY.  Tell them that breastfeeding is nourishment, not obscenity.  Tell them that their inconsistent application of the terms of use will not be tolerated.

If, for some reason, you cannot deactivate your Facebook account purely on principle, you can still speak out against their policies and practices.  Write a post and put up a button - check the League of Maternal Justice for details.

But wait...there's more.  The Great Virtual Breast Fest of 2007, on Wednesday, October 10 - an online nurse-in.  Details to come later this week.

There are too many good reasons to breastfeed - and too many moms who are prejudiced against it for whatever reason - to let this issue slip past us.  Join the movement!

the people in your neighborhood

It always shocks me to read statistics about childhood sexual abuse.  Approximately one in four women and one in six men have reported retrospectively that they were sexually abused as children.  Sixty-seven percent of victims of sexual assault are under the age of 18. Almost all victims (~95%) know their perpetrators, and the "average" sex offender (quotes mine) molests over 100 children, most of whom never disclose the abuse.  It goes without saying that, as a parent, I want to do everything in my power to protect my children from this crime. 

You may already be aware that your state has a sex offender registry.  Thanks to the Megan's Law legislation passed in 1996 by President Clinton, all states must register sex offenders and must provide access to information to the public.  For a decade, no unified online database was available, until President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in 2006.  This legislation resulted in the creation of a searchable online directory for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  You might also find it helpful to cross-reference it with the data provided by Family Watchdog, an advocacy group.  Their site will pull up a map with the homes and workplaces of offenders, which makes it a bit easier to narrow it down.

I recently moved across states and realized that I should probably check the registry for my new neighborhood.  There were 68 hits in my zip code alone.  Two were within spitting distance of my house.  And I live in a "nice" middle class neighborhood, where people still sit on their porches in the evening to wave hello as I pass by with my preschooler on an after-dinner walk.

I wrote down the addresses of both of the men in the area, and made it a point to drive by those houses the next day.  There wasn't anything special about them.  (Well, one had plastic flowers 'planted' in the yard, but that's not exactly a sign that says "Sex Offender Lives Here.")  Nonetheless, I felt empowered.  I knew who these men were.  I knew where they lived and what they looked like.  I knew what offenses they'd been convicted of and when.  One man was convicted of a peeping Tom violation in 1977.  He's less of a concern to me than the other neighbor, whose conviction is recent and involved sexual abuse of a 10 year old.  Good to know.

State laws vary widely on the information collected, the penalties for non-compliance, and ease of access to information.   For example, while my home state of South Carolina, non-compliance with registration is only a misdemeanor violation for the first two strikes, and while the database is available online, no notification process is in place to provide continual updates.  Our neighbor Georgia has made non-compliance a felony violation on the first offense, and provides a free e-mail notification services for when new offenders move into the neighborhood.  You can see where your state stands here.

This information can be used to make a difference.  One mother in a nearby neighborhood used the database to locate offenders, and realized that the school bus stop was directly in front of one offender's house.  She used the information to petition the school to move the school bus stop and her request was readily accepted.  Another friend relayed the story of a father who went outside to find a strange man standing outside his daughter's bedroom window.  Using the databases available, he identified the man and reported the information over to police.

There's a lot we can't control about safety for our children, but this is one area where it pays to be informed.  Check the links above to find out who, exactly, is living in your neighborhood. 

Citizen Josh Review

It's always hard for me to figure out how to explain Josh Kornbluth. In the interest of full disclosure, I produced three of his monologues back when I was the managing director of a local alternative theatre and after spending three weeks with the guy, still couldn't figure out how to nutshell him. He's funny, in an awkward kind of way; smart, abet failed to graduate Princeton because he thought maybe his graduate thesis would write itself if he just kept himself "available to it"; he's a political activist who insists that his contribution to the democratic process has usually been accidental and instead professes to be a master of wasting time. Josh is just... Josh. But the thing about him that matters to those of us at The Soccer Mom Vote is that with his new piece, Citizen Josh he manages to bring politics to the forefront in such a way that we all want to get involved and feel like we could actually manage to accomplish something in the process. After all, if funny little Josh can pull it of, why can't we? And, as an added bonus, the work just happens to be his graduate thesis, so he kinda takes care of that whole diploma thing in the process. Nice.

At its core, Citizen Josh is about starting right here, at the beginning, right now. While so many of us see the word "radical" and think of people acting out in rash and sometimes destructive ways, Kornbluth tells of his first meeting with his mentor at Princeton and his understanding that "radical" really has more to do with starting from the root or origin. We can at every moment in our life, simply start right now to implement radical social change. Sometimes just showing up turns out to be a radical event. A trip to the park leads to his involvement in Project 3650 and ultimately finds him sitting next to Al Gore in a conference room (where he informs our former vice president that he feels it's too hot NOW, so we better do something!), witnessing the beginning of a project aimed at taking the approximately ten years left before global warming becomes an irreversible problem we cannot overcome (thus 3650 days). A bike ride by the capital building in Sacramento, finds him accidentally attending a PTA rally where, by dialing a senators appointment line over 100 times on the leaders cell phone, the group gets a much needed signature on their petition. Even at home in Berkley, he accidentally stumbles into a meeting to erect new playground equipment and sees how persistence gets the neighborhood exactly what they need. The common theme he pulls from these moments of democracy is that all it takes is persistence, something he is not, he claims actually known for. And yet, by actively bringing his story to the stage it turns out Kornbluth is radically altering our perception of our own ability to make a change in the world. He's spreading the kind of democracy that you and I can totally grasp, even without a trip to the capital.

Citizen Josh is peppered with references to Berkley locations and history; a large portion of the setting being what was formerly called People's Park Annex and the incredibly odd structure that he first sees as a death trap for children and latter discovers is a vital part of Berkley's political history. Performing at Berkley Rep provides Kornbluth with an eager and responsive audience with similar political temperaments. One does have to wonder how well Citizen Josh will translate to the larger political climate and if it will read as poignantly to some of the nations more conservative audiences.

Ultimately, the work is tight, keeps you on your toes, manages to entertain, inform and proves to be an excellent next step in his career of monologues. If he's not heading your way anytime soon, check out his collection Red Diaper Baby. If nothing else, be persistent in making the change you want to see happen in the world. That's all it takes to be able to wear the title of "radical" activist. Even accidental democracy can change the world.

 

For more information of Citizen Josh, now showing at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, click here.

For more information on Kornbluth, see his website or check out one of his blog or podcasts.

 

Thank You, New York!

As part of World Breastfeeding Week, New York Hospitals made a pro-baby move by removing formula samples from their goodie bags for new moms and instead replacing the controversial powder* with "disposable nursing pads, a mini-cooler for breast-milk bottles, and pint-sized T-shirts for the babies that proudly declare 'I eat at mom's.'"  This is part of the city's initiative to increase the paltry number of women leaving the hospital with baby at the breast. Jacobi Hospital in The Bronx is feeling pretty excited about their efforts and now boast that the 25 percent of 2,200 babies born at the hospital each year are breast-fed.  To me, that number is still horrifying, but here's hoping that this new initiative will up those numbers and increase the overall health of babies everywhere!

YAY New York! 

*Formula samples will still be available upon request.

mothers and babies, here and elsewhere

I'm going to be frank: I easily tire of the breastfeeding versus formula feeding debates that rage across any forum for Western parents on the internet.  Breast is best!  Formula feeding is fine!  We all have our opinions and make the choice that is most reasonable for each of our families.  In the land of plenty, we can at least agree there's a choice -- even if we continually feel compelled to justify which choice we've made.

However, I find myself growing increasingly aware that the majority of the world's population doesn't live where clean water, adequate income and well-maintained sanitation are the norm.  Infants in these conditions clearly benefit from breastfeeding.  Period.  The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, and should continue to receive breastmilk in addition to solid foods for until age two or beyond.  They have good reason and good research on which to base this recommendation.  Where the water is dirty and sanitation is poor, a bottle of formula can cause a digestive infection that can quickly dehydrate and kill an infant.  Where families aren't able to pay the price for enough formula, parents may use a more dilute solution, causing malnutrition and slowing growth.  Where infections are common and medical care is limited, children clearly benefit from the additional immune protection afforded by breastmilk. 

Despite an international code of recommendations regarding the marketing of infant feeding products -- which in many countries has become law -- formula companies continue to promote their products to healthcare workers and parents in developing countries.  Their means of marketing, including gifts to new parents, samples, and campaigns targeting vulnerable populations increase the acceptibility of infant formula and have been shown to decrease breastfeeding rates.

The costs are great: children die, and the numbers aren't small.  A recent report from the WHO estimated that, globally, approximately 1.45 infants die because of suboptimal breastfeeding in developing countries.

One and a half million children. Every year.  To put this in perspective, that's the equivalent of the entire population of the metropolitan area where I live.

This doesn't sit right with me.  In fact, it makes me want to kick some corporate behind.  Preying on vulnerable populations to increase sales of a product that is unnecessary at best (with reasonable exceptions made for cases where formula is truly needed), and LETHAL at worst is unethical and injust.

The U.S. needs to take action to set a better standard for infant feeding practices.  According to the most recent IBFAN report (2006), the United States has not implemented the international code for marketing as law.  (In my own limited experience [n=1], formula samples were offered to me in addition to a free diaper bag in the hospital.  Such practices would be outlawed if the code were in effect.) 

In addition, the U.S. government needs to throw some of its financial and political strength into enforcing the rules for the large multinational corporations that profit from infant formula sales.  Nestle, whose website proudly pronounces it "the largest food and beverage company in the world, is historically one of the worst offenders.  And while there is an organized effort to boycott Nestle, this 30-year-old boycott has yet to be effective.  Something more needs to be done, and the most efficient way of enforcing ethical behavior is to hit the companies where it hurts: the bottom line.

While the debate boards at iVillage may rage on between who will breast feed and who will formula feed, I'm ready to look at the bigger picture.  How do our choices as individuals and nations of privilege affect those struggling to survive?  What model are we providing (and what misconceptions are we promoting) related to those choices? 

SiCKO: Americans Deserve Socialized Healthcare

Hello Everyone,

The beginning of June marks the convergence of two intense yet exciting events -- the FIRST is that my father survived a major abdominal surgery two days ago in San Diego, where I have been with my family for the past week to support him (he was given a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery). The SECOND is the June 29th theatrical release of Michael Moore's new documentary SiCKO, which takes on the American healthcare system (go to www.michaelmoore.com to learn more about the film and lots of great links to learn more about the healthcare revolution, including what YOU can do to help!).

As I sat for 10 hours in the hospital while they cut and pasted my father back together on May 30, my thoughts wandered... I felt so blessed that my Dad has health insurance through his wife's teaching job (or he wouldn't be with us today).

I thought about how grateful I am that my two-year old daughter (and ALL children in Canada) are fully covered by the socialized healthcare system in Canada, where I have lived as an American Expat for 17 years (but am still a registered voter in Oregon). It is not a "perfect" system, but it is light years ahead of the U.S., where I spent my most of my childhood and all of my college years UNINSURED. Luckily I never got seriously ill, but I absolutely refuse to take that kind of crapshoot with my daughter's life.

I then shuddered at the thought of innocent children in the States who are living examples of the character in the movie JOHN Q -- a film starring Denzel Washington who plays a uninsured father that takes a hospital hostage to force them to perform a life-saving transplant on his young son. A film worth seeing, if only to help you viscerally understand the plight of so many children and families in the States today.

Did you know that there are about 8 MILLION UNINSURED CHILDREN in the U.S.A. right now?

We as politically-active mothers and citizens MUST get involved and force Congress to pass legislation moving toward a more HUMANE healthcare system in the States. The ONLY reason we do not have socialized healthcare in the States, simply put, is that corporations controlling healthcare do not want to lose their billions of dollars of profit. And they spend a large portion of that profit paying for lobbyists to coerce our politicians through financial support (thereby expecting and usually getting political favors). It is not about protecting our children. It is ultimately about GREED.

In Canada, no matter how bad things got, how much more people were taxed, they would NEVER EVER let socialized healthcare go. Canadians say it is a basic human right, regardless of social class, and although there are waits for non-emergency surgeries, I know that if my daughter is rushed into the emergency room (God forbid), that she will get the best care in the world.

So for the sake of our children, and our children's children, WRITE and CALL your congressional representative (go to: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ to find out how), and don't forget the White House direct  at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. Turn off the TV and start making some NOISE, which historically is the only way anything can be changed in our government.

SIDEBAR: I hardly ever watch television because it is mind-numbing, and a key factor in keeping our citizens silent and passive -- especially given that the majority of our media outlets are controlled by conglomerates who filter the "news" you get. Try going to new online networks like www.currenttv.com, that includes stories submitted by people like you and me -- regular Joes and Janes -- which is helping democratize our media in new and exciting ways.

But before you start painting your virtual protest signs, here are a couple sobering facts to get you properly motivated, which I found on the National Coalition of Healthcare (NCHC) website at http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml:

The number of uninsured children in 2005 was 8.3 million – or 11.2 percent of all children in the U.S.  The number of children who are uninsured increased by nearly 400,000 in 2005, breaking a trend of steady declines over the last five years.

Young adults (18-to-24 years old) remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance in 2005 – 30.6 percent of this group did not have health insurance.

I refuse to stand by and watch our children, and their children, face a future without having the basic right of healthcare. Writing to you all today is a small step toward helping effect this positive change, and I hope this post helps accomplish the following:

1. to start some much-needed dialogue about U.S. healthcare & encourage ACTION.

2. encourage you see SiCKO, Michael Moore's new documentary, that hits theaters June 29, 2007. And tell your friends and family to see it too. It will undoubtedly be a big catalyst for healthcare revolution, at very least, getting everyone TALKING about it!

3. to ultimately work towards having socialized healthcare in the U.S.A... and the winds of change are in the air... everywhere... blowing in that direction.

Look forward to your feedback!