The Balancing Act

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

May 17, 2006

Mother's Day was last Sunday, but it's never too late to thank every mom for her daily commitment to family. At NOW, we know that every mother is a working mother. So we're committed to supporting all mothers—those who are employed outside the home and those who have the option and make the choice of caregiving full time. And we're working toward policy changes that would help mothers, fathers and other caregivers balance paid work and family life.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) is the lead sponsor on a package of proposals designed to help working families by providing paid leave for caring for family members, increasing options for child care, increasing funding for afterschool programs, and encouraging the establishment of family-friendly workplaces. With as much as they claim to value families, you'd think Republicans would be all over this proposal.

But, noooooooooooo. Not one Republican has signed on as a cosponsor of Woolsey's aptly-named "Balancing Act." But let's not leave the Democrats off the hook—currently only about a quarter of Democrats (54 out of 211, to be exact) have signed on to this family-friendly package of bills. Take a moment today to ask your representative to cosponsor this bill.

We know that supporting mothers and other caregivers goes beyond just one bill in Congress. That's why we're supporting an effort to shift the way we value carework in this society. Thousands of you have already signed our "Mothers Matter and Caregivers Count" petition, declaring your support for real family values and public policies that recognize the value of caregiving. If you haven't already, add your name today!

As I read my daughters' Mother's Day card this weekend, my thoughts turned to all of the mothers who won't receive cards from their kids this year or any other year from now on. For Cindy Sheehan, this Mother's Day is her third without her son, Casey, and she marked the occasion with thousands of others at a 24-hour vigil for peace outside the White House here in Washington, D.C. Marching next to Cindy on April 29, I was awed by her courage and determination that there be no more Caseys. If Cindy and other Gold Star mothers have the strength to keep protesting despite their numbing loss, surely we can do no less. The next time there's a peace vigil or march in your community, make it your business to be there. If there isn't one, plan one.

Another mother was in my thoughts this weekend. Kim Linetty of Indiana was beaten, raped, and threatened with death four years ago by her former boyfriend, the father of her children. He is in jail for the rape, but now a judge has declared that Linetty must take her children to the Indiana State Prison to visit him. Good grief! I think Linetty put it best when she said, "He wasn't a father when he was free, so I don't know what gives him a right to be a father now. I didn't think a judge in his right mind would order this to happen." Linetty, who is now having trouble eating and sleeping, may face a contempt of court charge for refusing to comply. Her rapist's right to visitation is being supported by the father's rights group American Coalition for Fathers and Children, whose executive director told the South Bend Tribune: "You don't deny children the right to see their parents based on issues between the parents."

Just as we honored the mothers in our lives this weekend, there are many other people to celebrate this week for their efforts to protect us and preserve our rights.

First, thanks go to all of you for your efforts to prevent passage of the misnamed Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005. Due in no small part to the thousands of messages constituents sent to the Senate, we don't have to worry about this legislation allowing health insurers to bypass state minimum benefit requirements and ignore state coverage mandates—at least for now.

Kudos also go out to the innovative young women who started HollaBackNYC. Combating street harassment one fuzzy, low-res image at a time, the women who launched this website and phenomenon are encouraging women to take photos with their cell phone cameras of men who harass them on the street, in clubs, and on the subway. They've been blogging about this since October, and finally hit the mainstream media this week with a primetime interview on CNN. You go girls!

Three cheers to the New York Times Magazine for finally voicing what we've been saying for years—that conservatives aren't just opposed to abortion, they're waging a war on contraception as well. Although most people in the U.S. support contraception and the large majority of women in this country currently use or have used birth control, ultra-conservative groups are taking action against condoms, the pill, and other forms of birth control. Even President Bush has refused to answer publicly whether or not he supports contraception. Despite their vehement opposition to abortion, this administration's policies seem to encourage it by increasing unplanned pregnancies. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof pointed out in his op-ed this week. "The administration's philosophy seems to be that the best way to discourage risky behavior is to take away the safety net." He writes, "I suppose that if we replaced air bags with sharpened spikes on dashboards, people might drive more carefully—but it still doesn't seem like a great idea."

I leave you today with the words of Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation:

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!

"Say firmly: 'We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall 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 women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs'"

Arise, then, for there is much work yet to do!

Cheers,

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