There are so many Mothers of Intention out there in the blogosphere these days, that I wanted to highlight a few recent, amazing posts that are must-reads. I am proud to call these three women friends, even though I don’t get to see them in person all that much! But they have three different issues that writing mothers are focusing on these days and their posts are excellent food for thought.
Lorelei Kelly writes at the Huffington Post about The Exit Strategy We Need at Home, a post about Afghanistan, and poses this question:
Why is the military responsible for so much of our nation’s security? Why have our other agencies of the government — those led by people in regular clothes — become so incapable? Why haven’t we — nearly twenty years after the Cold War’s end — figured out a way to deploy all the talents in our government to solve the task at hand? This failure was obvious in New Orleans in 2005. It is obvious today in Afghanistan.
Christine at A Mommy Story has an amazing and moving post about what health care reform means for her family, especially her daughter who is on the autism spectrum, and the struggles they’ve had with getting her the care and treatment she needs:
Yes, some might say I sound a little socialist. You expect the government to take care of you! I’m sure someone will say. Well, sort of. I expect the government to protect my most basic rights, and I believe equal access to health care is one of those rights. (Just like we all enjoy equal access to military protection, a safe food supply, equal access to the judicial system and several other protections the government provides.) In exchange, I work and pay my taxes for those services, and I’m happy that my taxes go to help those who have lost their jobs and need assistance. After all, we were those people just a few months ago. It’s not my place to judge who is truly deserving of assistance and who is not.
And Susan Getgood at Snapshot Chronicles is writing about the “mommy issues” the main stream media seems to have:
The consumer products companies are targeting mom bloggers, and the media loves to pick on write about the consumer products companies. To some degree, moms are caught in that crossfire.
But that doesn’t explain why food, travel, tech and style/fashion bloggers haven’t been subject to the same media scrutiny. It’s not because they aren’t getting free products or trips. They are. It’s not because they don’t face the same ethical dilemmas, or are somehow more ethical than moms.
To be fair, from time to time, a story from another sector will bubble up to mainstream media. But it’s nothing compared to the inordinate amount of attention paid to the mommy blogger.
The [proposed] FTC guidelines will apply to all bloggers. Why are they so often characterized as a mommy blogger issue?
I hope you’ll take the time to check out these posts! There are so many amazing Mothers of Intentionthese days and so little time. But trust me, these three are worth it!
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Having just buried a close friend and colleague who died in Afghanistan, I appreciate you highlighting the very real — and thorny — question of an exit strategy. He was a tremendously talented, funny, loving human being, who leaves behind a pregnant wife, parents and siblings who will miss him forever — as will the Marine Corps. I wish I could believe he didn’t die in vain.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Ms. Kelly labors under the false impression that our armed dorces DO provide security for the United States. Oh, I know that they are responsible for some of it, but the truth is that our armed forces haven’t fought to protect our country since 1945.
The civlian agencies that are providing a great deal of security for our country, do so quietly, for that is the nature of the beast.
The ultimate (and rarely discussed) truth in “national security”, is that our country isn’t particularly safe. Safety is an illusion, just like the concept of “safe neighborhoods”… people feel safe therefore they believe that they are safe.
Our armed forces aren’t fighting for us in Afghanistan or Iraq… they are fighting because the executive branch told them to.