Welcome to the latest installment of BlogHer’s series Why I’m Political. I know lots of people steer clear of the world of politics or anything that makes you think about one more televised candidate debate! But the political means a lot of different things to different people, especially women. I learned that as I was writing Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America and discovered the women writers who contributed their essays to show the world that women in general, and mothers in particular, are not only motivated by important causes and issues, but they are writing publicly about those issues and are getting involved to in various ways to make a difference.

This week, I was pleased to interview Ilina Ewens, who writes at her personal blog Dirt & Noise, and contributed to Mothers of Intention with her essay, “Purchasing Power of Women.” Ilina wrote her essay after having to explain to her two young sons the importance of President Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law — so I wasn’t surprised that Ilina had a lot of things to say about being a politically minded woman!

What motivated you to become political and/or go public with your political views? Were you ever afraid of what your /friends/family would think?

I’ve never been one to shy away from controversy, though I don’t seek it out. I am confident in what I believe and think more women should feel free to speak their minds. So many women have told me what they think politically but don’t share because it’s different than what their fathers or husbands believe. It’s a tough position to be in. My political views and values are such a large part of who I am, so it wasn’t a conscious decision to write about politics. In fact, my very first blog post was about politics. It’s called “Feeling Blue.” I wrote about why I didn’t support George Bush and how I explained that to my sons.

What are the issues you most focused on now going into the 2012 campaign season? What issue do you think is important that the candidates aren’t talking about?

Education. It’s abominable that teacher salaries are being cut and less money is spent on educating our children. We need to change our paradigm to view education as an investment, not an expense. The future of our country is on the backs of children today. We can’t leave them to fend for themselves with no skills to not just cope, but to succeed, in the high tech, global climate that awaits them.

Coupled with the lack of education focus is the lack of support for families in general. It’s an outrage to me that conservatives rest on their “family values,” when their policies harm families more than help them. Our kids can’t succeed if they are hungry, hurting, homeless, abused, latchkey, or without bare necessities and resources. The working poor need help. The middle class needs help. We need to restore a sense of security and long-term vision to the people. Providing and valuing a sound education is the only way out and up. This seems like a no-brainer to me because the whole community is lifted by an educated society.

I think one reason education is so sorely neglected and undervalued is because teaching is a profession that is largely female. As a nation we don’t put the same value on women (take our crappy maternity leave policies as an example). This palpable neglect and discrimination against women must end. That drives me crazy, and that is what no candidate is talking about.

How do you connect your political views or activism with your role as a mother? Did your views/approach to the political world change after you had children?

I’ve always been opinionated and active in politics, since I could vote. I’ve always seen the world as a place bigger than the space I occupy (literally and figuratively). When I became a mother, my perspective shifted to make me see things in a broader way. I no longer focused just on the here and now; I started focusing on the future. The concept of legacy is important to me, mostly because I have no sense of that myself. I have a fierce desire to follow the cliche to leave the world better for my sons. I also want to show them firsthand that every single person matters and that being engaged in the system is

paramount to changing the world.

I have taken my sons canvassing and have taken them with me to vote in all elections big and small. We have marched in protests against the re-segregation of our school system and watched presidential speeches on television. I openly talk to my sons about the issues that matter to me and follow up with what we can do about it. I don’t want them to feel helpless and overwhelmed. I want them to see that being informed, educated, and involved makes a big difference. And I hope they pass that on their children one day.

What motivated you to write the essay that was included in Mothers of Intention?

I think mothers’ voices have been ignored, but social media has allowed us to speak out and speak up. We are a force, politically, socially, and financially. I love the community of women who contributed to Mothers of Intention and am proud to have contributed to the book. It should serve as a wake-up call to politicians and their handlers to stop underestimating the power and value of mothers. We advocate for multiple audiences — children, our husbands, our parents, teachers, caregivers, women, teens, girls, the list goes on — so our voices are powerful and relevant.

Recently you’ve done some writing at your blog, Dirt & Noise, as well as The Broad Side, about the issues in the Penn State sexual abuse story? What prompted you to write about issues involving abuse and how we react to that socially/politically?

Though we don’t want to admit it, we live in a culture of abuse. It’s more than the Kitty Genovese Syndrome. We have come to accept that hubris and power trump human decency. Certain segments of our population, often the young and/or disenfranchised among us, are victims of abuse. Those victims have little to no recourse. Our values are simply effed up when grown men put their careers and wallets first. This mindset is not unique to Penn State. I’ve seen it in corporations, too. Abuse gets brushed under a PR machine’s rug, and the culture doesn’t change. By allowing abuse to continue and not protecting victims, we as a society are saying that it’s acceptable. We condone this kind of violence by ignoring it. It has me seething.

Would you ever run for office?

No way. Too many skeletons that I can’t bear to bare. Plus, it’s a daunting task to run for office. I have a family and my own marketing consulting business, and I can’t imagine how I would juggle it all. But most of all, I also don’t have the temperament or decorum to play political games. I’m better with the written word than playing word games with a poker face. However, I did desperately want to be president of the United States when I was in first grade. My teacher, in not such a kind manner, told me I could never be president because I wasn’t born in America. I was crushed.

Who is not running for office right now that you wish was running?

My husband. Seriously. He is extraordinarily smart and compassionate, with no ego to get in his way. He is a rare professional who operates with the ideal balance of heart and head. He hasn’t an ounce of hubris and truly wants to focus on bringing opposing sides together rather than pushing forward his own agenda. He has strong opinions and is incredibly articulate and well informed. I’d love to see him make a difference locally. I also happen to think I’d make a fine first lady.

Who do you hope will be the first woman elected president of the United States?

I’d totally vote for you, Joanne! I find it astounding that India had a woman leader before the United States (I say this as an Indian woman who was raised in the U.S.). I met [U.S. Senator from Maryland] Barbara Mikulski once many years ago. She left a lasting impression. I think she’s got some Paul Wellstone spirit in her, and American politics is missing that kind of earnest passion. I would love to see her in office. I would heartily support [U.S. Senator from New York] Kirsten Gillibrand, too. I love her commitment to social issues and her understanding of how social issues integrate within the larger scheme. I bet we have a lot in common as we navigate raising compassionate, responsible boys. And I would love for her to Skype with my six-year-old son

so he could practice his Mandarin. What a leg up she has on the global stage with that skill!

What advice do you have for women online and other bloggers about how not to fear writing about important or controversial issues?

What’s most important is the tone you take. Write confidently and passionately. Tell a story to depict your position, rather than point fingers and call names. I admittedly can be snarky, but my voice still reflects my beliefs in a heartfelt, positive manner. Write for yourself and your main audience; don’t write to please the masses. I also reiterate to my readers that I use my blog and my voice to opine, not to report. Authenticity is important so share both your joys and heartaches. Controversy is easier to digest when it’s presented in a thoughtful way that clearly reveals the writer’s opinions and values. A little vulnerability can be a good thing to open up dialogue. There’s a big difference. In the online world everything is open to controversy. I even got jeers on a post I wrote about grilled cheese! I wrote about using your voice here.

What advice do you have for women who are thinking about doing more writing at their blogs that involves issues important to them, but who are wary about dipping their toes into potentially dangerous waters?

Start with something local. Write about what’s happening in your community. Make a call to action for a food drive or shed light on an issue others might not know much about. You don’t have to tackle the pro-choice debate on your first post. Write about what you know. You could even write about a topic that you want to explore more, and present your readers with some questions to garner their opinions. You don’t have to present yourself as an expert on every topic that moves you. It’s okay to present a mix of opinions and facts, because you’re sharing your ideas and values, not presenting objective news content.

Ilina Ewen is known as “Mommy” to two sons ages eight and six, affectionately called “Bird” and “Deal.” She’s a creative spirit with business sensibilities and a love for all things culinary. Ilina is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years of experience in branding, communications, advertising, and consumer research. She believes in the power of community and spends her time advocating for causes that touch her heart or ruffle her feathers. Ilina is a lover of words and has an affinity for Audrey Hepburn, the Oxford comma, and Meyer lemons. She writes about her musings and rants at Dirt & Noise (home of the weekly feature 5:00 Fridays, where you can find a new cocktail recipe and the story that inspired it), TypeAParent, and Technorati.

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Welcome to this month’s edition of the Why I’m Political series. Don’t run off! I know the word “politics” can be scary and conjure up images of never-ending presidential debates. But that’s not what this is about. It’s about thoughtful women from both sides of the political aisle sharing what motivated them to take the leap into writing publicly about issues important to them — and what they’re focused on as we enter the 2012 election season.

Some of the women in this series are contributors to my recent book, Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America (Bright Sky Press) , which explores the rise of women’s voices online.

This month, I interviewed Jaelithe Judy from The State of Discontent and MOMocrats about her essay, “Cynthia Davis is Right: Hunger is a Motivator,” which is about her experiences with childhood hunger. She was prompted to write that essay when Davis, then a Missouri State Representative, advocated that Missouri programs to help feed hungry children in the summer should be shut down to save money, suggesting that kids could just get a job at McDonald’s where they would get free food as employees.

Not surprisingly, Jaelithe had a few things to say about that, in her always thoughtful and eloquent style. Her post is extremely moving. I read an excerpt from her essay at a recent conference where I was speaking on a panel about storytelling, and I saw at least one person crying as I read Jaelithe’s words about the difference between being hungry and going hungry.

Jaelithe, who I have the honor of knowing through our work at MOMocrats, was very gracious about taking time out of her already overloaded schedule to chat:

What motivated you to become political and/or go public with your political views? Were you afraid of what your readers would think?

I’ve been interested in politics since I was old enough to begin to understand it. I was just a freshman in high school when I won a school-wide essay contest with a piece on the value of cultural diversity in schools.

As the child of a working-class, divorced teenage mother, growing up in one of the most dangerous and economically segregated cities in the country, I had a lot of school of hard knocks lessons early in life on just how personal politics can get. I know I was incredibly lucky to rise from those circumstances to the position I enjoy today as a college-educated, middle class person, and I also know that even though I worked like hell to get myself here I could not have done it without help — from neighbors, teachers, family and my country.

So I feel a responsibility to speak up about politics. I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of other Americans who have not had the same opportunities I’ve had to make my voice heard.

Of course I was scared of how the people who read my work would react. I still get scared all the time. But it’s scary to write about anything that’s important. If I’m not scaring myself now and again as a writer, I’m not working hard enough.

What are the issues you’re most focused on now going into the 2012 campaign season? What issue do you think is important that the candidates aren’t talking about?

Obviously, if you ask random Americans off the street what the most important campaign issue is right now, the answer you’ll hear again and again is, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Which of course is true. But it drives me absolutely bonkers when politicians say, “I’m going to create two million jobs in my first year in office,” and then do not elaborate in any meaningful way as to how they plan to do such a thing.

I view our struggling economy as a symptom of a whole set of bigger systemic problems. The economy is tied up with environmental and energy policy. I live in a state that’s been hard hit lately by natural disasters fueled by climate change, and you can bet that has not helped the economy. The economy is tied up with education. Our public education system is a disgrace, and it’s failing to produce good doctors, scientists, and entrepreneurs. There are more honors students in India right now than there are students, period, in the

United States. Is it any wonder that our jobs are being shipped overseas?

But of course the biggest reason our economy crashed so dramatically in 2008 is that there just wasn’t enough government oversight of financial institutions. You know, I don’t want onerous regulations that make it hard to do business. But I do think that corporations should be required to play fairly with consumers. If I swindled one of my neighbors the way some people have been swindled by banks in the past few years, I could be prosecuted for theft or fraud. Why should a bank get away with things a citizen can’t?

How do you connect your political views or activism with your role as a mother? Did your views/approach to the political world change after you had children?

Motherhood absolutely and permanently revoked my privilege to give up on the world in despair. The future is no longer an abstract place to me. It’s a real world my son will live in someday — hopefully for a long time after I’m gone. Becoming a mother made me so much braver about speaking up for what I believe in, because I simply have to be. Come what may, one day, when my son is an adult, I want to be able to tell him truthfully that I tried to make the world a better place.

I think a solid commitment to protecting the future is something mothers across the political spectrum have in common, actually, and I hope that gives mothers a special talent for finding common political ground.

Describe your additional writing that you’d call “political” since you wrote your incredibly moving essay about politics and hunger.

Lately I’ve been writing a lot about food policy at Care2.com. The way we eat is connected to so many very important political issues. Choosing a salad over a cheeseburger can change your carbon footprint. The cocoa in your hot chocolate may have been sustainably harvested, or it may have been doused in pesticides and picked by a starving child laborer who earns 40 cents a day. What kids are served in a school lunch program can affect their standardized test scores. Food choices matter, a lot more than many people consider, and I’m trying to illuminate some of the ways that those choices matter.

How have your political views impacted your relationships with your friends and family, if at all?

I have absolutely lost friends over politics. When I started writing for MOMocrats back in 2007, there were definitely a few other bloggers who just stopped talking to me. It makes me sad because I myself appreciate diversity in thought; I like listening to other people’s points of view — as long as they are well thought out, educated points of view. So I don’t generally want to stop being friends with someone just because we think differently on a political issue.

Some of my in-laws just don’t read much of what I write, on purpose, so they won’t get annoyed with me. But my mother absolutely approves. She even wrote a guest post for MOMocrats once! She’s never explicitly said so (gee, thanks, mom) but I think she’s really proud of me for growing up to be a bit of a professional rabblerouser. I definitely learned rabblerousing from her.

Would you ever run for office? If so, which one?

I think I would make a terrible politician. I was never the popular kid in school — I’m a major nerd, on purpose — and the idea of being famous sort of terrifies me.

I would also have a really hard time toeing a party line. I’ve always been much more interested in the policy part of politics than the partisan part. I care more about outcomes than who gets something done. When I was just a kid I had this sudden revelation that a typical partisan’s support of a political party bears an uncanny resemblance to a sports’ fan’s support of a favorite team, and that just seems ridiculous to me. Politics is much too important to be treated like a sport. Every time I vote, people’s lives may literally hang in the balance.

Who do you hope will be the first woman elected president of the United States? Why?

Elizabeth Warren. Because I think she’s like me — she cares more about policy than partisanship. And because she’s smart as hell, and willing to stand

up to anyone. She wasn’t afraid to criticize the president after he appointed her. I think that’s fantastic. A good president needs advisers who are willing to say “I think you’re wrong.”

What advice do you have for women online and other bloggers about how not to fear writing about important or controversial issues?

I don’t think there’s any way to totally banish that fear. What I did, personally, is put my fear into context. Am I more afraid of possibly offending someone, or more afraid of what might happen if no one speaks out on an issue that I find to be incredibly important? And really, are political controversies that develop in the blogosphere any worse than other sorts? People will argue for days over the best way to start tomato seedlings, or the merits of cloth diapering. I think we Americans need to get over this silly idea we have that it’s not polite to talk with friends about politics. If we don’t talk rationally to one another about politics, how will we ever get anything done?

Jaelithe Judy, mother of one, is a writer, editor and search engine optimization consultant who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Jaelithe works on SEO at Cool Mom Picks and Cool Mom Tech, writes about sustainable food for Care2.com, is a semi-regular guest on the MOMocrats MOMochat Blog Talk Radio show, and occasionally remembers to write at her personal blog, The State of Discontent. In her spare time, Jaelithe grows far too many tomatoes, writes poetry that she never shows to anyone, and volunteers one day a week as an unofficial librarian at a school for children with special needs.

Originally posted at BlogHer.

What are women voters thinking about for the 2012 election — when they’re not being bombarded by stories about Herman Cain’s lady troubles or Rick Perry’s very own Howard Dean moment?  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re focused on other more important things.  So BlogHer asked me to talk to some impressive women from around the web in a new series they are featuring called “Why I’m Political” to find out what’s on their minds and what prompted them to stick their toes into the sometimes murky waters of writing political essays.

As some of you may know (I hope you know), I recently wrote a book called Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America, which explores the rise of women’s voices online and features essays from over 50 great writers. I’m going to interview some of those terrific contributors again to get their thoughts on what prompted them to take the leap into those sometimes-dangerous waters, and how they’re viewing the 2012 election season.

My first featured contributor is a wonderful writer you may know — Shannon Lowe from Rocks in My Dryer. While she doesn’t do as much blogging now as she used to, Shannon wrote two amazing posts that were included in Mothers of Intention — “Why I’m Pro-Life” and “The Southern Girl’s Guide to Proper Political Discourse: What Your Momma Should’ve Told You.” Shannon’s essay about how her thinking evolved on the issue of abortion is a powerful one, so I wanted to talk with her more about how she came to write it and what she’s thinking about now as we head into the 2012 campaign season:

1. What motivated you to become political and/or go public with your political views? Were you afraid of what your readers would think? In hindsight, would you write these posts again?

I was never a political blogger — I only wrote about politics publicly a handful of times. So yes, it was a bit of a personal leap for me jump straight into the hot topic of abortion. I don’t regret doing it, though. I find it frustrating that there is so much “shouting” over this issue (on both sides). I wanted to speak my piece in a way that was reasoned and calm, and I think I accomplished that. At the time, I received some very kind feedback both from those who agreed and disagreed with me, thanking me for sharing my experience. For all the rancor that can appear in this debate at the public/political level, I think there’s actually room for courteous, respectful dialogue at the more personal level — at least, that’s been my own experience.

2. What are the issues you most focused on now going into the 2012 campaign season? What energizes you? Drives you crazy? What issue do you think is important that the candidates aren’t talking about?

Thankfully, I think most of the candidates are talking about the right issues — like most Americans, I’m focused on economic issues in this election. I’m glad to see candidates tackling the hard questions such as how to offer incentives and freedom to small business owners and other entrepreneurs so that job creators can get back to creating jobs.

3. How do you connect your political views or activism with your role as a mother?

I want my kids to grow up to be adults who are responsible, self-disciplined, and innovative. And honestly, I hope they inherit a government that is also responsible, self-disciplined, and innovative!

Please read the rest of the interview with Shannon over at BlogHer!

Yup, that's me there with Nancy Pelosi!

If someone asked you to take a day out of your life to help mothers and children who are the poorest of the poor, who need the things we take for granted every day – enough food to feed our children, vaccines to prevent diseases, medicines to keep our families as healthy as possible – would you do it?

What if that meant going to Capitol Hill and becoming a lobbyist for a day?  Sounds a little scary, doesn’t it?  OK, maybe it sounds a lot scary.  But I’m here to tell you it’s not as bad as it might sound at first.

When someone says “lobbyist,” the first thing that probably pops into your head is a guy in a suit who wines and dines other guys in suits to influence the lawmaking process on behalf of some giant corporation.  And that happens.  A lot.  But at the end of the day influence is never just about the martinis or the lobster dinners.   An effective lobbyist has to be good at face-to-face conversations about something he or she believes in.

That’s why mothers are naturals at the art of lobbying and activism.

Most people would likely scoff at that notion. (One person has actually laughed in my face at the idea).  But talking about what’s important for kids and families comes naturally to moms.  Moms “lobby” on behalf of their children every day – with teachers, doctors and anyone else who’s making important decisions that will have a lasting impact on their families. So as it turns out, moms inherently have the makings of being amazing lobbyists.

And that’s what I saw when I was asked to participate in a day of advocacy on behalf of ONE, the non-profit organization founded by U2 lead singer Bono, that’s committed to ending extreme poverty and providing vaccines for preventable diseases.  A group of ONE Moms who traveled with ONE to Kenya this summer to see the impact these programs have on the poorest of the poor recently took to Capitol Hill to meet with their elected representatives to use the power of constituency to ask that the federal dollars that help fund the programs ONE supports not be cut in the upcoming federal budget negotiations (less than 1% of our federal budget goes to international aid programs).

We were prepped and given lots of stats and facts about the amount of federal dollars that go toward programs overseas that ONE supports, like providing HIV/AIDS vaccines to mothers to lessen the chance that they will transmit the disease to their babies when they’re born, and what a big impact just a few cents can have in the campaign to create a healthier world.  I was worried I would never be able to keep all that in my head to make a compelling argument to the staffs of my senators and congressman.  Fortunately, people are just people, even when they’re sitting in those power suites in Washington, D.C.  And once we started talking, it was clear that the potential impact didn’t come so much from the exact statistics we used or the facts we recited.  What mattered was that we took the time to personally express our views, rather than expecting and assuming that our representatives would vote on certain budget issues in the way we hoped.

Of course, not everyone can make a trip to Washington, D.C., or even a state capital, to let lawmakers know what’s important to them.  But the people we met with were clear on this – they pay attention to what their constituents take the time to say, whether it’s in person or not.  A letter, e-mail or phone call can carry just as much weight as an in-person meeting.

So with the 2012 campaign season upon us, what are the issues you’d be willing to become an “activist” for?

Of course, you can read more about women becoming online activists in my book, Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America (Bright Sky Press, 2011), which explores not only a look at the rise of women and social media, but also features the work of over 50 amazing women writers from around the web.

Image courtesy ONE/Lauren Balog

Originally posted at iVillage

I’m excited to be heading to Capitol Hill today with the ONE team and the moms who traveled to Kenya to see how families there are benfiting from U.S. aid to help treate HIV/Aids.  This video says a little something about why we’re going:

If you have a minute, please reach out to your lawmakers — Tweet the White House, or visit the ONE website to get some information to send your own Tweet or Facebook message to your elected officials with the hashtag “#endofaids.”   The health of women and children around the world doesn’t just impact their countries — it impacts us, as well, both in terms of showing the world that we are about more than Iraq and Afghanistan, and in giving families a fighting chance to create better lives for themselves, which helps everyone in the global economy.

So here’s the announcement!!

I’m so proud of how it turned out and so grateful to the many fabulous women who agreed to to be a part of the project by allowing me to include their thoughts and writing.  Not to mention the enthusiastic reviews it’s been getting.  I promise, I did not pay anyone to write those things!

Interested in hearing a little bit about it before heading over to Amazon.com or BrightSkyPress.com to pick up a copy?  Take a listen to an interview I did with David Wescott of It’s Not a Lecture about the inspiration for the book, the power of social media and how I would advise a political woman who is called a flake or the queen of rage.

So now I’m just waiting for the calls from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert — because I know if they’re interested in books about Davy Crockett and William McKinley, they’re going to be bowled over by this one, especially as they head out for their beach vacations to steel themselves for the 2012 campaign!  If they want a window into how women — the majority of American voters — they just need to spend a day with Mothers of Intention!

Having a book published has been a longtime dream of mine, and it took me a while to find my way to the right project at the right time.  Even as I’m feeling overwhelmed with the whole marketing and promotion aspect of author-hood, I’m also thinking of how to take things to the next level.  Does that mean another book?  A new enterprise?  Business partners?

There was a time when I thought I had my whole life figured out.  Turns out, it’s been nothing that I thought it would be.  And that’s what She Writes founder Kamy Wicoff asked me to write about this week the blogging community with thousands of woman writers.

So, are you rethinking things at midlife?  If so, is it a major course correction or just a matter of choosing which fork in the road is the right one? If you’ve got something to say about that, head over to She Writes and see what other women are saying, as well.

American moms aren’t the only ones who get all fired up about politics.  With Canadian elections coming up next week, mothers up north are voicing their views on what’s happening in their country.  I’m excited to have as my guest Mother of Intention Annie from PhD in Parenting — a woman many of us know is definitely not afraid of speaking her mind — who weighs in on what it really means when politicians say they want to be “tough on crime.”  After reading this, it made me wonder if American politicians and Canadian officials try to drum up support using the same playbook.

Canada is in the middle of a tough election campaign which ends on May 2. This early election is the result of the Conservative government losing the confidence of the House of Commons. The Conservatives were found to be in contempt of Parliament for refusing to share information that opposition members needed to assess legislation before the House.

In this campaign, there is a significant divide between the issues and promises being pushed by the Conservatives and those being promised by the other four major parties: The Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party of Canada. This divide can be seen on many issues, including the issue of crime.

The Conservatives “law and order” agenda

The Conservative Party of Canada has a plan. If re-elected, they promise to implement a “tough on crime” agenda.

Law-abiding Canadians expect to live in a country where they don’t have to worry when they go to bed at night; where they don’t have to look over their shoulders as they walk down the street; where they can expect to find their car where they parked it. – Conservative Party of Canada Electoral Platform

The Conservative promises include crackdowns on human smuggling and contraband tobacco, as well as promises to lengthen sentences and make it more difficult for prisoners to be granted parole. The Conservative party knows that this, along with other “law and order” initiatives they have implemented over the past few years, means that the prison population will increase steadily in years to come. In January, the Conservative government announced several prison expansion projects (construction jobs = economic recovery!) that would cost $158 million and create 634 new spaces. Overall, the parliamentary budget officer estimates that tougher sentences could cost between $10 billion and $18 billion over five years (source: Toronto Star).

Why this expensive “tough on crime” stance when crime in Canada has been steadily decreasing?

Canada’s crime rate is down 17% from 10 years ago and the crime severity index is down 22% from 10 years ago (source: Statistics Canada). But statistics don’t win elections; fear does. The increasingly gruesome and sensationalized media reporting on crimes combined with the fear mongering of the Conservative Party’s campaign may be more likely to sway votes than the reality portrayed through the statistics.

According to Statistics Canada, The Canadian incarceration rate is about 117 inmates per 100,000 population (compared to the United States rate of 760 per 100,000). The American incarceration rate, which is significantly higher than all other Western democracies, has quadrupled since the 1970s. Former Republican U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency head Asa Hutchison has warned Canada not to repeat his government’s mistakes. According to the Globe and Mail, Mr. Hutchison says the Republicans’ approach did not put enough emphasis on preparing convicts for release and that their mandatory minimum sentences often put people behind bars who did not need to be there.

If bigger prisons and tougher sentences isn’t the answer, what is?

Instead of simply lengthening sentences and increasing incarceration rates, Canada’s other political parties have proposed a variety of initiatives to help address the roots of crime. For example:

The Harper government’s narrow preoccupation concerning our communities has been punishing crime, and exploiting fear. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that just one of their piecemeal sentencing Bills will cost federal and provincial governments $10 to 13 billion over five years, for building US-style mega-prisons. No one disagrees that criminals must be punished. But more prisons alone will not make our communities safer and stronger. That approach has failed in the U.S. Evidence and experience suggest it will take much more than prisons. – Liberal Party of Canada Platform

This is followed by a series of promises on issues like affordable housing, fighting poverty, fixing problems with the long gun registry, establishing a task force to examine the systemic causes of increasing abuse and murder rates of Aboriginal women, and more. The Liberal Party’s platform also includes funds for early childhood learning and care across the country. The New Democratic Party’s platform includes proposed funding for an anti-gang strategy to ensure that our prisons do not serve as “crime schools”, youth crime prevention programs, and proper care and treatment for mentally ill prisoners.

They have also proposed a variety of social programs tackling issues like daycare and early childhood education, mental health, affordable housing, and poverty reduction. The Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois also have proposed significant measures to tackle poverty. In fact, all parties except the Conservatives have pledged support for the Make Poverty History goals.

Experts on criminal justice agree that this is the way to go. According to the Toronto Star article, Solving Crime? Tackle the root causes first, the steps that lead to safer communities are:

• Reduce poverty and school dropout rates.
• Invest in comprehensive childhood development initiatives.
• Make housing affordable.
• Increase access to health care and rehabilitative programs.
• Reduce incarceration rates, partly through alternatives to jail, and direct savings to neighborhoods with a high number of offenders.

While ignoring the cost of proposed mega-prisons and new fighter jets, supporters of the Conservatives ask: “Where is the money for those social programs going to come from?” The parties all have budgets that outline the proposed sources of revenue for their spending promises. However, experts on crime reduction suggest that with time the cost of those programs could be erased through lower crime rates. According to the Toronto Star:

Attacking root causes doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if savings from reduced incarceration are reinvested in troubled neighbourhoods. With crime costing an estimated $70 billion annually, $1.8 billion of it for prisons, cost-benefit analyses have repeatedly shown such investments would save many more billions in the long run.

The “tough on crime” choice facing Canada

Our country has a choice when it comes to the “tough on crime” agenda:

• We can support programs such child care funding to help care for and educate children for about 8 hours per day when they are young or we can defer the payment and pick up the tab with 24 hour a day maximum security care when they are older.
• We can help low income Canadians feed their families and lift themselves out of poverty or we can pay for three meals a day for an increasing roster of inmates.
• We can invest in affordable housing programs or we can pay for expensive prison cells.
• We can ensure access to mental health services for Canadian youth and families or we can pay to lock them up when they cannot take it anymore.

Certainly not every undereducated, poor, homeless or mentally ill person becomes a criminal and not every criminal is undereducated, poor, homeless or mentally ill. However, we do know that addressing those issues and addressing them early will significantly decrease crime rates, improve the quality of life of Canadians, and save us money in the long run. Are Canadians so short sighted that we would rather pay to lock everyone up now than invest in a better future? I hope not.

Can moms save the vote?

In past elections, around half of Canadian moms didn’t bother to vote. This sad reality, along with the fact that many Canadian moms on social media didn’t seem to be talking about the election, led Emma Waverman and Karen Green to start the “Mom The Vote” initiative a few weeks ago. Using #momthevote on twitter and a Mom The Vote facebook page, they encouraged moms to engage in an online discussion of election issues. The discussion on both channels has been extremely active in this campaign where many of the political parties have platforms specifically addressing family issues.

Whether the active discussion translates into more votes by moms remains to be seen. But if it does, those moms could be part of a tide of change in our country. Polls have been showing a significant increase in support for the New Democratic Party across the country, but in particular from women, voters under age 45, and Quebeckers. The “Mom the Vote” crowd could be part of a shift from a “tough on crime” agenda that focuses on locking more people up for longer periods of time to an agenda focused on addressing issues of importance to families, which coincidentally also happen to address the root causes of crime.

Annie is a social, political and consumer advocate on issues of importance to parents, women and children. She has been blogging about the art and science of parenting on the PhD in Parenting Blog since May 2008. Annie has been covering the Canadian election on her own blog, as well as on Care2 Causes blog and The Bad Moms Club. You can find her on twitter (@phdinparenting) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/phdinparenting).

Welcome the latest installment Mothers of Intention!  Pleas welcome Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple, the authors of the new book, Good Enough Is the New Perfect: Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood.  While I haven’t had a chance to dig into this book yet, I’m looking forward to it because I’ve been following Becky and Hollee for a long time in their role as advocates for finding a better way to manage work and family in their writing for the ABA Journal.  I know they’re going to have some awesome insights into the path so many of us are trying to navigate — how to keep our sanity in our family and professional lives.

One day last summer, Hollee pulled out of an Ohio campground, excited to be on her way to Chicago.

She’d been enjoying a family reunion at Lake Hope State Park, but she was ready for a bug-free wireless connection and some quality urban time with Becky. The ride took longer than the 1 hour and 27 minutes promised, but Hollee had given herself plenty of time. She parked in the extended lot and shuttled her way to the gate.

That’s when she punched in her confirmation code and got this message: “Sorry, but you can’t check in until 24 hours before your flight.” She knew she was early, but she thought it was more like two hours. Turns out that she’d driven to the airport on the wrong day.

When she returned to camp — having soothed her embarrassment with a stop at Starbucks — her eight-year-old son greeted her with a bear hug.

“Can you believe I made such a big mistake?” Hollee asked him.

That was her redemption moment. The chance to show Gideon that it’s OK to screw up.

When we aim for perfection as parents, we do our children — and ourselves — a disservice. It’s not good for them, and it’s not good for us. And, yet, ours is a generation that often treats motherhood like a competitive sport — aiming to be perfect moms who create perfect children.

The quest for perfection is our generation’s single greatest obstacle to juggling work and family — and, often, it keeps us from achieving the dreams that mean the most to us. That’s one of the biggest findings from the nationwide survey of working moms we conducted for Good Enough Is the New Perfect: Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood.

In fact, the respondents who took a “good enough” approach at work and home were more likely to be satisfied with their choices, less likely to feel they’d sacrificed too much, and less likely to describe their marriages as a “disaster” or “not very good.” And — this is the best part — they’d given up surprisingly little professional ground to achieve this state of contentment. These women hadn’t settled for second best — they’d simply stopped beating themselves up and scrambling to meet other people’s definitions of success.

We do not need to be perfect to be successful. And nor do our children.

Ellen Galinsky, the president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute and the author of Mind in the Making, makes a good point about this. When we model perfection, she told us, we teach our kids a heartbreaking and dangerous lesson: Mistakes are unacceptable.

Children who wither when confronted with challenges view their abilities as fixed — once they fall short, it’s very hard for them to rebound. On the other hand, kids who develop a “growth” mindset believe they can improve (in ability and intelligence) over time and with practice. They view new challenges as fun and exciting.

So when Gideon asked Hollee last summer whether the airport mix-up was her first mistake (insert laughter here), she reminded him of several others and told him how she’d overcome them.

She laughed about her three-hour detour through the woods and back and talked about the upside: The Temple family got to spend the rest of the evening together and Hollee brought back some Silly Bandz. And when she headed back to the airport the next day, she felt like he was a step closer to that growth mindset she’s trying to foster.

Which, as far as we’re concerned, is perfect.

You can read more Mothers of Intention voices in just a few weeks, and you won’t need a computer to do it!

I’m pleased to have as today’s Mother of Intention Krystal Ball, who ran for Congress in the First Congressional District in Virginia in 2010.  Unfortunately, Krystal lost her race, but that hasn’t put an end to her political activism.  As a mother of a two-year-old daughter, Krystal is keeping the pressure on policymakers, especially when it comes to issues that are important to her, including the environment.

My husband (who is 40) likes to say that from his generation to my generation (I’m 29) to the young people in college now, a lot has changed in terms of environmentalism. His generation drove an SUV and was proud of it. My generation still drove the SUV but felt guilty about it. And today’s co-eds actually forgo the SUV.

A lot has already been written about the commitment of millennials to the environment. A recent poll confirms that it is indeed a much more important issue to today’s young people with 9 out of 10 millennials professing a belief that previous generations had damaged our environment and that they would have to clean it up.  Statistics like these give me hope and optimism for our future. As the mother of a toddler though, I find myself wondering what passions and commitments will drive my daughter’s generation.

Today’s millennials may argue with the older generation about environmentalism or global warming, and for a time the forces of industrial-realism may seem to be ascendant (see the 2010 midterms). But there is no doubt about where the next generation is going. For example, I’ve been taking in my fair share of toddler TV programming. I can’t help but notice that a lot of these shows have a plot line of “Save the X.” Save the Puppies (Wonder Pets), Save the Mermaids (Dora), and in my daughter Ella’s current favorite, Diego saves a different animal every single episode. Clearly some marketer has done the focus tests and recognized that the toddler set likes to save things but I’ve also noticed that a lot of times, we’re saving the X from some environmental disaster.

Specifically, as I watched Diego this week with Ella, he saved a baby ring seal from melting ice caves (presumably caused by global warming). The episode ends with Diego instructing the toddlers to remember to turn the lights off so they can help cool the planet. Similarly Dora saves the Mermaids from garbage in the ocean. I have no idea what happens with the puppies. I can’t stand the Wonder Pets.

Just as open racism has gone from socially acceptable to taboo in less than thirty years, so too will an industrial realism that doesn’t place our environmental obligations at center stage. The older generation sneers with contempt that a spotted owl might displace a factory or prevent an economically important logging operation. It’s as if the spotted owl became the Cadillac driving welfare queen of environmentalism. However, Ella’s generation is being socialized to “Save the Spotted Owl” from infancy and they will not accept that you put away your environmentalism when you put away your dolls or your Tonka trucks.

Ella sees a color- blind world, filled with animals that need our help. She is raised around the company of gay people and conservative Christians. Her generation will start from the deep sense of environmental obligation that their millennial parents have and take that obligation one step forward. In thirty years, the people who are in power now who grew up under the cloak of an industrial realism that saw jobs and the environment in perpetual tension will be retired and a new generation of leader who sees environmentalism as a moral and economic imperative will be ascendant. And we will have, in part, Diego to thank.

Krystal Marie Ball is a 29-year-old former Congressional candidate and current Democratic Strategist in addition to being a Certified Public Accountant, software engineer, small business owner and mother. You can learn more about Krystal at www.krystalonline.com