Mama's Musings

Being at Bloggerheads

My dad, pretty much the smartest guy alive, sent me this fabulous New York Times article about how Barack Obama has captured the pulse of what makes today's generation tick - participation. We all want to be a part of something larger than ourselves, and it's working. It's no wonder I've received numerous emails from Obama supporters (some of whom are immensely popular themselves). Social networking and the Web are the way to the White House.

Obama raised a good chunk of his campaign change from online donations; unlike his rivals, he didn't ask for money first. He asked for their opinion, then if they wanted to donate, great. And,  because human beings like to give their two cents, they did - in more ways than one.

I'm thrilled for Obama's success. And he seems to have surrounded himself with savvy advisors who actually listen to 'experts in the field' such as educators.

Being an avid blogger myself, I just have to grin. It means someone's actually listening.

Grant us our daily bread -- but NOT from Lidl!

After reading this investigative article about how rolls are made in Germany's weekly intellectual newspaper Die Zeit (think New Yorker, only in newsprint format), I will never buy another vacuum-packed Brötchen from Lidl again...

Essentially, the article reports how the machines that bake them cannot be thoroughly cleaned and the workers are treated so poorly that injuries are viewed as 'part of the job'. Mold grows on the machines and people are demoralized.

That's all I needed to know.

Why Vote...When You can Blog?

The age of the Internet has finally blossomed in the political arena. Web 2.0's interactivity is taking on political hues of red and blue as we see the impact bloggers, YouTubers and the like are having on political campaigns. The Washington Post reported today on the online world as the 'visceral connection to the zeitgeist". It's funny, really. Everyone's got an opinion. One goes like this:

Glenn Hurowitz, a Democrat from D.C., is one of the group's newest members. A few weeks ago, the 29-year-old started Democratic Courage, a political action committee aimed solely at fighting Clinton.

"Fact is, the general population hasn't tuned in to this election yet, and the more people tune in, the more they'll know about Hillary Clinton, the less likely she'll get the nomination," said Hurowitz. "That's the beauty of the Internet. What might be bad for the candidates is good for people like me . . . trying to have an impact."

Trying to have an impact? Isn't Hillary a Democrat, Glenn?

Is the World Wide Web fracturing democracy?

What seems to have the most traction in the Web World is when you're against something as opposed to being for something. Facebook groups as "ANTI Hillary Clinton for President '08" reports having 65,000 members. Another Facebook group, Stop Hillary Clinton, is said to have more than half a million members.

At a recent American-German Business Club meeting, I listened to a brief presentation by Webizen Johannes Zumpe. His Web site, Trupoli, is designed to connect politicians and citizens in an open dialogue. Its tagline? Bringing democracy to the Web. It's a constructive platform meant to share real issues. I hope it does.

The political hype and negativity swirling around the Web leave me rather discouraged. It doesn't appear as though people really want to address actual issues, but rather have their minute in the spotlight, if ever so brief. My hope is more sites such as Trupoli, will overshadow the spotlight mongers with little else to say than what they don't want.

Wider Health Care for Kids

It's about time. While this may already be yesterday's news, I find it uplifting to know the United States government is finally recognizing the preemptive effects of health care for children. A whopping 5 million more kids will have broader access to quality health care if the bill passes into law. It seems like a no-brainer to me, but when Bush argues he's against government-run health care, I wonder what he's for. Private health care? Private equals expensive, not only in the minds, but also in the pockets of many of the nation's poor.

200,000 people (including me and, potentially, 900 of my closets friends to whom I did outreach) signed the petition FOR the health care coverage bill passed in Congress a few days ago. The New York Times quotes Pete Sessions as saying:

Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, said the bill embodied the Democrats’ “vision for the future: socialized medicine and Washington-run health care.”

“The bill uses children as pawns in a cynical attempt to make millions of Americans completely reliant on government for their health care needs,” Mr. Sessions said.

Unless I am mistaken, there is no one else they can rely on. Children need health care. Period.

PU to Pew

Allow me to get political for a moment. The societal landscape has created a divide between so-called working and at-home mothers. According to the latest Pew Center Research survey for 2007, 62% of working mothers prefer to work part- versus full-time. Without feeding the firestorm of the Mommy Wars, let me mention a few points:

• The conventional definition of working mother always throws me for a loop. In my book, ALL mothers are working mothers whether they strap a briefcase to their wrists and get a paycheck on Fridays or not. That goes for fathers, too.
• At-home mothers are not unemployed. Anyone who has spent 14 consecutive hours chasing a non-napping toddler will tell you that, too. Salary.com elaborates every Mother's Day on what their net worth would be if they actually were given a fair monetary compensation.
• Many mothers who are 'at-home' actually work from there and get a paycheck. There's no mention of work-from-home mothers in this survey. We're a distinct sub-group (and growing).
• Fathers were mentioned only once (according to my Biology teacher, it takes more than just a mother to have a baby. Fathers play a role, also. In my eyes, that includes raising it, too). Fathers were only mentioned within the context of their overwhelming (72%) preference to work full-time.

Why is this so? Why are fathers kept at the margins in this incredibly important conversation about how the next generation will be raised?

To bring in the chicken and egg analogy, you will see society blasts out schizophrenic messages on a continuous basis. We're supposed to have the children, be wildly successful at our jobs, marriages, sex life, and be responsible for the kids the majority of the time, too. For women, these messages read: Work and be guilty. Work and be free. Don't work and be bored. Don't work and be a heroine. Depending on the frequency, you'll pick up any given pulse that warns you what you're doing wrong. For men, they read: Work and be a man. Work and be neglectful. Don't work and be unmanly. Don't work and be progressive.

Today's hardworking parents need a break from all this nonsense. Lambasting them with more (useless) statistics won't ease the tension amongst the sea of choices we've created for ourselves. Being fair to others and ourselves will ultimately make better role models for the kids watching our ping-pong match between who's right and who's wrong.