Give your values voice: Vote!!

(Cross posted both to / from Nashville Mothers Acting Up and Ms. Booty Homemaker Explains It All To You.)

If you haven't yet done so, please exercise your civic responsibility and give your values a voice by voting.

If your traveling sideshow of children and others isn't being hosted or supervised by volunteer mamas, school or another caregiver, consider taking your child(ren) with you to vote.

Yes, the lines may be long, but there's so much to take in, from neighbors you don't see often enough to ingraining the process and the importance of same early on.

Both my Mister and I hit the polls this morning here in East Nashville-- our thirteen month old came along for the experience and I am so glad he did, even though we waited for over an hour to mark our ballots.

One of our most powerful parenting responsibilities is instilling in our children the spirit of acting on values and following one's moral compass. As Mothers (and Others) Acting Up, we're in for the long haul. Leading the next wave onward by example and immersion in community is critical to the growth of the world we want our smallest citizens to inherit and inhabit.

We call for just and accurate representation!

As family and community leaders, with our partners, neighbors and tribes, we have a big job ahead of us with election day coming tomorrow.

No matter which way you look at it, we have a lot to invest in, and foremost we must create the language to speak of our Mother Agenda 'til it becomes Mother Tongue easy.

What does that mean in the practical sense? Read up on the candidates in your area. Check out the scorecards for how folks vote, and let your values speak as you pull the lever. And once the votes are tallied, consider writing letters of congratulations AND accountability to your representatives to let them know that healthcare, peace and an end to poverty are critical to our childrens' wellbeing. In 2008, these issues must be at the very top of the Mother Agenda, in which we will all be conversant. You betcha.

As to tomorrow, it is said that one of the principle keys to the elections this year and tipping the balance of what values play themselves out is married moms. That's a lot of us. Nancy over at Muckraking Mom points to this Steve & Cokie Roberts article.

If you didn't participate in early voting and think it might be difficult to get to the polls with your wee ones in tow, consider following the lead of Charleston, South Carolina MAUs who will have two homes open for childcare so that mamas share the load, build the tribe and act on their civil and domestic responsibilities with care and mindfulness. Brilliant, gals.

If any of you readers come up with other practical or clever ways to impact our voice, holler.

Soon...

Welcome to the Mother Agenda.

Tie those aprons on tight, mamas. Roll up your sleeves. Turn up your pink collars, tune in to your moral compass. Kick up the high heels or the garden-soil crusted feet. Bring on the snacks to keep up the fortitude; there is work to be done.

In these dark times, there is also light, m'dears. Our job, as Joy Warriors, is to spread it liberally as we sparkle up the world and illuminate not just how by why we're broads on-board the magic baby bus: blogging, buying, baking, broadcasting, beautifying, breastfeeding, and banding together to bust out all across the land and over the seas in this magnificent mama led revolution.

We are moving from concern to action and aim to provide YOU with the tools to Sing it on out into the streets: Together, we represent the Mother Agenda -- peace and goodness and light and enough of all what's needed for ALL our children. We are standing up for the MDGs, calling for an end to war, for prioritizing the rights and welfare of the world's most precious and under-voiced citizens, whereEVER they live on earth.

We are Mothers Acting Up: a mother-led, mother-fed movement of mothers and others passionately and publicly advocating for the world's children.

Holler if you hear me, and stay tuned for news items from all of us at MAU, for simple and sustainable action that YOU can do at home and in your very own community, and for connection to the communities that are springing up across the country and elsewhere making for one BIG MAMA COMMUNITY.

Welcome to the Mother Agenda. We are so glad you are here.