Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Mom activism.

Mom Activism: It's been going on a long long while, despite the (right on, by the way) recent'ish' trend toward it. The media is catching on. Witness, for example, this piece about organized mothers starring Moms Rising from the New York Times last week.

And yesterday, there was this tee-ninesy little blip about Lorraine Gordon being a mother moved to activism with Women Strike For Peace on this All Things Considered Feature about Gordon's new book. (Fascinating and multi-faceted woman, Ms. Gordon.)

Nancy Oleson at MOMbo Radio
is an inspiration in Minneapolis and beyond; she did this intriguing show featuring a slew of activist mamas, including MAU's very own Beth Osnes.

In simpler but no less real Everyday Mom terms of writer Miriam Peskowitz, she writes about the "weird"ness and obstacles to being an activist mother. She closes this excellent blog entry with the commitment and encouragement to others to "try on the politically engaged vision of being a mother and a woman in our worlds."

Our job, as Mothers Acting Up and friends is to build that bridge between MOM activism and Mom activism. That is, activism on behalf of mama herSELF and activism on behalf of the world's children-- not just the ones in our home or on our block. What's good for moms is good for kids is good for families is good for communities is good for the environment is good for peacekeeping is good for global citizenry, and so on. We may each start at a different corner, yet cannot deny that we're all eating of the same pie and a bigger piece for your daughter is also a bigger piece for a far flung son and mamas both hip and everyday, from here to Timbuktu.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The only problem is that sometimes mom activists waste their time trying to get naughty cartoons pulled from TV than doing something like ending a war, ending poverty, etc. Anyway, it's a topic for the Activism Forums.h