Moms Rising

03/28/2007

Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.
C. Neil Strait

Things that go around come around, the saying goes. And so it does! One of the latest stages in American women’s activism in an organization called www.MomsRising.org, an advocacy group organized around consciousness-raising that has met up with the Internet. Fifty-year old issues (those who remember the first go-around know who you are!) have resurfaced as family and economic issues. One of a variety of mother’s rights organizations, MomsRising.com is joining colleagues nationwide to share information, join in public rallies, and sign each other’s petitions.

In a long article in the The New York Times (February 22, 2007), Kara Jesella’s headline reads “Mom’s Mad. And She’s Organized.” The goal of MomsRising is to build a grass-roots movement millions strong. The group responded warmly, for example, to the televised scene of newly-elected House speaker Nancy Pelosi surrounded by children as she opened the 110^th Congress.

The message of the moms is summarized in the Motherhood Manifesto, a summary of which harks back to that old poem whose lines begin with the letters that spell out...well, you know!

Maternity/Paternity Leave

Open Flexible Work

TV We Choose & Other After-School Programs

Healthcare for All Kids

Excellent Childcare [sic]

Realistic and Fair Wages

MomsRising.com believes that a “vibrant future” must be built on “an investment in children.” For more details about the movement and its materials and plans, visit www.MomsRising.org

Contributed by Edna Ranck

The Institute for Early Childhood Leadership & Professional Development has an advanced degree (M.Ed.) for you if you aspire to become an Administrative Leader!

Johnson & Wales University, School of Education

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