Monthly Archives: February 2008

Hillary, Political, women's rights

Voices for Hillary…

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I believe in Hillary Clinton.
I believe in her as a lawyer, a citizen, a mother, a democrat, a liberal, and as a woman.
Women in this culture have been in the background, standing behind and beside the great men of our nation…forever.
It is time for that to change. It is time for a woman to stand and be counted among the great leaders of this great nation, not as a wife or mother of a leader, but as a leader.
It is time for this woman.
Hillary Clinton is my candidate. She is the best candidate for this presidency. She has the most experience, the best chance of working with the status quo to implement changes, the best thought out plans and ideas for fixing the problems facing this nation.
She is also a woman.
I am proud to say that this time, in this election, I want to vote for this woman.
She speaks with my voice,
she understands my challenges,
she represents ME.
I am 32 years old.
I have never cast a ballot for a woman president.
This year that will change.
I will stand up for this. I will stand up for her.
I will make calls, I will donate money, I will blog, and comment, and debate.
I will be heard.
I will be heard because when I am,
I will vote for the candidate with my message,
my voice,
and it will be heard across the nation.
-Scylla

Please welcome my second guest blogger ever, Yvonne Montgomery Ewegen, with her thoughts on the matter.

The Gender Card

YES, WE CAN—IF WE WANT TO

WOMEN VOTERS CAN DETERMINE THE OUTCOME OF 2008 ELECTION—there are more of us! If we want to elect the first woman president of the USA, we can. We can have a leader in the Oval Office who has a female point of view. Imagine that.
Yes, Hillary lost the Potomac Primaries last night. Momentum appears to be on Obama’s side. But, but—Obama is on a roll that involves relatively few voters. Most of his delegate total is the result of caucuses, which represent very few highly-committed supporters: not a cross-section.

AND MAY WE TALK ABOUT FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN?
Hillary won big-time in FL, though she didn’t campaign there. No one did, though some of Obama’s national ads were aired. She won Michigan, too. Thanks to the national committee of the Democratic Party, none of those votes count, so the huge bump Hillary should have had never materialized. Ya gotta be lucky as well as good in the political game. (The Republicans penalized the two states by taking away only half of their delegates.)

PLAY BY THE RULES, PAY YOUR DUES, WAIT YOUR TURN.
That’s been the litany for both women and African-Americans. I could see the excitement about Obama if he had the time in grade, the experience, and the more impressive résumé. What has Obama done to justify the excitement he evokes? He has a great speech, a rousing, emotional speech, but what else? Hillary has worked for 35 years, and has accomplished legislation that has improved the lives of American citizens. See http://www.hillaryclinton.com She has worked with Republicans to get that legislation passed. With the Congressional Quarterly (a non-partisan publication) rating Obama as the most liberal member of the Senate, I have scant hope that he’ll work well with the conservative members of Congress. What will get done?

THE MOST DISHEARTENING THING is the young women I encounter who think sexism is dead, and who have apparently entered the “post-feminist” era I saw mentioned the other day next to a photo of a scantily-dressed woman with great legs. Say what? I take comfort in a young friend’s remark: “I’m for Hillary. I can vote for a man any time.”
Now’s your chance to support the woman.

WE CAN ELECT HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENT. YES WE CAN.
–Yvonne Montgomery Ewegen

Come, speak up, be heard.

parenting, WAHM

Working with an infant…

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Hahaha HA!!!

Soooo….. trying to work from home with a small and determined time sucking device attached to your hip is an exercise in frustration! However, as I need to meet statutory deadlines in my line of work, I have to do it. So here are the tools I employ to make it possible.

To begin with, I create more than one daytime play “area”. Otter has two play centers, one is an exersaucer, one is a jumper. He also has a play area right by my desk, with toys and books, and one in the living room (which I can see from my desk or work in with my laptop.) I call them ‘daytime’ areas because they are easily and quickly packed up and put out of the way in the evening when everyone is home and we need more space. That way, his area’s can interfere with walkways and other shared spaces, because he only uses them when no one but the two of us is home.

I begin my day with whichever play area he is happy in, then while he tools around in his space, I work.

When he begins to complain about his activity, I will scoop him up, cuddle a bit, nurse or play, and then set him in play area number two. Note: This is key! Do not simply pluck the baby up, and then plop them down in the next play zone without first responding to their plea for your attention. It will not work. They will not play. If you take the time to snuggle and play with them for a bit before moving on, you will be much more successful. Also, moving Oliver to another play area may at times take a rotation through all available play areas until we find one that makes him really happy. This might also take an offering of Goldfish or dried apples.

Once he is settled again, I sit down to work.

When he is no longer happy with my attention being focused on something other than him, I bring him over to my desk in his high chair and give him a snack while I work. I try and keep things that I can do while multi-tasking reserved for this time of day, so I can successfully work and play with him. When he begins to protest this set up, I will settle down with him for a solid block of snuggling, nursing, or playing, before trying it all again.

If this doesn’t work, I will bring out the big guns.

What are the big guns? Things he cannot otherwise have.
For example:

  • A container of baby wipes. He rejoices in pulling wipe after wipe out of the convenient container and tossing them on the floor. When desperate for work time, I will clean the floor under his highchair really well, grab a lunch baggie, and set him in his chair with a container of wipes. He will while away my work time while happily removing a wipe, studying a wipe, and then discarding the wipe. When he tires of this activity, I will pick up all the wipes, plop them into the baggie, stuff that in my diaper bag for use on the go, and send him to a different activity.
  • A remote control. He loves to use the remote control, he finds it to be the most magical of all tools in the house, next to keyboards. I will hand him an old remote with the batteries taken out and set him in his play area with it. This will usually buy me a long time to work, as he never gets to play with it unless I am desperate for work time. The same goes for an old cell phone.
  • Television. When I absolutely am desperate for work time, I will place him in one of his living room play areas, give him a snack, and allow him to watch Little Bill, Little Bear, or the Sunny Side Up Show. All three make him smile and laugh. This will usually buy me about 30 minutes, or if I am really lucky, an hour.
  • The front door. Our front door has a window in it that Otter can see out of. If I set up a cozy space near the door and place him in it, he will usually watch the outside world for a while.
  • Kitchen tools. Handing him a series of baking pans and some spoons with set him a banging for a bit. (This only works if you can either work with noise, or wear ear plugs.)

The biggest key to carving out time in the day to work, is being aware that the time will not be contiguous. You will not get three straight hours to immerse yourself in something unless your child takes a long, and consistent nap. Mine does not.
Therefore, prepare to be interrupted, take the interruptions as opportunities to play for a bit and have a break. Make sure to fulfill your baby’s need for attention during those breaks, so that redirecting their attention to another center or toy is effective. If I don’t take the time in between each center to cuddle and coddle, he doesn’t play as long, or as cheerfully, and we both get cranky and frustrated!

So there you have it, my daytime work routine. I wanted to share it because it took me many months of tearful frustration to develop a method that would allow me to get in any real work during the day and I thought I might save someone else from some of that frustration by sharing my techniques.

Oh, there he goes, bidding for another cuddle break!! (Blogging counts as work too you know!)

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It’s Touchy Topic Tuesday!! A colorful protest on the comics page, Lead Levels in Toys, and more….

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Thank you for joining me in today’s issue of Touchy Topic Tuesday, the day when I post about all those lovely issues that anger me, or open me up to snarky comments. (Okay, today is the first of such days, but why not Colbert a little and make it sound as though I have done this before!)

Minority cartoonists protested the lack of diversity on our comics pages this past sunday with a series of cartoons intended to illustrate the homogeneity of our sunday comics. The protest began when cartoonist Cory Thomas, of Watch your Head was turned down by papers who claimed to already have their “black comic strip” signed up, thereby not needing another one.

The cartoonists drew the same comic, in their individual styles, to protest the lack of comics representing minorities and minority cultures.

The protest is covered in more depth and detail in the Washington Post.

I think this is an artistic and unique protest that will hopefully bring the current lack of diversity in our comics pages into the light. It frankly never occurred to me to analyze the comics strips for diversity, but now that I look at them, it simply isn’t there. There is no reason papers should refuse to accept strips drawn by minority artists simply because they already have one on their page. That is the barest of nods to the creativity of minorities in our country, as well as an insult. It’s not as if the humor of a black cartoonist is only going to be funny to black readers.

Thanks to Ben for sending me the info on this protest, it was definitely worthwhile.
* * * * *
MOM-101 brings renewed awareness to the levels of lead in our children’s toys with her post Are our Kids Safe From Lead. Her post is inspiring and insightful. Please read it. It is truly frightening how much our children are still at risk and how little the Toy industry seems to be doing about it. (Maybe it’s time to investigate a class action toxic tort or two… is that a lawsuit I smell?)
* * * * *
In other news, the Bush administration is preparing to open millions of acres of public lands in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah for fossil fuel extraction from Oil Shale and Tar Sands. This will release a great deal of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, along with ravaging the landscape. Of course, it’s too much to expect the Bush admin. will attempt to seek alternative fuel methods, but in an attempt to encourage them to do so the Center for Biological Diversity is urging people to write into the Bureau of Land Management and protest this decision.

You can mail your comments to:
Sherry Thompson, BLM Project Manager
BLM Oil Shale and Tar Sands Draft Programmatic EIS
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne IL 60439

Please submit your comments by March 20, 2008

So there it is… three touchy topics for this tuesday, ranging from race, to the environment. Enjoy your day and see you tomorrow.