You're only young once

I'm so glad that my parents lived first before having kids. They were 30 and 31 when they got married, and my mother was 34 when I was born. I'm the older of two kids.

Approximately 750,000 American women between the ages of 15 and 19 get pregnant each year. Of course some of these young women come to adore and enjoy their roles as mothers, but they had the rest of their lives for that. The opportunity to be independent, focused on self-improvement and intellectual discovery, and career-driven without complications, has been lost.

It is inexcusable that television networks, one of the best public sites for widespread education about safer sex, is acting coy at the cost of these young women's fullest lives. Until all women understand their reproductive choices, none of us can be sure that we are benefiting from the full range of gifts -- intellectual, spiritual, and otherwise -- that one half of the population has to offer.

Fox and CBS Refuse To Air Condom Ads

Women in Poverty

I remember some anti-feminist article that dared to actually say that feminists in America don't care about women's rights in the Middle East [and central Asia]. The article called us "vagina warriors". Well, this vagina warrior has known about the Taliban since early 2001, when she was 19. She learned from the then more educated vagina warriors at the Women's Center of her college (the local "Vagina Fortress"). I'll probably get into the terrible state of women's [and human] rights in Iraq since the 2003 invasion some time later.

But this post is about women in poverty in the richest state in the richest country in the world. I must admit that I'm still reeling from the reality of my former employee right now and his idiotic notion that women don't act rationally. The women in this post are stronger and better than he will ever be. But I digress.

Here is an excerpt from a blog post from one of the managing editors of Alternet. The majority of people in poverty in the world are women and children, and our society, in part based on underpaying women for their work, will begin - perhaps already is beginning - to see the disasterous effects of neglecting our own future.

Here's a story from Vivian Hain who is part of POOR Magazine, welfareQUEENS, Low Income Families Empowerment through Education, and hunger advocacy for Alameda County Food Bank.

Vivian Hain: I have not seen a cost of living adjustment since 2004. Before there was a freeze for two years. It was $679 for a family of four. In 2004 I fought for adjustments to go up to $723/month. Now in 2007 that is what I get to live on in Berkeley with my three kids.

I have not bought my kids news shoes or jackets or anything this year. They are four, six, and 13. I can't even walk into the kid's aisle in stores because I don't want to look at what I can't afford for them. It is demeaning to keep giving hand-me-down clothes and stale shoes -- especially to the youngest who has never had anything new. No parent should have to make that decision.

I used to shop lift when i had two in diapers ... I would fill up the diaper bag full of diapers. And I'd get that hot feeling of what if you got caught stealing and would they take your kids. You shouldn't to decide if your kid is going to have a wet diaper all night or you are going to go to jail.

I'd always try to make the used clothes I got for them look the best they could, though. I am in college. I am going to get my BA in December and might go one more year to get my Masters. I do what I can to support my family. My kids don't know how to play video games or know about newest music. But my daughter, she looks me in the eye and say she understands, she doesn't need that stuff.

It is unacceptable what he [Gov. Schwartzenegger] is doing. He is trying to balance the budge on the backs of poor children ...

It is like they say -- we have no choice but to survive -- we are women. The choices that we have to make because of the situations they put us in is unimaginable. Lower than you can conceptualize. Those in the legislature are making decisions about laws and policy affecting children and they have no idea what it is like.

These children's lives are affected because a parent is being criminizlied for trying to survive with miniscule resources. When they are cutting our money they are telling us we are not worthy of investing it. They are targeting children in CA.

POOR Magazine and the Poor News Network is dedicated to reframing the news, issues and solutions from low and no income communities, as well as providing society with a perspective usually not heard or seen within the mainstream media.

welfareQUEENS is a groups of mother struggling with poverty, welfare, racism, and disability, who are dedicated to creating art with the goal of resisting and reclaiming the racist and classist mythologies that are used to criminalize the poor.

Fromhttp://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/55687/

My Cousins and The Babies

A few years ago, my cousin, J[1], had a baby. No one in the family knows who the father of J[1]'s baby is, mainly because J[1] doesn't want to talk about it. As far as I can tell, everyone seems to be fine with that. She probably knows, and has the information about his family history in case there are medical problems, but we're all more focused on her son, D.

Well, J[1] and D inspired another cousin, A[2], to have a baby of her own. In her case, she was married to I[W], and we all know who the father is. Well, I[W] was finishing a PhD in English, but was unable to find a job as a professor. My cousin had the baby, but realized that it would be a better idea if her husband was bringing in the income so she could stay home with the infant, as opposed to the other way around. After all, she would be the one breastfeeding, and she didn't want to switch to formula. So, according to my parents, my cousin told her husband to get a job. Now, I[W] may just be feeling stifled by that job right now, but my dad thinks that he isn't exactly ready for the responsibility of having this kid.

So many anti-feminists decry feminists who do defend the "traditional" value of the mother staying home with the baby. The problem with that logic is the lack of logic. A real feminist is a logical person, and realizes that not all traditional values are necessarily bad. Infants do need constant care, and breastfeeding is best. Logically, that would mean new mothers would do best to take time off, especially during the first few years, to care for their children. But after breastfeeding is done, the gender of the parents to stay with a child - at least until they enter school - is irrelavent. In that situation, mommy could stay with the baby until then, then the partners would switch roles, and daddy could stay home.

But that gets to the real problem with staying out of the externally defined workforce - explaining the gap on the resume. But I postulate that wo/men should include infant care on their resume. It might not bring in any money, but it is work, and it demonstrates a lot of responsibility. As someone that has hired at least 7 people in the past nine months, I have to say that I would be impressed with a resume that listed taking care of an infant as part of work experience - for any job. I will go so far as to say that the only people that would not be impressed are complete idiots.