Political Moms Make Family Values Their Baby

Political Moms Make Family Values Their Baby Run Date: 01/09/08 By Alison Bowen WeNews correspondent Mothers' groups are talking to presidential campaigns about family values. It's time, says a founder of Moms Rising, to focus on paid sick days for workers, equal pay for women and affordable health care for all. (WOMENSENEWS)--Wobbling forward on stilts is one way to gain attention. That's why four founding members of Mothers Acting Up have been visible high above the crowds in more than 80 events since the group launched on Mother's Day 2002. "It became such a perfect metaphor for Mothers Acting Up," says Juliana Forbes, communications director for the Boulder, Colo., group focused on political advocacy for children around the world. "One of the biggest hurdles is really becoming public and visible in your community. If you're up on stilts, you are so visible. Everyone's looking at you." Building on their strategy of mobilizing active members to

Upcoming Nashville MAU....

FRIDAY January 4, 10-NOON: @ Shelby Bottoms Greenway in East Nashville. Meet at main entrance. New Year kick off!! We'll chalk peaceful messages of hope for 2008 and walk / stroll / hike with trash / recycling bags to clean up our city's wonderful oasis in the metropolis. Dress for weather, bring snacks to share and / or lunch for you and yours. Rain plan will be to join the Shelby Park playgroup at the Shelby Community Center, and focus our clean up efforts nearby.

Monday January 7, Noon: @ 2^nd Presbyterian on Belmont & Graybar. Join Go Green Nashville for Lunch & Learn. Details TBA.

Friday January 18, 6-8 PM: @ Friends Meeting House on @ 25^th & Torbet. The first of 2008's quarterly BRING THE FAMILY Potluck Social & Salon series. The inaugural one will be a New Year feast and Mother's Day Hat Making meeting. Save up your holiday wrapping and ribbons for recycling into fancy funny fearlessly over the top or beautifully decorous hats for wear at Nashville's 2008 Mother's Day Peace Parade. Dads, partners, kids and grands can make hats, too! Mamas with complex haberdashery dreams, we can do work on these each month at Moms Night Out, or on additional gathering times. Start sketching and scheming your hat ideas now!! Bring a potluck dish, $3 per family for the Meeting House, and any art supplies you want to share.

Monday, January 28, 6:30 PM: MAUmas Night Out - details TBA. Start a folder or a list now with ideas you'd like to talk about, actions you're interested in participating in or leading, etc.

Discussion takes place on a variety of related subjects and impromptu activities come together on the Nashville MAU yahoogroup. Check the blog for other updates. And holler with any news you think we all need to hear!!

With wintry greetings and fondest wishes,

Paige, for Nashville MAU

One Hot Mama Gift.

Changing the Story: YES!

It's time to shop, reflect, give thanks, eat! During the upcoming feasting and holiday celebrations, may we celebrate in particular the individuals who are changing the world's story with the strength of their commitment; a story in which currently every other child lives in poverty, almost half of all war casualties are children, and global warming threatens every child's future.

Let's take time to honor mothers like the late Dame Anita Roddick who said, "I want to connect with people who share my outrage…But I also want to tell — and hear…stories that lift our spirits, that celebrate how glorious our planet is. Outrage and celebration — let's run this gamut together." Inspired leaders like Greg Mortenson who says, "When I look into the eyes of the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, I see the eyes of my own children full of wonder. I hope that we each do our part to leave them a legacy of peace." Mamas and community builders like Tiffany Bellah, who says, "Having a baby changes everything. Since that wonder-filled day 6 years ago when Grace entered this world, I have been reaching out of my comfort zone. She has made of me a responsible revolutionary, and my role as her mentor and mother has propelled me to take an active part in forming the world she will be inheriting."

People who, when our common family is threatened, find the courage and strength to change the story. This holiday season, Mothers Acting Up* cheers, stomps, whistles and in every other way honors the individuals around the world who are taking action on behalf of our future generations. YES!!!!

Purchase the 2008 MAU Handbooks for story-changing individuals,
information and actions: www.mothersactingup.org

*mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller

Mamamade 2007!

I'll be on hand all day tomorrow at Mamamade 2007 to sell MAU Handbooks (think of it as the Passport for the Movement, honoring the promise of our children's lives!). I'll have Nashville MAU aprons and recycled tees (see photos here for examples-- each is different!) and I'll have MAU bumperstickers, too: they're green and round and look great on strollers, water bottles, guitar cases, and wagons (both the Volvo and the Radio Flyer version). You can go home with a bumper sticker for a buck and a pledge (of your choosing) to lessen your carbon imprint and do something to green up your family's life.

With me through the day will be my boy, Ziggy, and a few of the Nashville MAU mamas; we'll be ever so glad to answer questions about our local community, help you fill out voter registration cards, sign you up for national and local action and news of community building, and in general, cheer you on... You go, mama!! Remember, being one of many Mothers Acting Up takes on many forms and is not so much one more dang thing to do, but just part of the fabric of how we live....

The 2008 Mothers Acting Up Handbook: YES!

The world's children have found a brilliant new advocate: mothers*. We're stretching our traditional roles to include publicly advocating for children and the world's children shout YES!

The 2008 Handbook includes the inspirational voices of Marion Wright Edelman (founder of the Children's Defense Fund!), Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), Harry Belafonte, Dolores Huerta, Ann Crittenden, Joan Blades (Moms Rising), Patricia Foulkrod, Muhammad Yunus, Representative Jan Schakowsky, Massouda Jalal and a whole cast of mothers* sharing their personal insights. Designed to uniquely appeal to mothers, the Handbook addresses two of the biggest challenges to mother activism: lack of time and how overwhelming the problems seem. By offering a daily entry point (with simple actions and accessible information set in a beautiful, inspirational and lively format) the Handbook provides tools in a language that engages everyone, policy wonk and new activist alike!

Full color, 6.5 X 9 inches, soft cover & spiral bound, two year-at-a glance section.

Price: $20.00

Listen Up.

Nashville MAU gets voice on Liberadio(!).

Upcoming actions and events.

Nashville area Mothers Acting Up upcoming actions and events:

***Nashville MAU has agreed to adopt two foster children for holiday giving through Centerstone and to do a toy drive for St. Luke’s Community House; contact Paige for details on how to contribute paige@mothersactingup.org

Friday Nov 2, 10-NOON Mobilize the Mamas weekly play & action group @ *Centennial Park Playground – meet MAU co-founders Joellen Raderstorf & Beth Osnes!!

Friday Nov 2, 7:30 PM MAU Live! Theatre for Empowerment (M)other performance @ First UU Nashville, followed by discussion and refreshments

Saturday Nov 3, 9-Noon Workshop for Activism facilitated by MAU co-founder Beth Osnes @ First UU Nashville, followed by brown bag lunch AND….

Saturday Nov 3, 1 PM Girlcott of Bongo Java on Belmont—bring the family!!

Monday Nov 5, NOON Join Go Green Nashville for Lunch and Learn @ Second Presbyterian on Belmont with a talk given by earth stewards Hector & Susie Black of Cookeville, bring your own lunches

Friday Nov 9, 10-NOON Mobilize the Mamas weekly play & action group @ *Centennial Park Playground

Sat Nov 10, Tennessee Statewide Church Women United Conference @ Alex Haley’s Farm in Norris; MAU Now Workshop will be presented

Sun Nov 11, 11:11 AM Worldwide Meditation for Peace with Nashville Peace Coalition and Veterans for Peace @ Centennial Park by the Parthenon

Fri Nov 16, 10-NOON Mobilize the Mamas weekly play & action group @ *Centennial Park Playground

Fri Nov 16, 6-8 PM Bring the Family Potluck Social & Salon Celebrate Thanksgiving by feasting and visiting @ Nashville Friends Meeting House, 26^th & Torbett. With our children, we’ll be making Holiday cards for peace to send to our Members of Congress and Senators.

Sat Nov 17, 9-2 PM Mamamade 2007 @ New Song Christian Fellowship Church, 2949 Nolensville Pike Nashville MAU will be selling 2008 MAU Handbooks as well as handmade aprons and Nashville MAU recycled tees!

Fri Nov 23, NO MOBILIZE THE MAMAS PLAY AND ACTION GROUP THIS DAY!

Tues Nov 27, 9:30 Downtown Public Library Story Time, followed by a visit to Congressman Cooper’s office downstairs

Fri Nov 30, 10-NOON Mobilize the Mamas weekly play & action group @ *Centennial Park Playground

*inclement weather meeting place for Mobilize the Mamas groups is the Downtown Public Library, 2^nd Floor, children’s area

Nashville MAU blog: www.nashvillemau.blogspot.org, sign up there for our list serve!

MAU on Liberadio this week.

Stay tuned for the podcast and syndicated showtimes, and in the meantime, check out the Mary Mancini's post here about MAU and this weekend's Nashville activities.

(M)other gets Critic's Pick in Nashville Scene!

Maternal Devotion

(M)OTHER Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project co-sponsors this one-woman show by Beth Osnes, co-founder and program coordinator of the Colorado-based national organization Mothers Acting Up (MAU). Osnes explores issues of mothering in a cross-cultural context, with focus on a fictional UN program called “Baby Swapping,” in which mothers from seven nations exchange their six-month-olds for one month. The result is an intimate look at the maternal experience across international boundaries, including an analysis of the interconnectedness between the women, their children and their countries. In conjunction with her performance, Osnes presents a Nov. 3 workshop that uses theater as a tool to empower maternal voices for public expression and civic participation. For more information, contact Paige La Grone Babcock at paige@mothersactingup.org. 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church —MARTIN BRADY

Mothers Acting Up works to ensure the health, safety and education of the world’s children by mobilizing the political strength of *mothers.

*mothers and others, both on stilts and off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller

Mothers Acting Up: Mobilizing Mamas Project in Top 100 for Case Foundation Grant!

Mothers Acting Up: Mobilizing Mamas Project in Top 100 for Case Foundation Grant!

Oh my heavens!

After today's Roadway arrival, the note I sent along to Juliana Forbes: mentor, coworker, Mothers Acting Up co-founder and Midwife Maven to the Annual MAU Handbook:

My truckload of 20 boxes of 2008 MAU Handbooks has just arrived in the rain… they now sit on my front porch, save for the one box I brought into the house and ripped into immediately to take a look. And I’m just BAWLING…. THEY. ARE. SO. BEAUTIFUL. I’d love to call and tell you so, but I don’t think I can speak for being a blubbering mess of gladness.

Love and lots of it.

XX

Paige

(I have always been of the sensitive persuasion, but since having become pregnant with my son, and then these two years after his birth, even, I am just a walking jangle of happy-sad-beautiful-crazy human-ness, both tender and tough, with a penchant both for laughing and weeping uncontrollably. The already wonky world goes a bit madder in motherhood, I find.)

Children deserve a bigger piece of the pie.

It's time for the mothers to decide!

Learn more about how to act up right here!

See MAU Live: BUY YOUR TICKETS now.

MAU Live is coming to Nashville November 2 & 3!

Tickets can be purchased for (M)other and for the Saturday morning workshop / girlcott right here.

Get tickets today!!

Celebrating Mothers.

A PROJECT OF MOTHERS ACTING UP, Celebrating Mothers: Global Portraits to Inform and Inspire will showcase 20 mothers of young children around the world who are involved in social advocacy and are initiating positive change in their communities. Please see our website and send us your stories of exemplary mothers who are making a difference. Submission deadline for nominations is October 12, 2007. www.celebratingmothers.org Contact: amie@celebratingmothers.org

What she said.

Rally for Our Children's Health: THIS EVENING.

Prioritizing the wellbeing of children is worthwhile! It will be important to have as many families as possible to represent that. Please try to come for just fifteen or thirty minutes. Small children can be kept safe in strollers, backpacks, slings.... Please share widely!

---

Subject line: In Nashville, October 4, 2007, parents and kids rally at Centennial Park

MoveOn.Org and Nashville Mothers Acting Up

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: CONTACT: Priscilla Craig 491-1137 MoveOn

Thursday, October 4, 2007 Paige La Grone Babcock 495-1879 MAU

***Local media event-this Thursday at 6pm***

Parents and Kids in Nashville to Rally for

Children’s Health Care

As Billions Are Spent in Iraq, Bush Vetoes Children’s Health Care in Tennessee

Rep. Cooper and Congress Passed Children’s Health Care

MoveOn and Mothers Acting Up Call on Rep. Cooper to

Over-Ride Bush’s Veto

Nashville-On Thursday, October 4, at 6pm, local parents and kids will hold a “Rally For Our Children’s Health” at Centennial Park across from Borders bookstore. 225 similar events are happening around the nation.

Congress recently passed the “Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.” Congressman Cooper voted for this bill, which would ensure that many Tennessee children have health insurance and can see a doctor when sick. President Bush vetoed the bill this week.

Local MoveOn and Mother Acting Up members thank Representative Cooper for standing strong against President Bush’s attempt to block health care for Tennessee children, and will urge him to vote to over-ride Bush’s veto.

“President Bush and his administration are blocking health care for our children,“ said Paige La Grone Babcock, National Outreach Coordinator and community organizer for Mothers Acting Up. “This is a question of priorities. Bush is spending billions per week on the war in Iraq, but he won’t protect the health of our kids back home. We need Representative Cooper to over-ride Bush’s veto and stand up for our kids.”

This legislation passed the House on September 25, by a 265-159 vote--approximately 290 votes are needed to over-ride a veto. It passed the Senate September 27 with a 67-29 veto-proof majority. A new poll reveals 72% of Americans support the bi-partisan proposed $35 billion for children’s health care.

“Rally For Our Children’s Health”

Who: Parents and kids from Nashville area, members of MoveOn.org and Nashville Mothers Acting Up

What: “Rally For Our Children’s Health” rally urging Congressman Cooper to stop Bush from blocking health care for our kids

Where: Sidewalk in front of Centennial Park across from Borders bookstore

When: Thursday, October 4, 2007, 6:00pm

##

Save the Date: MAU Live Coming to Nashville!!

CONTACT: Paige La Grone Babcock; paige@mothersactingup.org (615)-750-3780, (615) 495-1879 (cell)

***SAVE THE DATE: MAU LIVE! comes to Nashville Nov 2 & 3***

(M)OTHER HITS THE BOARDS

THEATRE FOR EMPOWERMENT PAIRED WITH WORKSHOP TO MOBILIZE MAMAS

“Once you get hooked on MAU’s positive breed of activism, the Nashville MAU community will be there with you to keep it going and growing.” –Paige La Grone Babcock, MAU Outreach Coordinator & Community Organizer

WHEN: Nov. 2, Friday at 7:30 PM

WHERE: First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1808 Woodmont Blvd.

WHO: Mothers Acting Up (MAU), working to ensure the health, education and safety of the world’s children by mobilizing the political strength of mothers.* www.mothersactingup.org

Nashville’s MAU community is honored and excited to bring MAU LIVE! and MAU co-founder Beth Osnes to town!! www.nashvillemau.blogspot.com

WHAT: MAU Live! Theatre for Empowerment: a one-woman performance by MAU co-founder Beth Osnes, (M)other explores what it might just take for the mothers of one country to authentically care about the mothers and children of another country. The fiction that the “other” is not part of the “mother” is washed away. What remains is a powerful affirmation of our interconnectedness in both our challenges and our solutions as a global community.

A Workshop for Empowering Mother* Voices: Nov. 3, Saturday 9AM-Noon, also at the First Unitarian Universalist Church

Beth Osnes will lead a workshop using theatre as a tool for developing our voices for effective public expression – of vital importance for any kind of civic participation. Goals of this workshop:

*teaching skills for effective vocal expression

*using our voices to ‘rehearse’ activism

*engaging all participants in actively devising solutions to obstacles

*conveying a model of activism that is positive and proactive

Background:
Mothers Acting Up (MAU) works to ensure the health, education and safety of the world’s children by mobilizing the political strength of mothers*. MAU inspires, educates and engages mothers (a gigantic force to be reckoned with) to prioritize children in our corporate and public policies through monthly Web actions, annual Mother’s Day events, field trips to elected officials, Girlcotts, and daily inspiration and tools found in a weekly calendar. MAU brings a new breed of activism to the political landscape; one that is positive, accessible and supports mothers in making informed personal choices, inspiring collective action and influencing decision-makers. MAU, founded in 2002, is based in Boulder, CO. MAU believes that when mothers lead, generations of global citizens will follow.

Let us:
whisper this to each other, sing it out in the streets,
yell it from our rooftops, declare it in our houses of government:
we will protect our children with our personal and political strength,
wherever they live on earth!

* mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller.

Dem Debates on Healthcare tonight!!

this in from TN Health Care Campaign:

AARP and Iowa Public Television (IPTV) will be holding a Democratic presidential candidate forum focused on health care and financial security tonight, September 20. A follow-up Republican forum will be held on October 25. PBS correspondent and anchor Judy Woodruff will moderate the 90-minute discussions.

At tonight’s event, Democratic candidates committed to participating and meeting forum criteria include: U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, former U.S. Senator John Edwards, U.S. Senator Joe Biden and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. All of the Republican presidential candidates have been invited to participate in the October 25 forum.

WNPT, 9/20, 7:00 PM CT, Nashville
WTCI, 9/20, 8:00 PM ET, Chattanooga
WLJT, 9/20, 7:00 PM CT, Jackson
WETP, 9/20, 8:00 PM ET, Knoxville
WKOP, 9/20, 8:00 PM ET, Knoxville
WMAV, 9/20, 8:00 PM CT, Memphis

How do the Presidential Candidates stack up? Check out the New York Times and the Washington Post links below:

New York Times and Washington Post

Sincerely,

Tony Garr, Tennessee Health Care Campaign

Celebrate International Day of Peace & Eat Local Month with MAU.

As many of you know, this month is Nashville Eat Local Month, as well as National Food Security month, which assuredly have much to do with greening up our lives. These pieces are in alignment with Mothers Acting Up and our Mother Agenda (1. champion the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate extreme poverty, 2. protect the environment for Kids’ Sake, and 3. measure the true impact of war).

On the third Friday of each month Nashville’s Mothers Acting Up community hosts a Bring the Family Potluck Social & Salon. In celebration of Eat Local and Food Security Month, tomorrow evening we encourage attendees to bring potluck dishes comprised of local ingredients where possible and a small panel of local food and security experts / enthusiasts will be on hand to share their knowledge and resources with us.

When: Friday September 21, 2007 6-8 PM

Where: Nashville Friends’ Meeting House, 26^th Ave at Torbett, off Charlotte Ave

Bring a dish of local fare to share, any books or magazines you on topic that you might wish to share, and a heaping helping of enthusiasm. Families of all kinds welcome. We’re a nursing / intergenerational / sexual orientation / all race, ethnicity and class welcoming group!!

I hope to see some of y’all there,

Paige

PS: as tomorrow—9/21-- is International Day of Peace, Nashville MAU celebrates in our community during our Mobilize the Mamas play & action group by participating for a second year in the global Chalk for Peace event. We’ll be festively dressed, babes and children in tow, to chalk at the Centennial Park Playground from 10-noon, asking passersby and regular park goers to join the action. You’re all welcome to come out and make sidewalk art. Bring water and snacks to share if you care to.