A message from the team at MomsRising

This came to me via the Anti-Racist Parenting blog:

At MomsRising we’re always looking out to make sure that mothers and families are treated fairly in our nation. The other day I saw a video that shocked me: Two young children crying, alone in a car, reaching out for their mother who’d been taken away by deputies wearing ski masks after being stopped for a minor traffic violation.[1] The images haven’t left me. A nightmare, right? Never in America? Wrong.

A local NBC news report described the incident through the eyes of a witness, “…the deputies were wearing ski masks and detained the children’s mother for about an hour while her children watched, crying.”[2]
Who’s in charge of these deputies!?

It turns out that the person in charge knew exactly what was going on. Sheriff Arpaio has been cited repeatedly for gross civil rights violations and racial profiling of both citizens and non-citizens in the name of immigration enforcement, and when questioned about his tactics, he said that under his jurisdiction, “it was not unusual for law enforcement officers to wear ski masks while on duty.”[2,3]

In the video the young girl is asked, “What did the sheriff tell you?” The little girl said, “To be quiet, but I couldn’t ’cause I wanted to go with my mommy.” [2] And here’s what Mary, a MomsRising team member said after seeing the video, “We may not all be on the same page about immigration policy, but we do all agree that children and mothers shouldn’t be treated this way.”

Regardless of where immigration policy stands, no one should be treated that way. We’ve all got to stand up against this inhumane treatment of families. This type of treatment of women and families simply isn’t acceptable.

*Watch the video and join us in urging the Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Arpaio’s tactics at: http://www.momsrisingaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26817

-Please forward this [post] to friends and family now so they too can take action too. We need to put a spotlight on this inhumane treatment with as many people paying attention as possible in order to get an investigation.

Together we can do something about this. Sheriff Arpaio is out of control in Maricopa County, Arizona, and it’s going to take all of us, and then some, standing up to say that this type of treatment has got to stop.
With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-Latino and anti-immigrant tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Sheriff Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while his deputies cross the line by using tactics that violate civil rights in the name of immigration enforcement.[4]

The voices of mothers are needed right now to say clearly that all mothers and children need to be treated with respect and fairness.

*Don’t forget to watch the video and sign on now to urge the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Sheriff Arpaio at: http://www.momsrisingaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26817

Mothers taken away from young children by men in ski masks, and people being marched in shackles through town to electric fenced “tent cities” in the desert [5] crosses the line of humane treatment. Let’s help put a stop to this.

Thank you - Kristin, Joan, Katie, Dionna, Mary, Ariana, Anita, Ashley, Donna, Roz, Julia, and the MomsRising Team

[1] See the video and take action: http://www.momsrisingaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26817

[2] February 5th, 2009: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/02/05/20090205motherarrested02052009-CR.html

[3] From “Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children”: Approximately five million children have an undocumented parent; however, the vast majority of these children are U.S. citizens and under the age of ten. Despite efforts to mitigate harm to children by changing the manner in which raids and other immigration enforcement actions are conducted, children continue to be placed in harm’s way.
[4] http://www.americasvoiceonline.org/page/content/sheriff
[5] February 5th, 2009: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/02/05/20090205motherarrested02052009-CR.html, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/opinion/04wed2.html , http://vivirlatino.com/2009/03/04/thousands-protest-racist-sheriff-joe-arpaio-in-arizona.php

p.s. MomsRising joins the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (http://www.ndlon.org), National Council of La Raza (http://www.nclr.org), America’s Voice (http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/content/sheriff), and many others in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into Sheriff Arpaio’s tactics.

Take Back the Halloween!

From Racialicious. Check it out for pictures, links, comments and the rest of the article.

Mainstream North American culture likes to define itself as cultureless, but Halloween is a very cultural practice. Not only is it a little weird (Just look at it from the point of view of an outsider. Send your kids out to strangers’ houses and tell them to ask for candy? Decorate your house like a graveyard? Dress up like a sexy version of a public health worker?) it is also based on difference - the point of Halloween is to dress up as “something different.” So how do people who are often made to feel visually different - you know, like people of colour - experience Halloween? The average Halloween costume tells us a lot about what we culturally consider to be abnormal.

It tells us that dressing up in an overtly sexy way is taboo - in other words, that we’re a pretty sex-negative people. It tells us that we are obsessed with strict gender categories - because most little boys and girls have to choose very gender-coded costumes, but also because for many young people Halloween is the one time they can experiment with gender in a socially sanctioned way.

And if dressing up as “something different” can typically involve wearing geisha make-up, a Native headdress, bling, or a turban, Halloween tells us that our cultural norm is a middle-class, North American, white person.

Restoration

It's like the pitter-patter of rain, the sound of their small feet rhythmically tapping, patting, stamping the ground, stirring up dirt in their enthusiastic rush to greet you and follow you around – a soothing, rustling, living sound. They follow you excitedly, flapping their wings, fluffing their feathers, craning their necks the better to behold you.

If you stop, they stop too and, with them, the sound. They surround you in expectant silence, their befeathered selves all aflutter with curiosity and excitement, billowing around you like a cloud – a radiant cloud of waking minds, throbbing hearts, hankering souls, living memories, passionately lived lives – riveting you at the center of their focused attention, lifted on almost tiptoes by the sheer force of their fascination with this new, rich feast of scents, sounds, shapes, colors, textures, thoughts, rhythms, and inner weather that you are to them.

It's hard to believe that these vibrant birds, crackling with life and wonder, are the same "free-range" hens who arrived at the sanctuary one year ago, bruised, battered, bewildered, disconnected from the world around them and from their own selves, unable or unwilling to inhabit their own lives (what was there to inhabit?).

Read the rest.

Against Backdrop of Sexual Violence, Ads, Too, Exploit Young Teens

From RH Reality.

The latest face of fashion in Jamaica is that of an innocent looking thirteen year old girl. Heavily made up and suggestively sporting a bikini, this pubescent girl was recently featured in local newspapers, touting her as the latest winner in the Pulse Jamaican fashion model contest. While it holds true that the fashion industry has long been centered on the bodies of under-aged girls, what is startling about this latest face of the Jamaican fashion industry is its'obvious youth. This youth, when combined with the not-so-subtle sexualization of the girl, paints a frightening picture of our society. No matter the justification, how does it become okay to feature a child, not even fully physically developed, in a bikini and wearing make-up?

As should be expected, the image of the girl has been met by some degree of public outrage. Interestingly enough, the moderate level of outrage seems to me to be in sharp contrast with the wide-scale public reaction, some months ago, to the proposed introduction of a school textbook that made passing mention of homosexual families. At that time, the collective national sentiment towards the text, which in defining family types made mention of those with same-sex parents, can be summed up as "Not in Jamaica!" The thinking and feeling seems to have been that condoning, even if implicitly, the normalcy of homosexuality would be a very un-Jamaican thing to do. Yet, this same level of nationalism does not surface when we see the body of a young girl being portrayed in such a manner.

The lack of collective outrage is an indictment on our society.

Against a wider backdrop of sexual violence being committed against, and perpetrated by, children and adolescents, the sexualization of an under-aged teenager is extremely problematic and potentially dangerous.

We live in a sexualized world. Companies use sex to sell the most random of products, from jump drives to cars. Rapid advancements in the media have made images and information accessible to almost everyone, easily bringing music and home videos, photos and advertisements directly into our homes, our phones, and our computers. The music we listen to; the movies we watch; the advertisements which inundate us; and the newspapers that we read are typically filled with references to, or explicit mention of sex.

Sex is not a bad thing; but by fostering societies in which it is encouraged to become a driving force, almost an entity of its own, we are engaging in a dangerous game of Russian roulette. We are paving the way for misplaced desire, in which desire becomes the be-all and end-all, and humanity in general, and the protection of our children in particular become secondary issues.

Calls have been made for local authorities to band together to tackle the growing wave of sexual violence that is threatening the lives of our children. While it cannot be stated that images such as that of the 13-year old model automatically trigger sexual violence against children, with burgeoning evidence of such abuse, it just seems like a risk we can no longer afford to take. As the saying goes, if we are not choosing to be a part of the solution, we must therefore be a part of the problem.

Any move, subtle or otherwise, which not only encourages us to look at under-aged girls as sexual objects; but by extension creates misplaced ideas amongst young girls of what it means to be sexy, is dangerous, and ultimately, our children are paying the price.

A Vegan Parent’s Survival Guide to Halloween!

From Ganymeder:

It’s that time of year again. Time to put up cobwebs instead of sweeping them away. Time to stay up late watching scary movies instead of going to bed at a sensible hour. And, of course, time to Trick or Treat!

Now, speaking as a rabid raving Halloween lover, I have to tell you that I’ve given this quite a bit of thought. At first, you might think that it’s nearly impossible for vegan kids to get (let’s face it) butt loads of candy and treats that they can actually consume - Not to mention what the beleaguered vegan can give to greedy little Trick or Treaters that come a knockin’ October 31st. But never fear, it’s not really hard. It just requires a little foresight and planning.

For one thing, if you want to try to avoid the whole “getting non vegan treats” from well meaning omni friends and family, you can always have a party in your home. That way you control the games and the types of treats the kids are given. One year we had a costume party for my son’s birthday, and it ran along the same lines as Halloween. For starters, I put out a large box full of dress up items like funny hats and plastic googley eyed glasses (which was a big hit)! To get their goody bags, they had to go on a scavenger hunt with lots of clues sending them all over the house.

It’s not expensive to create vegan goody bags filled with vegan jelly beans, assorted non chocolate candies and a few inexpensive toys. At party stores you can usually buy bags of toys to give away such as spider rings, bouncy balls, marbles, and mini card games. If you’re feeling especially generous, you could maybe buy a slave free chocolate bar (such as Newman’s Dark Orange Chocolate) for each child. Another time tested idea is to have your little ones Trick or Treat for a charity like UNICEF. Again, as long as they get goodies at home from you, they shouldn’t be disappointed.

The party idea might work for younger children, but once those vegan tykes are old enough to go to school I’m fairly confident they’re going to be besieged with treats that you wouldn’t want in your home. How do you deal with this tactfully? Do you make a point of returning the candy? That’s really up to you. Personally, I’d at least explain why the child can not have the intended treats, if possible before hand so as to avoid any hurt feelings.

Let’s just cut to the chase and say that, despite your best efforts, you’re child comes home with a bag full of non vegan candy and slave chocolate. What do you do? How do you handle this without the child being disappointed? I assure you, I’ve given this quite a bit of thought.

From my own experience and also that of some other vegan parents, the ol’ switcheroo seems to work nicely. Basically, your child brings home their “goodies” but you offer (give) them in exchange a much better bag of vegan ethical goodies that no kid in their right mind would refuse. The trick is to make YOUR goody bag much more appealing than anything they would bring home. So far this year, my son’s exchange-bag-o-goodies includes 3 of his favorite candy bars, some snack bars, a mini notebook (a guaranteed favorite as he loves to draw constantly), and a monster hand puppet. I plan on getting a few more things here and there over the next few weeks; Maybe some little bags of chips and some vegan jelly beans. I might even throw in a pack of Chaotic cards and a Tech Deck (he collects them). Whatever your child is interested in or collects that isn’t too pricey would be a good choice. And, of course, I will let him keep any vegan candies he does happen to collect. The exchange only applies to the non vegan ones.

So enjoy your Halloween without taking a “holiday” from your ethics. And, of course, have a BOO-tiful Holiday!

***
Some links for Fair Trade vegan chocolates and jelly beans.


**In the interest of full disclosure, the past Halloweens my son was vegetarian but not vegan. So he was able to “keep” a greater percentage of the candies he was given. This Halloween will be his first completely Vegan Halloween. I asked him about the exchange bag though,and he’s very excited about it! Also, the other vegan parents I’ve communicated with tell me this method works well for their own children. :)

Terrorists and Terrorism.

Everything today is from Green Is The New Red. Thanks, Will.



Follow up articles:

Nuns put on "Domestic Terrorist" list

Homeland Security Says Timothy McVeigh Isn’t a Terrorist, But Peace Activists Are

Immigrant Women, Seeking Status Adjustment, Face Forced Vaccination

From RH Reality Check by Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas and Emily Alexander.

This July, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new requirements, including five new vaccinations for individuals seeking adjustment of immigration status. One of these vaccinations is Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Gardasil, manufactured by Merck, is the only HPV vaccine in the U.S.--also the most expensive vaccine on the market and the only vaccine to be approved for use in only one sex. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is the only federal body that makes recommendations about immunizations; the committee's recommendations serve as the template that USCIS uses to determine immunization requirements for immigration procedures. These new requirements put increased barriers and additional burdens on women's access to adjustment of immigration status and applications for visas to enter the U.S. and stoke the already reverberating anxieties among communities of color about the HPV vaccine.

Most immigration applicants are currently required to undergo a medical exam by a certified "civil surgeon." These civil surgeons complete an I-693 medical examination and vaccination record. The new regulations that require the HPV vaccine apply to female applicants between the ages of 11 to 26. This is the only sex-specific vaccination requirement, putting particular burden on immigrant women applying for a visa or adjustment of status, further marginalizing a group that already has reduced access to health information and services that are affordable, accessible and culturally and linguistically competent.

According to the Census, there are approximately 17.5 million immigrant women in the United States today, 3 million of whom are undocumented, and 16 percent that live in poverty. These women encounter obstacles to employment and health access; they also face violence and discrimination. Immigrant rights and reproductive justice are intrinsically linked because the reproductive health of immigrant women is profoundly affected by immigration policy. For women seeking adjustment of status, the USCIS' additional vaccine requirements create tremendous barriers to one of the many steps towards a pathway to citizenship.

While women of color, many who are immigrants, face disproportionate rates of cervical cancer in the U.S. (Latina women get cervical cancer at twice the rate of white women; and Vietnamese women get cervical cancer at five-times the rate of white women), efforts should be made to increase access and education about HPV and the vaccine, rather than creating further impediments to the already onerous immigration process. The HPV vaccine is out of reach for many women with its high price tag: at a minimum, it costs $360 for the three shot regimen. Publicly-funded access to the HPV vaccine varies state-to-state, although all low-income adolescents between the ages of 9 through 19 who are either uninsured, Medicaid-eligible, American Indian, or Alaska Native, have access to the vaccine through the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. Immigrant women over the age of 19 may have greater challenges in obtaining the vaccine. According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and Uninsured and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), between 45% and 51% of immigrants lack health coverage in the US. The lack of health insurance, coupled with the high cost of the vaccine, limits access to the vaccine for low-income immigrant women. In addition, for immigration visa applicants abroad, the global availability and accessibility of the vaccine is questionable.

States also use the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations when developing their own vaccine requirements for school entry. Calls for state school mandate bills for this vaccine seem to have calmed down, allowing advocates the opportunity to provide much-needed education and advocacy around HPV and cervical cancer prevention. Now this new requirement threatens that critical work.

Instead of mandating vaccines for immigrant women's bodies, the U.S. government should increase access to health information and services that are unbiased, age-appropriate, culturally-competent and non-coercive. Mandating a vaccine that specifically targets young non-citizen women is both sexist and xenophobic. It will only add to the current anxieties among many communities of color about the vaccine and the government's interest in vaccinating a particular community, in this case, immigrant women.

More on children and veganism.

The full article can be read here.

Let me start by saying this: if you decide not to have kids, that’s completely cool. I fully understand the reasons and respect all of them, whether it’s concerns about overpopulation, not having the maternal/paternal instinct, not being comfortable around kids, or just plain old not wanting kids messing up your well-organized collection of vintage LPs. I promise you I’ll never tell you, “Oh, you’ll change your mind” or say anything like “You never know real love until you have your own child” because that’s just obnoxious. Parenthood isn’t for everyone and I think we are each fully capable of making the decision to parent or not to parent for ourselves.

That said, I think one important thing to remember is that the kids are on our side. They shouldn’t be viewed as enemies and even if you’re staunchly anti-breeding, don’t hate the kid. it’s not their fault they were born. You don’t have to be their best friend or even talk to them, but reserve your hate for something else. Honestly, as a parent, I’d rather you hate me and snub me for having a kid rather than taking it out on my daughter. Thankfully, I’ve never had to deal with that, but then again, I’m not really around vegans very often.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these kids are at a point in their veganism that most of us didn’t reach until high school or much later. I look at 5-year-old kids that are happy vegans and have a grasp of animal rights concepts that I didn’t have when I was in college and it’s amazing to me. Kids deal with much more peer pressure than we do as adults, and if they can keep their vegan edge at a point in their lives where all they want to do is fit in, more power to ‘em.

I’m also constantly amazed (and inspired) when I hear about kids that aren’t even teenagers that decide to give up meat even when no one else in their family does. Often, these kids get their friends or families to go veg with them. That’s some realness right there.

Kids are a huge influence on other kids. Strong, confident vegan kids are going to influence their peers over time. So, maybe it would be better to think of those kids you “hate” as advocates for the future generation. We’re going to have a tougher time as adults reaching eight-year-olds than one of their classmates is, so let’s give those vegan kids all the support we can. And if “support” for you just means showing a little more tolerance to a kid and not hating him based solely on the fact he’s a kid, that’s fine by me.

On Children and Veganism.

From the guy that brought you Herbivore magazine and clothing line.

There is no "U" in "Community." Well...there is but...

understand that children are a contentious topic in our movement. I understand the argument that we should not be breeding because the planet cannot support more humans. I understand a lot of people are afraid of children. I understand there are a lot of bad parents out there whose children do not ever see limits imposed on their behavior and they run wild in the streets, drenched in the blood of the infidels and burning the villages in their wake, waving sticky hands in the air and drooling from their sticky mouths, spilling every cup in sight.

I didn't really understand or feel completely comfortable around kids until I became a father. I still get nervous around other people's kids sometimes, actually. And I get hyper sensitive sometimes if Ruby is having a hard time in public or things aren't going her way and I want to make sure we aren't bothering people around us. This rarely happens as Rubes is a pretty mellow kid.

I have heard, more times than I care to count, otherwise sensitive and intelligent people say "I hate kids."

I've had people in this movement say to me "Why do I have to try and like your kid?" I've seen people in this movement get up and move when a vegan mom sat down next to them with a vegan baby and say something rude. I've had people say to me "I usually hate kids, but yours is cool!" (Uh...thanks?) I've seen people in this movement list "Kids" in their list of "disklikes" right next to meat eaters and smokers. (Oddly, in their "likes" list they will have "vegans." My kid is a vegan. Do you hate her or like her?)

Here is what you need to understand. Children are as nature made them. You dislike them, not for choices they have made (like religion or politics), but for things beyond their control. You "hate" them because they do not act like you and are outside your group. This makes you a bigot.

Bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group...and is intolerant of those who differ.

If you'd like to change your sentence from "I hate kids" to something more accurate, like "I am uncomfortable around children because I do not know any" or "I have had bad experiences with children in the past" please do so now and you are off the hook, sort of.

If you want to stick with the "I hate kids" line, what is the difference between "hating" kids (I keep putting this in quotes because I don't believe people actually hate kids, I just think they are irresponsible with their language.) and "hating" any other group of people for who they are instead of for choices they have made? Like the elderly? Or people of color? Or the differently abled? What exactly is the difference?

The times I confronted people in the animal rights movement with this question who professed to hate kids I got no response. Does anybody know how "hating" kids would be different than "hating" the differently abled or "hating" the elderly? I am willing to be corrected on this because I just called a whole bunch of people bigots and hope I'm wrong.

Here is what I also want people to understand, people who want this movement to grow and for less animals to suffer and die and end up as food, entertainment, clothing, etc:

Vegan children need vegan role models or they will not stay in this movement.

Kids know when they are unwelcomed in a place or situation. If I take Ruby to a vegan event and she gets nasty looks or hears rude comments about children, why would she ever want to hang around that group of people or believe those people's beliefs are kind and something she should try and adopt? If I sit down next to someone at a vegan event and the person next to me gets up and moves to the other side of the table, why would my daughter want to stick around or get involved? If I keep dragging her to events and she keeps feeling shunned and unaccepted, as soon as she is able to go elsewhere, she will. She needs adults, other than her parents, to help her understand these values.

It is our responsibility to create a movement that is inclusive and welcoming and supportive of people already involved and those looking to join us. This includes children. It includes EVERY group of people.

I am not telling you that you have to take my kid to the bathroom. I'm not telling you you have to be all smiles if Ruby loses her cool and throws a fit. I'm not asking you to hold her or teach her to read. I don't need you to babysit some time. If she spills something, don't worry, you don't have to clean it up.

What I'm asking is that you think about your behavior and how it affects this community, the members of it who you might not be the most comfortable with, and by extension, the animals you care so much about.

I'm asking you to understand that some people in this community might require you to take one step outside your comfort zone every once in a while. I want you to know that if you try a little harder and focus on the movement as a whole, instead of yourself, we will all be a little stronger. If Ruby sees smiles and hears the occasional "Hi there" from you, it will go a long way in making her feel accepted in the community she is involved in. And if she feels accepted and supported, she will stick around and become a powerful activist herself one day.