Activistas

Colwood Strategy Meeting on August 12th

As reported in previous posts, many organizations and individuals in the community are working to prevent the rezoning of Colwood Golf Course from open space to industrial. We are also working to have the area acquired as a new regional park.

If you would like to be involved in helping to Keep Colwood Green, please join us at the next Colwood strategy meeting on Tuesday, August 12th from 7pm to 8:30pm at Central Northeast Neighbors, 4415 NE 87th Avenue.

The Colwood rezoning request is scheduled to go before City Council on Wednesday, September 17^th. To ensure success at Council, we need a critical mass of testimony and support. So please contact the Council and tell them to Keep Colwood Green!

More information may be found at KeepColwoodGreen.com

Activistas has a new address!

Activistas moved across cybeerspace to a new site at www.activistas.us.  If you have us bookmarked or in a feed (and we hope you do!), please update it to this new address.  We're still unpacking boxes and putting things away, so forgive us the clutter till we settle in.  And as always, if you've got suggestions for making Activistas a better place, let us know!

Colwood National Golf Course: Follow-Up

Tony Fuentes, owner of Milagros, co-chairman of the Cully Neighborhood Association, and occasional Activistas contributor, was featured in the Tribune's 6.12.08 article about the situation around the golf course's potential change of use.  Tony has explained the situation and called for action on Activistas before. 

For now, we just wait until the city hears the industrial rezoning application later this summer.  The question is: golf course = future industrial land or some other, more open space type use??  There are a number of powerful voices in the mix here, including neighborhood opponents who would very much like to see this land become a park and preserved habitat.  And, given the size of the golf course, this could be a pretty significant in-city park, folks.  Tired of driving to Oxbow and Blue Lake Regional Parks?  Try Cully. 

Stay Informed.  Check the city's planning calendar to see what's going on when.  Interested in a specific project?  Register for a city online account and get e-mail updates or RSS specific planning projects.  That way you'll be sure to speak up before it's too late. 

Kid Safe Chemical Act: A Real Solution

Awhile back we bemoaned our nation's ancient and seriously inadequate toxics law and dreamed of overhauling the clunker.  More recently I ranted about bisphenol-A.  Well, mamas, rather than tossing  more dangerous products and calling for the good folks in DC to think about change, three U.S. Representatives recently introduced a delightfully progressive, comprehensive bill could really and truly help.  And all we have to do is help pass the thing. 

Nothing to it!  'Cause all you need to do for now is know about this excellent bill.  Read about this excellent bill.  Talk about this excellent bill.  And, when it moves, when a vote is on the horizon, let's be at the ready to pick up the phone, send that e-mail, make that in-person meeting to tell the Oregon delegation - loud and clear - how very much this matters to you.  To us.  To all parents everywhere. 

Read all about it.  Environmental Working Group is hard at work on this one, mamas.  Check out its 1-page fact sheet so you know how this bill differs from the ineffective 1976 law we're working from now.  And if you've no time to sit & read (imagine!), you can listen to EWG's Mixed Greens episode on Kid Safe from 6.17.08.  Here's how they describe the situation:

Changing the Climate: Yes WE Can. You?

Even though we discuss global warming daily here in the People's Republic of Portland (uMs included), recent research suggests that the majority of Americans do not yet understand the urgency of the climate crisis.  While the vast majority (77%) of Americans believe there is solid evidence that the Earth is warming, less than half understand its link with human activity (47%), and most Americans do not view it as a top-tier issue, ranking 4th lowest of 23 issues tested last year according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

The silver lining?  There are now so many ways to get involved at so many different levels.  The first challenge for each of us?  Figuring out where to start and making the commitment to be part of the solution.  We all have a part to play.  One great way to begin is to

Everyone knows Al Gore and many have seen his award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth.  Not many know his Alliance for Climate Protection, though, which has a science-based public education project called the We Campaign.  WE works to educate people from all walks of life that addressing the climate crisis is uniquely urgent and that mobilization to solve it at home, at work and in civic life must commence immediately.

Have you joined the We Campaign?  Waddya think?  Feeling empowered?  Planet changing?  Or not.  Maybe you just have your own action plan for climate change in  your family?  We're all ears.

Paid Parental Leave for Fed Employees: Now's the Time

We talked awhile back about this parental leave bill being introduced on the Hill.  And while seeing a bill introduced is a great thing, it definitely doesn't mean it's gonna go anywhere.  But this time, mamas, there's motion.  Serious motion.  The U.S. House of Representatives votes this week  - Thursday, 6.19.08 - on a bill to allow four weeks of full paid parental leave for federal employees.  Wow.  It's about time our government set an example in this area. 

Speak Up - NOW!  E-mail your Representative with one easy click (all possible with a sleeping babe on the lap!).  Really want to make a statement???  Pick up the phone, mamas, it's worth the extra effort.  To find your Representative's phone number, just enter your zip code here.  And for those of you in the Portland metro area, you're likely represented by one of these folks:

• Earl Blumenauer, 503.231.2300
• David Wu, 503. 326-2901
• Darlene Hooley, 503.557-1324

If you're a little nervous to call, do it after hours and leave a message.  It still counts! You could simply say: "Hi, I am a constituent in Oregon and strongly urge Representative ____ to vote YES on HR 5781, the Federal Employees Paid Leave Act of 2008.  Thank you for supporting working families."

About the Bill.  The Federal Employees Paid Leave Act of 2008 - aka H.R. 5781 - would allow federal employees four weeks of fully paid leave to care for a newborn or adopted child.  Moms AND dads.  Here's what Moms Rising has to say  - and we heartily agree:

Organic = Healthier, Right??

My husband has long mocked the organic cookie syndrome.  I, personally, have fallen for it over and over.  Surely because they're organic, I figure, they're healthier.  Somehow in my little mind I decide they won't make me fat, rot my teeth, or whatever other evil cookies are rumored to perpetrate.  But truth is, they're organic, which does make them better in some ways, but not miraculously low-fat or healthy or whatever I try to tell myself. 

And for the formula users among us, I imagine the choice to buy organic is similarly frought - and significantly more expensive.  I wasn't all that surprised to read about the super-sweet organic formula by Similac, the 'only major brand of organic formula that is sweetened with cane sugar, or sucrose, which is much sweeter than sugars used in other formulas.'  The NYT reported that no health problems in babies have been associated with Similac Organic to date, but that some doctors are concerned nonetheless:

But to pediatricians, there are risks in giving babies cane sugar: Sucrose can harm tooth enamel faster than other sugars; once babies get used to its sweeter taste, they might resist less sweet formulas or solid foods; and some studies suggest that they might overeat, leading to rapid weight gain in the first year, which is often a statistical predictor of childhood obesity.

Mama PhD: A Review by Bob Drago

I had no children while in grad school, and couldn't figure how the ones who did pulled it off.  It would have been an entirely different experience.  Of course, everything is an entirely different experience once you have kids! 

Some of the ones who've been there share insights and experiences in a new anthology on the parenting academics topic called Mama PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and the Academic Life that might just be worth a glance if you're considering a life in academia, or if you're already there and wondering how to make it all work (or at least commiserate a little).  Here's a casual and very positive review by Bob Drago of Take Care Net (an academic himself):

This is easily the most important piece of work to date on academics and family issues, full-stop, because the editors draw out from the authors all of the messiness, the highs and lows, the fears and hopes, the pride, guilt, anger, love and sense of failure and accomplishment and mainly great stories that comprise life for so many moms who try to make it as academics. The panopoly of supportive or unkind department chairs and colleagues, high and low status schools, childcare arrangements that work or don't work, supportive or non-existent partners, and perfect and not-so-perfect children is all here.

If you know a young woman or man contemplating kids and an academic careers, please get this book into their hands; it doesn't preach, but it will give them a good sense of their potential futures and how they might better shape those paths. There are a few common threads (but not many, and they are not the major point of the work, IMHO). The internal and external pressures of both the ideal worker and motherhood norms in modern-day, middle class America, that many of us study, are here writ large, with more than one author complaining of guilt over family when at work and guilt over work when with family.

Paid Family Leave Call-In Playdate Saturday 6.14.08

The local grassroots group Parents for Paid Leave is working hard to get this important issue in the hearts and on the minds of our state and federal representatives.  And they need your help!  Tomorrow!  Even if you're at the Laurelhurst Garage Sale, or a T-ball game.  Or driving to the coast.  All you need is a cell phone and the handy call-in script to participate in this "call-in."  Make it a group playdate or just call from wherever you happen to be.   I love this group!  How easy could they make it? 

Come to the play date at 10 AM Saturday 6.14.08 at Urban Grind East (NE 22nd & Oregon St - 2 blocks north of Sandy Blvd).  Bring the kids - they have a great play space full of toys.  And bring your cell phone, if you have one.  We'll be making 3 quick calls, but would love to chat a bit about the progress of paid family leave in Oregon, too, if you're into it.  Details here.

Can't join us?  No worries.  Make a call from, well, anywhere:  We'd love to see your paid leave supporting self, but if you can't make the play date, not to worry!  Because you can call from anywhere.  Just visit this site and get everything you will need to call on your own (a call script and phone numbers).  Best if you can do it sometime tomorrow, but if you can't, any other day will work too.

This is the time mamas.  With a federal bill in committee and one in the works in Oregon, we have a sneaking suspicion that this is finally going to happen! Please, make your calls, show your support, and continue to track the progress of paid leave here.

Read on for the call scripts and call numbers for Oregon Senators and Congresspersons.

Dear Gordon: Thanks!

Eric Miller reminds us that thanking legislators when they do good things is a very important part of successful grassroots advocacy, even if you're not always feeling grateful.  He writes:

Having voted with the Bush administration 90% of the time these past 7 or 8 years, Senator Smith has not been representing my interests in Congress.   However, there have been two things that he's done that I'm pleased with.  First, he was the first republican to break with the administration on the Iraq war.  Second, and the reason for this post, is that his climate change speech on the senate floor two weeks ago was a complete about-face for a senator who has had quite a history voting for oil and gas interests. 

Never mind that he has taken some $276,000 in oil money for his campaigns.  And despite the fact that he has voted seven times to give oil companies tax breaks, I'm asking you this favor.

His speech and his vote to end the filibuster last week on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 (S.3036) deserves a huge thank you from all of us.  Let's just be clear:  he didn't vote for the bill, he only voted to continue debate on the bill.  But he has come a long way and not only admits that climate change is real but that we need to do something about it.   He realizes Merkley is knocking on his door with a sledge hammer.   

As we've discussed before, it's important to give positive reinforcement to our leaders. Please send him a big THANK YOU note to make sure he knows that "We The Mamas and Papas" agree with his support of strong climate change legislation.