On Friday April 30, the Governor of West Virginia held a press conference to announce the secured funding of a new elementary school. Located 300 feet from a coal ash silo due to the practice of mountaintop removal, Marsh Fork Elementary has been the center of a controversial school siting fight for more than 6 [...]
I’m a self-proclaimed optimist and hopeful about the “yes, we can” message emanating from Washington. But I felt as if I’d been kicked in the gut last week when I read a New York Times article by Robert Pear about price gauging in health policies for women.
When ABC did their story on maternal profiling, I was really glad about it. Not, of course, about maternal profiling, but the fact that a mainstream media outlet was picking up on this issue.
At the end of November 2006, the hopes and dreams of women, especially mothers, to obtain a job with dignity and respect in Pennsylvania, died on the steps of the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a result of complete, deliberate and intentional neglect by the committee chairmen of the Senate Labor and Industry Committee and the House Judiciary Committee who held the fate of SB440 and HB352 in their hands.
This morning Joan and Kiki were on the Lisa Birnbach radio program on Greenstone Media.
A great description from Kiki:
Lisa, the host of the show, was great, supportive and a single mom with three children. She spoke of her own experiences in the past being asked, during a job interview, if she planned to have more children.
She asked me great questions, such as did I have high expectations about the outcome of the legislation and I told her I always did. Except for those times in the past that I put on my black mourning dress in November at
The Huffington Post has a wonderful feature called “Becoming Fearless,” edited by a very talented woman named Romi Lassally.
To me, Kiki is the ideal representation of fearlesness, and right now, HuffPo is running a post that I wrote about Kiki and the remarkable campaign she has initiated in Pennsylvania, called, Fearless Kiki, so stop by!
Well, the blogs are keeping it going and it is awe inspiring.
Over at MotherTalkers.com, Elisa has a fantastic conversation going on about single moms in the workplace. I really like this comment from “Shenanigans”:
If you’ve got someone in your office who has to leave early to pick up the kids regularly, figure out a solution. If they’re worth keeping, put them on part time or figure out how they can do some work from home or have them put in time in some other way.
Politics TV is running video of the remarks made by Senator Hilary Clinton, Senator Barak Obama, Senator Chris Dodd, and Senator Ted Kennedy at last week’s Capitol Hill screening of The Motherhood Manifesto documentary. It is amazing to watch these clips and to hear how personally the Senators talk about the importance of MomsRising.org, the MotherHood Manifesto, and the issues surrounding motherhood and family life that we all care so deeply about. (Senator Obama is especially moving.) Plus, you get to see our lovely Joan and Kristin too!
Across Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg, in Washington, DC, in the blogs and over the airwaves, our campaign for the mothers of Pennsylvania, and everywhere, reached new, exciting, and interesting heights this week.
Let’s start with Kiki in Harrisburg:
Kiki delivered a 123 page, 5,200 name petition to key lawmakers in Harrisburg, much to the amazement, and befuddlement, of some legislative staffers. “That is not true!” exclaimed one staffer when Kiki told her that in Pennsylvania it was legal to ask about marriage and family in a job interview. The especially disturbing part about that exchange is the staffer works for Sen. John Gordner – who appears hell-bent to stall the legislation in his committee until it dies – as Mr. Gordner obviously isn’t sharing the legislation with people in his office. Kiki did learn from members of Gordner’s staff that within the past week or two, calls and emails have flooded their office from all over the country regarding that “mysterious” SB 440. (You guys ROCK!)
Kiki went to Harrisburg today with what she called her “army,” the 123 pages of signatures and good wishes from 5,243 members of MomsRising that she held in her hands.
Starting with the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, Kiki visited Rep. O’Brien’s office, the chair of the House Judiciary committee, which is holding up HB 352.
From Kiki:
My first stop was to Rep. O’Brien’s office where I met with his secretary Christine Crone. I introduced myself and gave her the “packet” and asked that Rep. O’Brien PLEASE take action and bring HB 352 to committee now. While I was talking to her, Michael Piecuch, Esq. who is chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee walked over. I repeated my speech to him as well. He said he has been asked if there is federal protection against marital/familial status discrimination. I told him if there were, I wouldn’t have to be fighting for the last 12 years to amend the PA Human Relations Act.
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