A few weeks ago I heard Lea Goldman on NPR’s Talk of the Nation discussing moms who voluntarily give up custody of their kids, sometimes moving across the country or to a different country entirely to pursue dreams, other relationships, or education. Goldman discusses her Marie Claire article called “What Kind of Mother Leaves Her Kids” and defends the three moms she profiles (the article itself is kinda bland, but her interview highlights what she believes is the moral of these stories).
Newsroom
This Newsroom post is for all you pregnant and future pregnant women out there. I pushed for almost three hours when giving birth. It sucked. The doctors gave me oxygen because I was so exhausted by the process, and the physical repercussions weren’t pretty. I learned two things from this experience: the body has an amazing ability to heal, and I don’t want to test out those particular healing powers again. I can’t change the past, but maybe I can help other women change their futures.
I recently came across a post “When Push Comes to Shove” on the blog Katy Says. Since I took three months of Bradley classes, I thought I knew a lot about natural birth (even with not having one). But I didn’t.
You’ve probably heard about the arrest of 18 men and boys for (gang) raping an 11 year old girl in Cleveland, Texas. More men are thought to have been involved than the initial 18 arrested. The suspects range in age from middle schoolers to 27 years old. At a town hall meeting in Cleveland, supporters of the men blamed the girl for her own attack. A New York Times piece (that received much criticism and tens of thousands of emails and for which the Times recently issued a sorta apology) dwelled on quotes about how this incident would affect the futures of the men and why the mother wasn’t there. Others have said the girl dressed like a twenty year old. Some of the attackers claim they thought she was older than 11. A defense attorney used the term “willing participant” in reference to the young girl. And others have questioned the racial motives behind the prosecutions (the young girl is Hispanic and the accused men are mostly black). The attack was recorded on a cellphone and circulated at an elementary school. These are the facts.
And this is my opinion:
As you might have noticed by the title of this “Newsroom” post, it was written in rage. This happens to me sometimes. Okay, a lot. While listening to news or morning television (back when I used to watch television) a seemingly boring story will suddenly take an outlandish turn, sending me into a back-talking tizzy. When I watched television, the most common recipient of my rage was The Today Show. This morning it was a back episode of NPR’s Talk of the Nation.
I’m getting all sciencey in this week’s “Newsroom” post. Ever since I read The Emperor of All Maladies and did the podcast episode on smoking, I’ve been intrigued by what science says about questionable outgrowths of modern culture and industry versus what the peddlers of these products say. Scientists identified tobacco as a carcinogen long before the tobacco industry even hinted at admission. I’m getting the sense that the same thing is happening with pesticides.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with the horrible attack on the reporter Lara Logan in Egypt last week. In case you missed this news, a quick recap: Logan, a 39 year old mother of two and seasoned reporter, was in Cairo reporting on the latest uprisings. She was reporting for the show 60 Minutes and had a camera crew with her. At one point, while separated from her crew and security, she was surrounded by a group of Egyptian men who beat and sexually assaulted her for 20 or 30 minutes. A group of women and around 20 Egyptian soldiers eventually rescued her.
