My voice, video of me helping to educate

[PuppyFluffer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byddS...e=channel_page

[Night_Nurse]

Great job!

[fruitful womb]

Amazing! You're very articulate. I love that you adressed the soliciting unwarranted surgery issue. How its unethical to do so, that is.

Thank you so much for speaking out against infant body modification.

[robertandenith]

I was just going to post this right now! You did an amazing job and it's one of my favorites now, I love how James let you breastfeed your baby in camera! This is SO going to be in my website!!! :-)

[PuppyFluffer]

Glad you like it. I started out a bit nervous. I'm not an "on camera gal". He had talked to me about filming me but we didn't make any particular plans. It just came together because he had a moment and I had a moment. If I had a little more prep, I think I would have brushed my hair! LOL

I've got to bust you on your comment "let you breastfeed your baby on camera" because no one "lets" me nurse my baby. He was totally fine with it and even encouraging. We both agree that our culture needs to see women breastfeeding, need to see breasts being used for their functional purpose and babies eating as they are designed to eat.

[Frootloop]

:
Ok.. seriously?? You WOW'd me.. which is pretty freakin' hard to do!
I loved every moment of this video.. and I LOVED how you nursed throughout the whole thing.
You had so many great points that I literally had to stop myself from giving you a standing ovation a few times. It was just.. perfect. Thank you so much for making it!

[georgia]

That was awesome!!!!

[tutucrazy]

I posted this on my page for my friends and family to see. You did great!

[To-Fu]

That is RAD! I can't wait to share it with tons of people. How did you end up getting the chance to do it?

[PuppyFluffer]

This was filmed by James Loewen. We were in Washington DC for the Genital Integrity Awareness Week which has been held in DC every year for the past 15 years. David Wilson comes up from Cocoa Beach, Florida and puts this together each year to bring awareness to the issue and to educate people. It is held the end of March/first week of April and it's timed to coincide with the anniversary of the federal law outlawing female genital mutilation in the US but does not afford the same protection for boys.

Here's a link: http://www.icgi.org/2008/03/2008-gen...wareness-week/
David's site: Stop Infant Circumcision Society: http://www.stopinfantcircumcision.org/

This year, there was a gathering to recognize the work of Marilyn Milos who founded NOCIRC; Soraya Mire, a woman who was a victim of FGM and has bee such a strong outspoken voice and Hanny Lightfoot Klein, who has traveled Africa, learned about FGM, spoken out and written books.

I was in DC for the weekend and several of us were all at the same hotel. James asked if he could interview me and I said sure. I've never done a filmed interview before. I was a bit nervous. The gramatical error I made drives me nuts too! Did you find it? It's where I say ...the youth gets it..... It should have been "the youth get it". Oh well, i'm not an English major!

Please check out all of his videos. They are just great! Here's a link to his you tube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/Bonobo3D?feature=moby

And if you can, please come to Washington DC to help educate people. It coincides with the Cherry Blossom Festival too and there are bus loads of kids that come through on the week days. I have not been able to be there during the week to see this. From my time there on the weekends, it's obvious to me that the young people really want to learn this information. They are very quick to GET the issue. I can see in the response and questions of young men that they are surprised and that most likely they have not heard of the negatives of circ. While they take a second to process that they themselves ARE circ'd, they can quickly move past the personal assault to ask questions and learn more info. It is very inspiring to me to be able to educate the future parents while they are 17, 18, 19 years old, before most of them are having children.

Please check out all of the videos that James has done. They are very educational and the voices of the people who are working to educate are so strong yet gentle. I am very much inspired by the people I know who do this work. They really GET it about raising children in a peaceful non violent manner, even beyond circumcision, and it is a serious recharge of my batteries to meet up with them.

I have to say though that this year was emotionally very hard for me. I shed many tears over this issue with my baby boy in my arms. To know that I've protected him is another layer of the onion that is parenting. To know that so many men that I know have not been protected in the same way breaks my heart. Having my own son has made it personal in a very deep way. If I can save one mother the heartache that I read about here and one baby boy....it's worth it.

[Dev]

Well said, you appear to be very convincing for the uneducated pro-circ leaning parents. Keep up the great work !

[Freud]

Love it! You were great! I'll share this with everyone I know!

[PuppyFluffer]

Thank you! Please pass this along as far and wide as you can and please look at the other videos that James has up. He had some great voices speaking very clearly in an effort to educate!

[hakunangovi]

For not being a "camera person" you really did well. You spoke clearly, to the point, and made many pertinent observations. I especialy liked how you put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the medical profession (where it desrves to be).

Congratulations and kudos to you for doing this!!

[Fyrestorm]

I posted your video to FB!

You're awesome!

[Peacemamalove]

you are totally awesome!!! Posting to my FB as well!

[Nandi]

Such a great video! Love the pro nursing message as well.

[PuppyFluffer]

I'm happy to do it. I just hate that the need to speak out still exists! Please pass it around anywhere and everywhere and urge others to watch all of the videos done by James!