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 | activism alerts may 2005 |
- Your Kid: Pvt. First Class or Private Citizen?
- Pedal Power, People!
- Sierra Club Sponsors Mercury Testing Program for Moms
- It's All About True Beauty
Your Kid: Pvt. First Class or Private Citizen?
This Memorial Day -- a day to commemorate those who have given their lives in service to our country -- we find ourselves facing a deepening quagmire in Iraq, with no end in sight. The military, not surprisingly, is having a difficult time convincing Americans to enlist. Under pressure to maintain troop levels in Iraq, abusive and unethical recruiting practices are on the rise. In fact, just last week the Army took the unprecedented step of ordering a one-day recruiting "stand down" in order to address widespread reports of this problem within its own ranks.
Because of a little known provision in No Child Left Behind, our children are especially at risk. Public high schools are required to provide local military recruiters with private contact information for students, even minor children. The good news is there's something you can do to opt out of these lists.
Go to www.leavemychildalone.org to learn more about opting out and protecting your family's privacy. You can also click to support H.R. 551, the Student Privacy Protection Act, sponsored by US Rep. Mike Honda (D, Ca). H.R. 551 proposes a simple change to No Child Left Behind that would ensure schools release private information to military recruiters only if families request it, rather than the other way around.
To read reports of inappropriate recruiting practices and the 'stand down', click here and here.
Sources:
www.leavemychildalone.org
www.actforchange.com
www.truemajority.org
Pedal Power, People!
We at Mothering were recently pleased to learn that our favorite medical illustrator, Todd Buck (see his work in issues 125 and 130), is embarking on an amazing journey. On Sunday May 22, along with his brother Bob, he will be hopping on a bike and pedaling out of his Illinois driveway .The Buck brothers' destination? Fairbanks, Alaska. The 4000-5000 mile ride promises to be the endurance event of a lifetime for the siblings. It is also a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. Reflecting the Make-A-Wish intention to 'enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy', Todd and Bob have created a website teeming with their spirited good humor, to chronicle the event.
Click here http://buckbrothersbiketour.typepad.com/ to learn more, and to make donation pledges on behalf of the intrepid biking bros.
Sierra Club Sponsors Mercury Testing Program for Moms
The Sierra Club is sponsoring a project to raise awareness about the dangers of mercury pollution with its Mercury Testing Project. Through the project, women can test themselves in their own homes to find out if they have unsafe levels of mercury in their body.
One in six women of childbearing age in this country already has enough unsafe levels of mercury in her body to put her baby at risk. Over 630,000 babies at risk of mercury poisoning are born every year. Mercury is a serious toxin that causes learning disabilities and other developmental problems in young children. When coal is burned, mercury is released into the air where is falls back to earth in rain and fills our lakes, rivers and streams. The mercury finds its way to our dinner tables via contaminated fish.
The Sierra Club is cosponsoring the testing project with Greenpeace. For a small price, women can order a test kit at www.sierraclub.org/mercury to find out how much mercury she has in her blood. The test involves cutting a small sample of hair and sending it to an academic laboratory, the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, which will process the results. The participant's data will also be added anonymously to a UNC research study, which will have the largest sample size of any study to date, on the effects of mercury in the U.S. population.
Source:
www.sierraclub.org
It's All About True Beauty
May 18, 2005 is the 5th annual 'Turn Beauty Inside Out Day'. Girls everywhere (and people who care about them) are encouraged to raise awareness about girls' issues, inspire discussion and foster coalition building in their own communities. Turn Beauty Inside Out (TBIO) focuses on the beauty of conviction, caring and action: who people are and what they do, not how they look. It includes promoting healthy images of girls (and boys) in the media.
TBIO was created in 2000 by New Moon Magazine's Girls Editorial Board (GEB), and is now coordinated by the non-profit organization Mind on the Media. Girls can register for the annual TBIO conference, request a TBIO Action Kit or download 'GirlCaught' stickers from the Mind on the Media website, www.motm.org. In conjunction with TBIO, New Moon's GEB (currently comprised of 16 girls ages eight to 14) publishes an annual '25 Beautiful Girls' issue of New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams in May as a counter to People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People' issue.A^ For more information, click here http://www.newmoon.org
