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One Dad RisingFlying the colors for family leave! 6月12日 We did it!After the fact I just want to note that Paid Family Leave passed in Washington State! There was a lot of last-minute lobbying - including our whole family trekking down to Olympia to deliver bags of home-made cookies to legistators. The lawmakers make some cuts and changes but in the end, Governor Gregoire signed the bill into Washington State law and we got to change into something besides Moms-rising t-shirts.
First of all I have to say that this happend much faster than I expected. I was prepared to wear the shirts for at least a year - if not longer. I am very pleased to be able to vary my wardrobe now but even more so that there was enough support in Washington state to get Paid Family Leave passed into law.
Second I was a bit disappointed in myself for not being more diligent about adding blog updates, posting photos or being more active in the many events on the way. The gap between intention and capacity can be wide. After thinking about it for awhile however, I realize it's better to have turned out this way.
We all are busy people and the thing that impressed me the most about participating in the Mom's Rising effort in Washington was that the sheer number of volunteers ensured that the ball kept rolling all the time. I might be able to join one event or two but there were ten other people who stepped up when I wasn't available. Great ideas were generated and executed on in parelell with so many people involved. The best part is that there were so many things to do that people were able to join to whatever level they had capacity for. Some folks wrote an email, some went to meetings, some sent in onsies, some wrote dispatches to the press and some went to Olympia several times to persuade lawmakers that Washington voters were passionate about the cause. It really brought home to me the power of organizing and that every bit helps.
On the day of the signing we had a great plan to drive to Olympia and dramatically change clothing once the bill was signed. Unfortunately we got our travel times wrong and ended up stuck on the wrong side of a ferry boat and never made it to the formal event. In the spirit of collective organizing and doing what you can with what you've got, we drove home, changed shirts in the driveway and had our celebration there. Afterwards we went out for ice cream. It wasn't a big deal but felt in the spirit of our whole experience.
Congratulations Washington - paid family leave is on the way. 3月29日 Flying onsies...I mean flags for family leave.Today is a big day for MomsRising in Washington state. The PFL initiative made it through the senate and is in front of the house. A bunch of MomsRising supporters have headed down to Olympia for a press conference to answer questions and demonstrate the support paid-family leave has in Washington state.
Problem is that the event occurs during working hours and many of the folks who support the bill have to work. Problem: How do you show the scope of support for an issue when people can't make the time to travel to the state capitol in the middle of the work week? Solution: Get supporters to donate onsies with messages of support to take to Olympia in their stead.
This has been by far my favorite project since getting involved with Momsrising this year. One week ago in a planning meeting, the problem above was posed to the Momsrising community. The idea of taking messages on Onsies was concieved and a week later strings of over 300 messaged onsies are hanging in the capitol.
Word was sent out over the mailing list, messages and decorated onsies started arriving, a group of volunteers got together at my house to apply designs to blank onsies and these were distributed to another network of volunteers to apply the messages which have been rolling in. All of this in 7 days. I hear other state efforts are starting to spin up their own versions as well.
The power of organizing through technology is amazing as is the experience of working with people who are passionate about taking care of families.
I unfortunately am one of the folks who was unable to get out of work today so my wife and youngest are carrying our family flag to Olympia and will present our message to the lawmakers. I'll post pictures when I get them. 3月12日 Frank Chopp talk.Part of the life that was happening over the past month was our participation in a town-hall style presentation to the Washington State speaker of the house - Frank Chopp. Yvonne and I were recruited to tell our story along with a list of other speakers who are passionate about the prospect of passing Paid Family Leave in Washington state. Despite hand writing our notes on the ferry on the way to the meeting due to a move-enforced technology drought, our presentation went well with Yvonne giving her reasons for supporting paid family leave while I held our toddler then us traded notes for boy so I could say my piece. I'd include the transcript of our presentation but the notes are packed in a box somewhere. I'll add the content of our presentation once that particular box is unearthed.
Speaker Chopp appeared to recieve the presentation well and he had some good advice about posiitoning our message and who else would need convincing in the Washington state political arena. Interestingly I think the venue had an impact as Speaker Chopp has a history of grassroots organizing in the same room. He told a few stories about his start in politics and sounded well in support of what we are trying to achieve. Also he suggested that "Family leave insurance" sounds more sellable than "Paid Family Leave". What do you think? 3月8日 Power of the press.Got a mention in the UK Guardian yesterday which inspired me to realize how long it has been since I have updated this blog. The authors didn't include this URL in the article but it's pretty clear they read through much of my previous posts. It feels odd to to see proof of an audience halfway around the world - especially when the act of writing an entry feels so intimate.
For the record, enthusiasm for Paid Family Leave, our projects or this blog have not dwindled. They merely were overshadowed for a bit by *life* happening. I have a backlog of topics and expect to post some more soon.
Stay tuned. 2月8日 CNN Money Story!In all the excitement I plumb forgot to mention:
Yvonne and I were featured wearing MomsRising t-shirts in a CNN Money story about paid family leave. Best part is that the picture was taken by our 12-year old - his first photo credit! Link to story:
For those who just want to see the picture.... 2月6日 Forgot to mention......have kept the committment of MomsRising t-shirts daily during this period of chaos. I have three colors and find that I am switching colors daily to allay any suspicions concerning my personal hygiene Still having trouble being much of a billboard on cold days as I unconsciously zip up whatever coat or sweater I am wearing but the weather is changing.
I need a new color though. Where have we been?Went dark with posting for about a month due to remodelling, packing and moving houses. Process isn't done but we have hot water, most electricity and a place to keep the dogs from escaping and running wild. My wife managed to fit in more activism than I during this period but I think it's due to her being inherently more organized than I. Starting to come up for breath and expect to get back to the reports shortly. 1月13日 Cold impacts effectiveness.Seattle has been in the throes of an uncharacteristic cold snap for the past week or so. Unfortunately I am finding the weather is adversely affecting my effectiveness as a human billboard. I have put away all my pullover sweaters, sweatshirts and fleece. Each chilly morning I grab a flannel, zip-up sweatshirt or fleece coat. I vow to leave my overgarment open all day yet find myself at the end of the day buttoned or zipped up tight. I don't recall hiding Rosie but that's what happens every day. Guess I need some screened sweatshirts or a quilted dickies coat with Rosie and the URL on the back. 1月9日 What the heck am I doing?Now that the novelty of wearing the same shirt design every day is not so novel anymore, I spent some time over the weekend reflecting upon what inspired me to join up with MomsRising in this way. I learned about the organization a few weeks ago when my wife was invited to a viewing party at a local coffeehouse by our neighbor. My wife came back from the viewing with a bunch of compelling information so we borrowed a DVD (which the dog promptly ate, forcing us to purchase a replacement and a backup) and watched it together.
I grew up the oldest of three children in a two-parent household. We lived in an upper-middle-class suburb with good public schools. My siblings and I were fortunate to have a mother who chose to leave her career as a school teacher to stay at home with her children while my father worked at the University. We had extended family who loved and supported us emotionally (and sometimes financially) and a tight neighborhood community who knew each others kids and helped each other with childcare, carpooling or company. I didn't know it at the time (especially when I was a teenager and the world was out to get me) but I now realize I was incredibly fortunate to be born into this situation and recognize that I have and internalized sense of security as a direct result of this support network.
Fifteen years later this sense of security and similar support network were present when I became a husband and father for the first time. My eyes were opened as to how much time, effort, money and care are necessary to raise children (Thanks Mom & Dad!). I have a wife who is a terrific parent to share child rearing duties, an extended family, a tight neighborhood community and a good job with great benefits built upon ten years of childless career-building. Even with all of this in place, it’s not easy, isn’t always comfortable and I don’t always have the time, energy and attention I want to give my kids, spouse and myself. Watching the MomsRising DVD and talking about it with my wife raised the question for me: "What if I *didn't* have all this infrastructure in place?" The thought of trying to raise a family without help is frankly terrifying. Knowing that I have had options available to help when things get hard has allowed me to focus on not only what I need but what I want for myself and my family. Maslow's hierarchy of needs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs ) states that basic requirements need to be satisfied before an organism can even think beyond immediate survival. When you are in survival mode, it can be impossible to get beyond the present situation since no time and energy can be spent on the future. I have been fortunate to have multiple backstops all throughout my life but my wife's story (http://onemomrising.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5E7D02741D4552A8!139.entry ) is a reminder that my experience isn't universal. I would that it were - especially where kids are involved. My hope is to raise awareness that giving families breathing room to build a future is a worthwhile endeavor - that taking care of the families and kids around us benefits us all. I want to help build a backstop for my fellow Americans who don't have the same options I did and do. Wearing the same logo every day until family leave passes in Washington state is a small price to pay. 1月4日 Shirts are here!Woke up early to go to work today and realized I didn't have the confidence to make another transfer shirt in the wee hours of the morning and still get out the door in time. Fortunately I washed my one transfer shirt the night before and the dogs woke me at 4am so it was dry and ready to go at 6am. Not quite desperate yet to mix it up however I did some wishful thinking and tried on the XLs in my wifes collection thinking somehow they might be really baggy. Guess I learned there really is a difference between XL in women's and men's sizes. 1月3日 Cleaning out my closet.As my wife mentioned in her post today, one side effect of taking on our pledge to wear MomsRising.org shirts until family leave passes in Washington state is the simplification of the rest of my couture. Understanding that we could be doing this for a year or more, I realized it didn't make much sense to store all my non-MomsRising.org shirts for that long. Last night I cleaned out three dresser drawers, packed up a box for Goodwill and said fond farewell to many old, cherished shirts. Note the soon-to-be-rare sight of me in a non-Rosiefied garment. Second shirt in the seriesYesterday was the first day back to work after the holiday and there was no mail service due to former president Ford's memorial. My always-creative wife put together some custom artwork from the MomsRising.org site and, through the magic of Avery t-shirt transfer technology, made us some snappy MomsRising.org shirts to tide us over. The only glitch came due to my forgetting that the artwork had to be reversed before going on the transfer. We have a really cool backwards multiple version that I am sure will fetch a high price from eBAY collectors after the project is over. In the meantime we are set with making as many of these as we like - just grab a blank shirt and an iron every morning.
1月2日 Resolution RunNew years day dawned with me ready and raring to go with my new wardrobe. Unfortunately due to weather and holidays, USPS did not deliver any shirts in time to get started. My lovely wife had a clever plan for creating custom shirts at home but, due to new years eve festivities and some unforseen technical issues, these weren't ready for my first event of 2007 - the Resolution Run.
On new years day, a local running club sponsors a 5k fun run that ends with an optional dip in the 45-degree lake. This year I took the boys and joined my father and sister for the run. With no MomsRising shirts ready, I fell back on my high-school punk-rock DIY skills and, with a sharpie and a new white t-shirt, made a couple of one-offs for myself and my older boy. The shirts functioned well but I'll be happy when we have a full stock.
Phone-cam photo is the only one I have on hand. I'll post more when my dad sends them my way. I look stern partly due to wrestling with the phone cam and partly in expectation of my upcoming chilly plunge. I usually appear much more cheerful.
1月1日 New Year's resolutionA new look for a New Year At the end of every December, my family picks a theme to represent our upcoming year. The theme is a way to help us focus on something we want more (or less) of in our lives. Last year Yvonnes’ theme was “Start no new projects.” Ken’s was: “Better balance between time spent at work and time spent at home.” At the end of the year, we keep looking ahead and find something new to work towards. 2007 brings us the first unified theme of our marriage. This year we have a plan to increase our success rate by sharing a theme. After seeing the Motherhood manifesto DVD in December we both were inspired to get involved. Neither of us has really spent much time in political activism beyond merely writing a check or signing a petition so this year we pledged to go from passive activism to full-time, every day, social change animals. We will accomplish this by becoming human MomsRising t-shirt wearing billboards until paid family leave passes in our home state. Yep, we each will wear a MomsRising t-shirt every day, until a paid family leave bill is passed in Washington. If we are going to the gym, we fly our Mom’sRising ripped muscle Rosie. Off to work? MomsRising Rosie goes with us. In mid January, when we are off to visit the kids’ great grandparents, we will be fitting into the Scottsdale Arizona social scene with our matching MomsRising Rosie. And that after the holiday fancy party at Ken's work, guess who is getting a little bit of craft glitter for Yvonne’s outfit? Right again, Racy Rosie our MomsRising mascot. Oh and just in case you’re wondering, the only caveat to our new resolution, is we will not be wearing a MomsRising Rosie for weddings or funerals. So, don’t die but do keep those wedding invites coming! Yvonne and Ken
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