We're planning on waking at the crack of dawn and taking a most likely dino-jammied Ranger to witness the political process in action. We want him to see that we value civic involvement (from voting to jury duty).
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Monday, May 05, 2008
In Case You Were Wondering What I'm Doing Tomorrow
We're planning on waking at the crack of dawn and taking a most likely dino-jammied Ranger to witness the political process in action. We want him to see that we value civic involvement (from voting to jury duty).
Monday, September 24, 2007
Don't Sink the SCHIP: Important Children's Health Care Legislation Needs Renewal
Judy at Goodyblog just pointed out that a critical children's health care funding program is set to expire on September 30th if Congress doesn't intervene.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) helps working families who don't make enough to pay for private health insurance but make too much to qualify for Medicaid. What this means is that if the legislation expires, many more families will have to abandon regular preventative health care and only seek medical care in emergency situations and settings.
Now everyone who has spent time in an e-room or has been admitted to the hospital, can tell you that even the aspirin are extraordinarily expensive. So the expiration of this legislation will end up costing everyone more in the long run. And more importantly it will unnecessarily endanger the health of infants and children nationwide.
Medical debt already ranks as a leading cause of bankruptcy in America (to understand this situation more fully please read Elizabeth Warren's findings on who goes bankrupt in Maxed Out), so making preventative health care less accessible to children and infants can only damage our national and state economies.
Please take a brief moment today to let your national representatives know this needs to be addressed before it expires on SEPT 30th.
If you blog, please post something to encourage widespread public support of this critical legislation.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) helps working families who don't make enough to pay for private health insurance but make too much to qualify for Medicaid. What this means is that if the legislation expires, many more families will have to abandon regular preventative health care and only seek medical care in emergency situations and settings.
Now everyone who has spent time in an e-room or has been admitted to the hospital, can tell you that even the aspirin are extraordinarily expensive. So the expiration of this legislation will end up costing everyone more in the long run. And more importantly it will unnecessarily endanger the health of infants and children nationwide.
Medical debt already ranks as a leading cause of bankruptcy in America (to understand this situation more fully please read Elizabeth Warren's findings on who goes bankrupt in Maxed Out), so making preventative health care less accessible to children and infants can only damage our national and state economies.
Please take a brief moment today to let your national representatives know this needs to be addressed before it expires on SEPT 30th.
If you blog, please post something to encourage widespread public support of this critical legislation.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Sharpen Your Pitchforks and Write Your Representatives: Parents Need to Exert a Political Voice
In case you haven't already seen the article, last Saturday the New York Times wrote an article on the damage done to the Consumer Products Safety Commission in recent years. Read the article now if you haven't already done so.
Government cutbacks have crippled public safety mechanisms while traditional safety watchdogs have been replaced with industry advocates. It's made our food and toys unsafe while we were all distracted with concerns over the safest car seat.
We, people who care about children, are a bigger presence than any other. I for one, rank food and product safety as a top priority. How do we use our collective size to reinstate adequate public safety? I don't know, but I'm open to suggestion.
The present toy recalls are probably only the tip of the iceberg.
My friend just emailed that she's so bothered by the recalls that she's sticking with crafts and homemade toys until she sees some clearer sense of direction.
Where do we go from here? Do we become the new watchdogs armed with a powerful Internet and sympathetic friends with fluoroscopes? What organizations (universities, hospitals, charities, think tanks, etc) do we advocate to step into the chasm that is being left by these cutbacks?
If you are a reader who works for such an institution (or know someone who does) what do you need from parents to convince your organization to take up this cause?
A lot of us have been wondering how these defective and dangerous products have made it into the country in the first place. Jim and I both assumed that there had to be random testing at ports as the FDA doesn't police import quality, but customs inspectors have no equipment and they don't have the authority to take suspicious goods for further testing. We couldn't be more wrong. The understaffed and underfunded inspectors that are present have their hands full looking out for their main charge; finding counterfeit products. Few people are watching this problem, and those who care are being systematically washed out or are burning out.
Let's not die of poisoned toothpaste while wearing genuine Nike shoes. Let's do something about this.
FOR a list of policitical people you can petition for change, persuade, or yell at please look up your Federal representatives at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt or see all your state and Federal representatives using the zip code search engine at http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm (I have no idea what this site's politics are, but it has a nice politician search). Thanks Jeremiah for the links.
Government cutbacks have crippled public safety mechanisms while traditional safety watchdogs have been replaced with industry advocates. It's made our food and toys unsafe while we were all distracted with concerns over the safest car seat.
We, people who care about children, are a bigger presence than any other. I for one, rank food and product safety as a top priority. How do we use our collective size to reinstate adequate public safety? I don't know, but I'm open to suggestion.
The present toy recalls are probably only the tip of the iceberg.
My friend just emailed that she's so bothered by the recalls that she's sticking with crafts and homemade toys until she sees some clearer sense of direction.
Where do we go from here? Do we become the new watchdogs armed with a powerful Internet and sympathetic friends with fluoroscopes? What organizations (universities, hospitals, charities, think tanks, etc) do we advocate to step into the chasm that is being left by these cutbacks?
If you are a reader who works for such an institution (or know someone who does) what do you need from parents to convince your organization to take up this cause?
A lot of us have been wondering how these defective and dangerous products have made it into the country in the first place. Jim and I both assumed that there had to be random testing at ports as the FDA doesn't police import quality, but customs inspectors have no equipment and they don't have the authority to take suspicious goods for further testing. We couldn't be more wrong. The understaffed and underfunded inspectors that are present have their hands full looking out for their main charge; finding counterfeit products. Few people are watching this problem, and those who care are being systematically washed out or are burning out.
Let's not die of poisoned toothpaste while wearing genuine Nike shoes. Let's do something about this.
FOR a list of policitical people you can petition for change, persuade, or yell at please look up your Federal representatives at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt or see all your state and Federal representatives using the zip code search engine at http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm (I have no idea what this site's politics are, but it has a nice politician search). Thanks Jeremiah for the links.
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