I didn’t get called on at the regional White House Forum on Health Reform in Des Moines this week, and it’s my own fault for not waving my hand more aggressively. I stewed about it for awhile, because no one mentioned women’s reproductive health or pregnancy prevention, and that’s what I was there to talk about.
The next day on NPR I heard that no insurance representatives were called on either.
This was not a slight for them or me; it’s just that there were over 500 people in the room and most of them wanted to talk.
The more I thought about Nancy Ann DeParles’s parting words, the more I realized that my role might have been to listen. As the White House Healthcare Reform Czar, DeParle recapped what she thought she’d heard. She suggested that in other attempts to reform the health care system in this country, stakeholders came to the table with a perfect plan, and when their perfect plan wasn’t adopted, they chose to stick with the status quo rather than compromise. What she thinks she’s hearing now is that people are willing to listen and willing to create a not-so-perfect plan, then work to make it better.
In the course of the forum, I re-crafted what I wanted to say if I had the chance. Then a guy stood up and said that he’d heard a lot of representatives of various interests talk about how they wanted to be “at the table” when decisions are made, but that wasn’t why he was there. He wanted to suggest a solution. I decided to listen more carefully.
Yes, I want pregnancy prevention to be part of the conversation, but I was impressed by the eloquence of the head of the nursing association. I was moved by the president of AFSCME who said home health care workers who toil all day helping our most vulnerable elderly citizens can’t afford health insurance. By listening I better understood the enormity of issues facing us and the necessity of compromise.
I know the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but I know also that a car is the sum of its parts, and any vital part that malfunctions means the car isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So the forum was a valuable opportunity to stand around the car, expounding on its imperfections, peccadilloes, flawed design and how this part or that could make it better. But, in the end, a team of mechanics is going to have to get under the car and get dirty fixing it.
After we’ve had our say, we need to listen to the dialogue between Congress and the Administration and if the vehicle runs when they’re finished, we need to test drive it even if it sputters a little. We can always take it back for a tune up.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Mary’s Center – Community, Health and More
A fifteen minute walk from trendy DuPont Circle in Washington DC takes me to Mary’s Center on Ontario Street. I have come to visit the family computer literacy program honored with the Verizon Tech Savvy Award, which I created as Iowa’s first lady. I wanted to identify best practices among programs that teach technology skills to parents and children together.
What I didn’t expect was a neighborhood services potluck: a health clinic, a Reach Out and Read site, a WIC clinic, mental health and domestic violence counseling, and founder, nurse, Maria Gomez, who has been serving her neighborhood for 20 years.
Students, mostly women, pack small classrooms encircled with computers. In level one, students struggle to say their names in English. In level three, students discuss in English the values they want to teach their children. The hall is a parking lot for strollers. The babies are cared for in the daycare down the hall.
The health clinic hums, no chair empty. Men, women and children wait to see a doctor. Originally a maternal health clinic, Mary’s Center has expanded its mission to include men and has been designated a federally-funded community health center.
Founder and CEO Maria Gomez recounts the story of the day 20 years ago when she asked gang members to vacate the corner so their mothers and sisters could come safely to the clinic for treatment. They were gone the next day and never returned.
Upscale homes and businesses pepper the area now, encroaching on a predominantly Latino neighborhood. Maria cobbles together enough money to keep the clinic and literacy programs alive, but her success in serving the needs of the neighborhood means space has become an issue.
She is proud that First Lady Michelle Obama visited the daycare recently. She knows just how she plans to use increased federal funding next year to expand services. She has the use of a corridor of rooms in a nearby elementary school and she’s opened a site in a Latino neighborhood in nearby Maryland.
Coincidentally, many parts of my life come together in Mary’s Center. The Tech Savvy Award brings me here, but I also serve on the national board of Reach Out and Read, a non-profit that enlists the help of pediatricians to use books as diagnostic tools and to convince parents to read aloud to their children. As Secretary of Agriculture, my husband oversees the nation’s WIC (women, infants and children) food assistance program, which is currently encouraging women to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
I serve as executive director of the Iowa Initiative, a non-profit focused on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies among women ages 18-30. Mary’s Center also counsels women about family planning issues and dispenses birth control.
Part of my job involves talking to civic organizations about working together in communities to improve women’s reproductive health. I spend a lot of time with decision-leaders and policy makers who fund Title X family planning services or provide resources at the state level. I learn from people who gather statistics and write about issues like providing access to free, long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC).
But sometimes, it’s helpful just to see how it all works for people in the course of their everyday lives: How do they fit a pap smear, a well-baby check up and an English class into the same Mary’s Center visit? How does it feel to introduce themselves in a new language to a visiting dignitary? It’s also rejuvenating to listen to the story of one ordinary woman who decided to make a difference in her neighborhood and succeeded.
What I didn’t expect was a neighborhood services potluck: a health clinic, a Reach Out and Read site, a WIC clinic, mental health and domestic violence counseling, and founder, nurse, Maria Gomez, who has been serving her neighborhood for 20 years.
Students, mostly women, pack small classrooms encircled with computers. In level one, students struggle to say their names in English. In level three, students discuss in English the values they want to teach their children. The hall is a parking lot for strollers. The babies are cared for in the daycare down the hall.
The health clinic hums, no chair empty. Men, women and children wait to see a doctor. Originally a maternal health clinic, Mary’s Center has expanded its mission to include men and has been designated a federally-funded community health center.
Founder and CEO Maria Gomez recounts the story of the day 20 years ago when she asked gang members to vacate the corner so their mothers and sisters could come safely to the clinic for treatment. They were gone the next day and never returned.
Upscale homes and businesses pepper the area now, encroaching on a predominantly Latino neighborhood. Maria cobbles together enough money to keep the clinic and literacy programs alive, but her success in serving the needs of the neighborhood means space has become an issue.
She is proud that First Lady Michelle Obama visited the daycare recently. She knows just how she plans to use increased federal funding next year to expand services. She has the use of a corridor of rooms in a nearby elementary school and she’s opened a site in a Latino neighborhood in nearby Maryland.
Coincidentally, many parts of my life come together in Mary’s Center. The Tech Savvy Award brings me here, but I also serve on the national board of Reach Out and Read, a non-profit that enlists the help of pediatricians to use books as diagnostic tools and to convince parents to read aloud to their children. As Secretary of Agriculture, my husband oversees the nation’s WIC (women, infants and children) food assistance program, which is currently encouraging women to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
I serve as executive director of the Iowa Initiative, a non-profit focused on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies among women ages 18-30. Mary’s Center also counsels women about family planning issues and dispenses birth control.
Part of my job involves talking to civic organizations about working together in communities to improve women’s reproductive health. I spend a lot of time with decision-leaders and policy makers who fund Title X family planning services or provide resources at the state level. I learn from people who gather statistics and write about issues like providing access to free, long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC).
But sometimes, it’s helpful just to see how it all works for people in the course of their everyday lives: How do they fit a pap smear, a well-baby check up and an English class into the same Mary’s Center visit? How does it feel to introduce themselves in a new language to a visiting dignitary? It’s also rejuvenating to listen to the story of one ordinary woman who decided to make a difference in her neighborhood and succeeded.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Out-of-Wedlock?
Several weeks ago, a news flurry about out-of-wedlock births caused the Iowa media to contact my office about a reported “uptick.” I was so distracted by the reference to out-of-wedlock births that I had a difficult time focusing on the conclusions journalists were trying to draw from the numbers.
First, the words themselves are out-of-date and irrelevant. In a world where women are deciding to become mothers outside of marriage, where eggs can be fertilized in a petri dish, where married and unmarried women use artificial insemination, where women serve as surrogate parents for childless couples, where gay couples who legally can’t marry use technology to conceive or choose to adopt children, I question using archaic language so out-of-sync with reality.
As a journalist and English teacher, I teach that words and labels matter, that the connotations of words matter. As someone married to an “illegitimate child,” a man born “out-of-wedlock,” I am especially sensitive to this particular designation.
A look at the 2007 Vital Statistics of Iowa Report, shows out-of-wedlock births to be one of thousands of categories including “live births to mothers ages15-17 ranked by county” and “average age of marriage l997-2007.” Any number having to do with every kind of death, birth, marriage and divorce is listed there.
One reporter who called our office said he was referring to statistics released by the Iowa Department of Public Health, so it’s clear journalists rely on these numbers and the language that accompanies them. I’ve heard that policymakers also rely on these statistics to make decisions and craft legislation.
Apart from the argument that the word is irrelevant, shouldn’t we re-examine why it matters today that a child is born “out-of-wedlock?” If the language doesn’t reflect the changes in our society, is it possible the numbers don’t either? I’m interested in learning how policy-makers or other decision-makers use these numbers.
Is it possible that if we change the language of categorizing that we’ll change the way decision-leaders use and interpret the numbers?
Let me know how you feel about the use of the words “out-of-wedlock” in a society where we commonly refer to couples in a “committed relationship.” I’m also interested in knowing how “out-of-wedlock” statistics are used by policy-makers to make decisions and how these decisions might affect peoples’ lives positively or negatively.
First, the words themselves are out-of-date and irrelevant. In a world where women are deciding to become mothers outside of marriage, where eggs can be fertilized in a petri dish, where married and unmarried women use artificial insemination, where women serve as surrogate parents for childless couples, where gay couples who legally can’t marry use technology to conceive or choose to adopt children, I question using archaic language so out-of-sync with reality.
As a journalist and English teacher, I teach that words and labels matter, that the connotations of words matter. As someone married to an “illegitimate child,” a man born “out-of-wedlock,” I am especially sensitive to this particular designation.
A look at the 2007 Vital Statistics of Iowa Report, shows out-of-wedlock births to be one of thousands of categories including “live births to mothers ages15-17 ranked by county” and “average age of marriage l997-2007.” Any number having to do with every kind of death, birth, marriage and divorce is listed there.
One reporter who called our office said he was referring to statistics released by the Iowa Department of Public Health, so it’s clear journalists rely on these numbers and the language that accompanies them. I’ve heard that policymakers also rely on these statistics to make decisions and craft legislation.
Apart from the argument that the word is irrelevant, shouldn’t we re-examine why it matters today that a child is born “out-of-wedlock?” If the language doesn’t reflect the changes in our society, is it possible the numbers don’t either? I’m interested in learning how policy-makers or other decision-makers use these numbers.
Is it possible that if we change the language of categorizing that we’ll change the way decision-leaders use and interpret the numbers?
Let me know how you feel about the use of the words “out-of-wedlock” in a society where we commonly refer to couples in a “committed relationship.” I’m also interested in knowing how “out-of-wedlock” statistics are used by policy-makers to make decisions and how these decisions might affect peoples’ lives positively or negatively.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Pay Equity for Women
On January 22nd, I sat in the gallery of the U.S. Senate watching a debate on the Lilly Ledbetter bill which involves pay equity for women. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland squared off against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas. I was surprised to find not only the visitors and press galleries nearly empty but the Senate chamber as well.
Senator Hutchinson was trying to pass an amendment because she thought, as written, the bill would hurt small businesses. If companies don’t want a bad reputation, they shouldn’t discriminate, argued Senator Mikulski. Her argument was echoed by my senator, Tom Harkin of Iowa, an original co-sponsor of the bill. He said, “This is a women’s issue, it is a fairness issue, it is a family issue. And it is time for Congress to pass this law to right this gross injustice.” After debate, senators voted to defeat Hutchinson’s amendment. When it came time to vote on the entire bill, in the final vote that evening, all the women senators voted in favor and it passed. Last week President Obama signed the bill, his first.
The signing of the bill will overturn a Supreme Court case that ruled against Lilly Ledbetter’s claim of discrimination. After working as a supervisor with Goodyear Tire for 19 years she discovered that male supervisors had been paid a higher salary. Not only had she made less over those many years but her lower salary meant she now received less in retirement. She took her battle to the Supreme Court and lost. But even that didn’t stop her. She invested the next 10 years of her life in the struggle to guarantee women equal pay.
When I left the Senate to walk to the Metro, I got caught up in a group of pro-life protesters on a street corner, there to express their opinions on a day that marked the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It struck me that these two concurrent events speak to the power one woman can have to create change.
One woman took a stand and led the struggle to guarantee equal pay for women. Another woman Norma McCorvey, known to most of us as “Jane Roe” stood up for her right to reproductive choice. These women teach us all that one woman really can make a difference in the lives of many, whether she’s a teacher, a nurse practitioner, a legislator, a grandmother or a community activist.
It also occurs to me that the issues these two women fought for are actually very much related to one another. A woman who is compensated fairly for the work she does is a woman who pays more taxes, a woman who can plan her pregnancies, a woman who can support herself in retirement.
Lilly Ledbetter and the people who helped her along the way, including the elected officials who supported her cause last week in Congress, are an inspiration.
To see President Obama sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 or to learn more click HERE.
Senator Hutchinson was trying to pass an amendment because she thought, as written, the bill would hurt small businesses. If companies don’t want a bad reputation, they shouldn’t discriminate, argued Senator Mikulski. Her argument was echoed by my senator, Tom Harkin of Iowa, an original co-sponsor of the bill. He said, “This is a women’s issue, it is a fairness issue, it is a family issue. And it is time for Congress to pass this law to right this gross injustice.” After debate, senators voted to defeat Hutchinson’s amendment. When it came time to vote on the entire bill, in the final vote that evening, all the women senators voted in favor and it passed. Last week President Obama signed the bill, his first.
The signing of the bill will overturn a Supreme Court case that ruled against Lilly Ledbetter’s claim of discrimination. After working as a supervisor with Goodyear Tire for 19 years she discovered that male supervisors had been paid a higher salary. Not only had she made less over those many years but her lower salary meant she now received less in retirement. She took her battle to the Supreme Court and lost. But even that didn’t stop her. She invested the next 10 years of her life in the struggle to guarantee women equal pay.
When I left the Senate to walk to the Metro, I got caught up in a group of pro-life protesters on a street corner, there to express their opinions on a day that marked the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It struck me that these two concurrent events speak to the power one woman can have to create change.
One woman took a stand and led the struggle to guarantee equal pay for women. Another woman Norma McCorvey, known to most of us as “Jane Roe” stood up for her right to reproductive choice. These women teach us all that one woman really can make a difference in the lives of many, whether she’s a teacher, a nurse practitioner, a legislator, a grandmother or a community activist.
It also occurs to me that the issues these two women fought for are actually very much related to one another. A woman who is compensated fairly for the work she does is a woman who pays more taxes, a woman who can plan her pregnancies, a woman who can support herself in retirement.
Lilly Ledbetter and the people who helped her along the way, including the elected officials who supported her cause last week in Congress, are an inspiration.
To see President Obama sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 or to learn more click HERE.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Diversity Award
With money from the Family Planning Council of Iowa and the Iowa Initiative, Planned Parenthood of Southeast Iowa hired two bilingual staff for outreach to the growing Hispanic communities and the investment is already paying off. Listening to
Alejandra Rebolledo, Hispanic Outreach Coordinator, talk about her work, it’s not surprising that she helped PPSI win the Central Region Diversity Award, which means an extra $1,000 for their education department.
Her enthusiasm is contagious: Hispanic women want to know more about birth control and how to prevent getting an STD or HIV; they are interested in learning how to communicate with other family members about sexuality.
Alejandra teaches a six-week series of women’s reproductive healthcare classes in Spanish. The first week they talk about anatomy, followed by information about pap smears and mammograms. Week three is about birth control including LARC (long-acting reversible contraceptives). In weeks four and five, she teaches about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. The last week they talk about communicating with children about sexuality and talking to partners about condom use.
“If you don’t have good communication with mom and dad, then it’s difficult to have communication with children,” says Alejandra. For some, their religious beliefs are a barrier to getting information. Alejandra says she always tells women that she respects their point of view but that her information is research-based and medically accurate. She finds her role as a teacher really rewarding. Some of the ladies she teaches have said, “God bless you and thanks for sharing.”
Alejandra Rebolledo, Hispanic Outreach Coordinator, talk about her work, it’s not surprising that she helped PPSI win the Central Region Diversity Award, which means an extra $1,000 for their education department.
Her enthusiasm is contagious: Hispanic women want to know more about birth control and how to prevent getting an STD or HIV; they are interested in learning how to communicate with other family members about sexuality.
Alejandra teaches a six-week series of women’s reproductive healthcare classes in Spanish. The first week they talk about anatomy, followed by information about pap smears and mammograms. Week three is about birth control including LARC (long-acting reversible contraceptives). In weeks four and five, she teaches about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. The last week they talk about communicating with children about sexuality and talking to partners about condom use.
“If you don’t have good communication with mom and dad, then it’s difficult to have communication with children,” says Alejandra. For some, their religious beliefs are a barrier to getting information. Alejandra says she always tells women that she respects their point of view but that her information is research-based and medically accurate. She finds her role as a teacher really rewarding. Some of the ladies she teaches have said, “God bless you and thanks for sharing.”
Friday, December 19, 2008
Over a bowl of chili at lunch, I scanned the Des Moines Register. An article about a girls' high school bowling championship caught my eye. Bowling is now a sanctioned sport for women in 80 Iowa high schools, the 10th such sport for women. When I started teaching in Iowa in l975, track was the only women’s sport and then only because Title IX forced high schools to offer girls athletic opportunities.
That same year, Tom answered a knock at our apartment door one night and there stood several high school boys holding a huge trophy. Schools didn’t sanction bowling at that time so these kids asked Tom, who was Booster Club president, to make a personal donation so they could attend the state bowling league championship. He was their sole sponsor, so their arrival to present him with the state bowling trophy was a surprise.
Bowling is good exercise, it’s fun and helps people understand teamwork and the ups and downs of competition, which is a part of our everyday lives as adults.
In the article, Lincoln High School girls spoke about the fun of competing in the state championship and their pride in the recognition they’ve received. These women are learning a life-time sport, something they can do with a date, a spouse or life-partner; something they can do with their children someday, or a great way to enjoy a night out with friends.
The assistant director of the Girls Athletic Union says that this sport reaches 40% of students who are not involved in their schools in any other way. That’s the best part. Team sports are one more alternative to premature sexual activity, one more esteem-building activity. We’ve come a long way.
That same year, Tom answered a knock at our apartment door one night and there stood several high school boys holding a huge trophy. Schools didn’t sanction bowling at that time so these kids asked Tom, who was Booster Club president, to make a personal donation so they could attend the state bowling league championship. He was their sole sponsor, so their arrival to present him with the state bowling trophy was a surprise.
Bowling is good exercise, it’s fun and helps people understand teamwork and the ups and downs of competition, which is a part of our everyday lives as adults.
In the article, Lincoln High School girls spoke about the fun of competing in the state championship and their pride in the recognition they’ve received. These women are learning a life-time sport, something they can do with a date, a spouse or life-partner; something they can do with their children someday, or a great way to enjoy a night out with friends.
The assistant director of the Girls Athletic Union says that this sport reaches 40% of students who are not involved in their schools in any other way. That’s the best part. Team sports are one more alternative to premature sexual activity, one more esteem-building activity. We’ve come a long way.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Opportunities
Diana Rodrigez grins at her dad who sits next to her when a sentence she has cut from another document magically appears on the computer monitor before her. The Computers for Youth teacher switches between English and Spanish to accommodate the diverse parent-child population gathered at Leonardo da Vinci Middle School in Corona, Queens, New York on a Saturday morning for a first lesson in technology.
Another dad in the front of the room yawns. He’s just gotten off work and would normally be home asleep, but he has to attend the class in order for his son to take home the free, refurbished computer offered to families by this program that puts parents together with their children to learn some basic word processing skills.
The director of the program, Kavita Gilchrist, says that many of the 700 6th graders at this school will attend one of the Saturday morning classes with a parent so they can access the computers, even though the program can no longer offer Internet access.
In front of Diana a boy can’t get the hang of the double-click. He tries again and again, his third finger awkwardly getting in the way. I am reminded not to assume that all 6th graders in this country have mastered the double-click or the right-click.
I have to listen carefully to understand a teacher talking in another room to a group of Spanish-speaking families about the importance of parents monitoring what children are accessing on the computers. In Spanish, he explains My Space and Facebook and tells parents that these 6th graders are too young to have an account.
In most cases these families will be unable to afford to hook up to the Internet, but the software downloaded already into the computers will allow children and parents to access language skills and math skills that already are boosting test scores for the children in this low-income neighborhood, according to Principal Lisa.
What does this have to do with reducing unintended pregnancy among women 18-30? When you give girls opportunity, you nurture dreams of extended education and job opportunities. You offer them choices about when, how often and even if to have children.
It’s the joy of opportunity I saw on the face of Diana Rodrigez, and I saw that joy mirrored in the face of her father, who had made a sacrifice to be there and make sure his daughter had that opportunity.
Another dad in the front of the room yawns. He’s just gotten off work and would normally be home asleep, but he has to attend the class in order for his son to take home the free, refurbished computer offered to families by this program that puts parents together with their children to learn some basic word processing skills.
The director of the program, Kavita Gilchrist, says that many of the 700 6th graders at this school will attend one of the Saturday morning classes with a parent so they can access the computers, even though the program can no longer offer Internet access.
In front of Diana a boy can’t get the hang of the double-click. He tries again and again, his third finger awkwardly getting in the way. I am reminded not to assume that all 6th graders in this country have mastered the double-click or the right-click.
I have to listen carefully to understand a teacher talking in another room to a group of Spanish-speaking families about the importance of parents monitoring what children are accessing on the computers. In Spanish, he explains My Space and Facebook and tells parents that these 6th graders are too young to have an account.
In most cases these families will be unable to afford to hook up to the Internet, but the software downloaded already into the computers will allow children and parents to access language skills and math skills that already are boosting test scores for the children in this low-income neighborhood, according to Principal Lisa.
What does this have to do with reducing unintended pregnancy among women 18-30? When you give girls opportunity, you nurture dreams of extended education and job opportunities. You offer them choices about when, how often and even if to have children.
It’s the joy of opportunity I saw on the face of Diana Rodrigez, and I saw that joy mirrored in the face of her father, who had made a sacrifice to be there and make sure his daughter had that opportunity.
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