Vote for candidates who have a plan for revitalizing the American Dream

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Diana Bardyn

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May 14, 2012, 9:04:30 AM5/14/12

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Mother’s Day, Not Just Another ‘Hallmark’ Occasion

By Diana Robinson-Bardyn | New Smyrna Beach

A woman in the U.S. is more than 7 times as likely as a woman in Ireland or Italy to die from a pregnancy-related cause and her risk of maternal death is 15 times that of a woman in Greece.

Mother’s Day — Anna Jarvis campaigned for it. President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. Marketeers “Hallmarked” it, making it into another opportunity to sell cards, flowers, chocolates. And in 1948 Anna Jarvis “wished she would have never started the day”, and was arrested while protesting against the commercialization of Mother’s Day. If Anna was already repudiating her creation in 1948, imagine what she would say today while standing in front of a Hallmark card display.

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If you believe that caring about mothers and children should be more than a rhetorical sound bite, and that 25th is not good enough, what can you do? You can begin by asking those seeking election this year, or re-election, what they would do to bring America into the top 10. If a candidate talks about defunding Planned Parenthood, cutting funding for food stamps, school lunches, health care, making it harder for women to manage their reproductive health, forcing women to undergo vaginal probes, don’t vote for him/her. Vote for candidates who have a plan for revitalizing the American Dream – a plan that prioritizes our mothers and children, our decency, and our quest for a just society.