Calling the bluff on Mother's Day rhetoric

This piece by Lida Shepherd appeared on the AFSC website and in a slightly different form in the Charleston Gazette-Mail. 

As far back as I can remember, my mom has eschewed the popular traditions of Mother’s Day, seeing the cards and the flowers as a bit shallow. Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, first commemorated it here in my home state of West Virginia. She had similar sentiments.    

Toward the end of her life, Jarvis lamented that the holiday had become too commercial, and a travesty of her original vision that we honor our mother for “the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life.”   

On Mother’s Day this year, I want to honor both my mother and Anna Jarvis, by asking whether we as a country are honoring mothers everywhere for their “matchless service”?    

The answer is clear: because despite the proclamations and platitudes of elected officials, their policy choices have made life harder for the majority of moms. The basics of a good life—an affordable home, quality healthcare, healthy food, a good-paying job with childcare, and beyond—are more out of reach than ever.    

So, as President Trump and members of Congress prepare to wish moms everywhere a happy Mother’s Day, we need to ask—and answer—the question: “What have you done for moms lately?”  

The record speaks for itself. Last year, the Trump administration cut over 7,000 workers from the Social Security Administration. The result has been a massive backlog, with people waiting months before getting an appointment to receive the benefits they rely on, including SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance).   

These layoffs particularly impact moms. Mothers are 92% of those seeking survivors benefits, according to 19th News. And because women live longer and also face pay disparities, they are more likely to rely on their spouse’s Social Security benefits.   

Here in West Virginia, several more Social Security offices closed just a couple of weeks ago.  In a rural state like ours—where people have major barriers to transportation and Internet access—these cuts and closures leave mothers and grandmothers desperate about whether their Social Security check will arrive.     

And for moms already stretched thin, food security is under threat, too. Last year, Congress—including West Virginia’s entire congressional delegation—voted to pass Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1). The bill slashed funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $186 billion—the largest cut to the program in history. An estimated 4 million people will see their SNAP assistance terminated or cut substantially.   

West Virginia moms, especially in rural areas, rely on SNAP to put food on the table for their families. How can anyone claim to honor moms while taking food away from their kids? 

The cuts don’t end there. H.R. 1 also eliminated federal subsidies that have made healthcare affordable for millions of families. West Virginia moms could be hit hardest by increases in monthly health insurance premiums, according to KFF. Monthly premiums are projected to spike by up to 654% (from $602 to $4,540).   

In West Virginia, over 44% of mothers receive their healthcare through Medicaid. And H.R. 1 spares them nothing. With the cuts and policy changes to Medicaid contained in the bill, up to 37% of people, including moms, will likely be kicked off Medicaid. Moms will lose health care access not because they aren’t working or aren’t exempt from the reporting requirements, but because the new policies are designed to drown people in paperwork.  

We are already feeling the impact in West Virginia as rural hospitals prepare for severe funding shortages. Where I live in Greenbrier County, the local hospital recently ceased offering OB/GYN services. Now, expectant moms must travel over an hour to receive care for themselves and their baby. 

For even more examples of cruelty from our federal government, look no further than the Trump administration’s proposed budget for next year. It proposes:  

Eliminating Head Start and Early Head Start. The program serves more than 700,000 children and their families nationwide—including 8,499 in West Virginia. It also provides early childhood and family services and helps connect parents to resources like job training.    

Eliminating the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG). These programs help moms and their families afford home heating and cooling costs. Meanwhile, Appalachian Power—our electric company here in West Virginia—just filed a notice of its intent to ask for another base rate increase. If approved, moms will see a 4% base rate increase as soon as March of next year.   

Eliminating Early Childhood Mental Health Supports. That includes the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) grants and Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health). 

The Trump administration’s budget would even make it harder for low-income moms to buy fruits and veggies for their kids. It would cut the monthly WIC fruit and vegetable benefit by $1.4 billion, reducing it from $54 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers and from $27 to $10 for young children. 

While moms lose food assistance, healthcare, and other supports, big corporations and the superrich continue to post record profits—using tax breaks and loopholes also contained in H.R. 1. The burden is being shifted onto working moms and families who can least afford it.   

The struggles mothers face today are not of their own making. They are the direct result of elected officials who have chosen to prioritize the wealthy elite over the everyday working people whom they were elected to represent.   

Like activist Carol Hanisch wrote in her seminal 1969 essay, “Personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time. There is only collective action for a collective solution.”   

Today, one collective action we can all take is making very clear who in leadership is responsible for our problems. Then, it is up to us to hold them accountable. 

This Mother’s Day, we invite you to take action. Join us in calling on Congress to reject the proposed federal budget that would further harm mothers and families across the country. Instead, we must invest in food, health care, and human needs that ensure all people can thrive.  

Remembering a very different kind of rebel on Mother's Day

 

On this Mother's Day, a holiday born in WV, I'm reposting this one about my mother, who passed in 2015. 

The recent decision to change the name of Charleston’s Stonewall Jackson Middle School made me think of my late mother. An alumna of the school, she died in 2015 at 90.

She was a rebel of the decidedly non-Confederate variety. And she would have been ecstatic over the change.

A daughter of the southern West Virginia coalfields, she was born in Beckley and spent her early years in Wyoming County. Her father worked in the mines when work was to be found, which wasn’t often in the 1920s and ’30s. Eventually, he caught a break and found a job at the Union Carbide plant. (Ironically, he’d wind up getting killed on the job before I was born. So it goes.)

He moved the family to Charleston. My mother attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, now St. Christopher’s. She graduated from Stonewall and was elected as homecoming queen or something to that effect.

While it lasted, the Carbide job made it possible for her to be the first of her family to attend college. She went to Ohio University in Athens, a place I still like.

That was a good thing. She’d wind up raising two sons and losing two more on a West Virginia teacher’s salary with no child support. My father, a World War II combat veteran in the Pacific Theater, had many charms and virtues, but domesticity didn’t make the cut. Today, he might have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

My mother taught junior high math for about 25 years in Milton, where she was something of an institution.

In “The Prince,” the Renaissance philosopher Machiavelli wrote that it was better for a leader to be feared than loved. In her teaching career, my mother somehow managed to hit the sweet spot. She was generally loved by two or so generations of students, but her temper was legendary.

Although she barely stood 5 feet, 2 inches after a stretch, there was a persistent legend across the years of her picking up a heavy school desk and throwing it across the room. In some versions, there was a student in the desk.

I wouldn’t swear to that. But it wouldn’t surprise me.

Her rebellions were multiple. She was hardcore on women’s rights. I still remember the time as a teenager when I was pontificating about abortion. She calmly said that if it were a safe and legal option, she would have gotten one in her last pregnancy, which didn’t end well. That pretty much shut me up on that subject.

She didn’t bat an eye when my late older brother came out as gay. She loved hanging out with his friends, a fun crew. At the risk of perpetuating a stereotype, both were mad about Broadway musicals, a gene which I apparently didn’t inherit.

She was a hardcore union member as well. In those days, the West Virginia Education Association was the only game in town, but I’m sure she would have been just as happy in the West Virginia Federation of Teachers. In the ’70s, she marched with hundreds of other teachers in Charleston for better pay.

One of my favorite memories of her was during the 1990 teacher strike. She had recently retired and was livid that Cabell County teachers didn’t join the walkout. (Some people started calling it “Scabell.”)

At the time, I was a year into my job with the American Friends Service Committee and had spent a lot of that trying to support United Mine Workers of America and their families during the Pittston strike.

As the smoke poured from her ears, she said, “Why don’t you get some of your union miner friends to come up and picket and shut down Cabell schools?”

I thought that was the best idea ever and got right on it. Alas, the teachers settled the strike and won a historic victory before we could pull that off.

Ahh, the ones that got away ...

She hated several things, one of which she called “narrowmindedness,” a catchall term for her that included racism, religious bigotry, homophobia, science-denying, disapproval of card playing, abstinence from wine and other offenses against humanity.

But if you really wanted her to go off, you just had to mention the Confederacy. She hated it with the vehemence of a Union soldier wounded in a bad place at the battle of Fredericksburg. She hated the bogus narrative of racist chivalry and the “Lost Cause.” She hated the idea of any aristocracy. She hated efforts to romanticize it. She pretty much hated everything about it.

Congratulations to those who fought the good fight for a long-needed change.

And if there is anything beyond this life, and if the dead are still interested in earthly things, somewhere someone I know is doing cartwheels.

(This appeared as an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

Mother's Day action to protect health care

With the fate of millions up in the air with the attempted repeal of the Affordable  Care Act, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care and allies are organizing Mother's Day Medicaid Awareness events around the state:

Facebook Event Pages:

Charleston: https://www.facebook.com/events/1374037169351543/?ti=icl

Morgantown: https://www.facebook.com/events/777671539066178/?ti=icl
Beckley: https://www.facebook.com/events/174088976449675/?ti=icl

Shepherdstown: https://www.facebook.com/events/641000152769584/?ti=icl

There are also postcards (here and here) addressed to Senator Capito (R-WV. If you can't make it, feel free to print and send to these office locations (DC and local recommended) or just send an email.

Senator Capito's vote and influence will be critical to preserving and protecting Medicaid and other health care gains. Please be respectful but clear about your opposition to efforts to weaken health care coverage for West Virginians.

(Note: it's fitting that WV should act at this time since the Mother's Day holiday was born right here.)

Late on a Mother's Day...

...It has occurred to me that this is my first Mother's Day without a living mother. Mine passed at age 90 in early January. I am not one to put private sentiments on public display but I will say this: her life was quiet but good and touched many people and her passing was like that of a sweet candle that finally burned out.

I'm glad that I was there when she drew her last breath as she was there when I drew my first. I feel honored to have received my life from her. From her, I received the greatest gift: that of tenacity. I have long felt that my active life was the complement of her quiet life.

As the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer says, "May light perpetual shine upon her."

Mother's Day and much more

Lots of people celebrated Mother's Day this Sunday. I wonder how many know that the mother of Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, was a West Virginian. A social activist, over time she became disillusioned by the commercialization of the day she helped to create. Read a bit more here.

WHAT'S THE PLAN? In this op-ed by a friend of mine, the writer asks Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, an opponent of the Affordable Care Act, exactly what she proposes as an alternative.

AND WHAT'S AFFORDABLE? In this one, yours truly responds to the same theme.

GASSED UP. Here's one by another friend of mine on how WV can do better in regulating and otherwise managing the Marcellus Shale gas play.

FEED TO ACHIEVE. Here's more on new WV legislation to combat child malnutrition and improve health and school performance.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED