Apr

17

Women’s Health and the Environment Blog Tour, Day 4

April 17, 2007 | 6 Comments

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I am so very excited to be participating in a blog tour to promote the Women’s Health and Environment Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, on April 20th. As part of this tour, it is my honor to welcome Mrs. Teresa Heinz-Kerry to DemFineWoman. Mrs. Heinz-Kerry is the founder of the Women’s Health and Environment conference and has a tremendous record of working on behalf of women and families and to protect the environment.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Heinz-Kerry, and I found her to be an incredibly intelligent, compassionate, and humble woman. I’m excited to introduce her to you all today in this brief interview.

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Photo of Mrs. Teresa Heinz-KerryMy first question is one of personal interest to me and my family. My grandmother is dying from Alzheimer’s. We think her mother may have also had it, leaving my mom and me to believe that it may be hereditary. This is not a happy thought. Are you aware of any possible connections between environment and Alzheimer’s? If so, is there anything you are aware of that we can do now that may someday prove to be helpful in fighting this disease?

According to experts at the Alzheimer’s Association, there is no known connection between Alzheimer’s and environmental toxins. Studies have found that a small percentage of the population have one of three genes that can cause early Alzheimer’s. But, in the major portion of the population, people develop their dementia when they are older.

There’s evidence that things that are bad for your arteries are also bad for your brain – so people who are fit, don’t smoke and don’t have high blood pressure or cholesterol have a lower risk of dementia.

But that doesn’t mean genes don’t matter, and studies from Sweden comparing identical and non identical twins suggest that about 70 per cent of Alzheimer’s disease can be blamed on genes and that if you have a first degree relative with
Alzheimer’s, your risk is doubled. This isn’t as hopeless as it sounds because some of these genes are probably triggered by lifestyle things such as having high blood fats or diabetes.

But, for the most current and up to date information, I recommend you consult the website for the Alzheimer’s Association, and in particular, check out their “maintain your brain” program.

Thanks. I feel a mixture of relief and disappointment at that. Relief to know that there’s nothing we’ve been doing wrong that may result in a higher risk for Alzheimer’s later, and disappointment at knowing that the solution may not be a simple as a change in lifestyle. But I appreciate the resources and will definitely check them out.

Next, you’ve had the opportunity to work with people from all political persuasions. What have you found is the best way to bridge the political gap on the issue of the environment, in order to build consensus and cooperation among people with very different views?

Any time you can focus the discussion and its impact on current or future generations such as children or grandchildren, you remove it from a personal matter to everyone’s personal life - something they can understand and identify with. Second, you look for common ground and begin there – however small or large that one issue might be. Finally, try to have all parties included at the table in order to build a true consensus such as business people, civic leaders, environmentalists, as well as (where appropriate) elected officials and union leaders.

For example, a number of years ago, the Heinz Center was created to focus on issues that are likely to confront policymakers within two to five years. The Center creates and fosters collaboration among industry, environmental organizations, academia, and government in each of its program areas and projects. The active involvement of these four sectors in all aspects of environmental policymaking—from identification of a problem through the crafting of recommendations to implementation of a policy—produces robust solutions to the environmental challenges that face the Nation.

This philosophy, and its implementation in the Center’s everyday operations, means that leading policymakers and practitioners from government, industry, environmental organizations, and universities are able to work together to identify pressing environmental challenges and to agree upon ways of meeting those challenges. This is a model that has a proven track record – and one that allows all parties, whether they agree or not, to come together to seek solutions.

Another way that I found useful to “bridge the gap” is to create an economic strategy illustrating how specific changes can both help business and protect the environment. For example, in 1990, McDonald’s, the nation’s largest fast-food chain, and the Environmental Defense Fund (now called Environmental Defense) worked together to “conserve resources and cut waste through source reduction, recycling and composting.” Within ten years, “McDonald’s eliminated 150,000 tons of packaging, replaced foam-plastic sandwich containers with paper wraps and recycled boxes, and made dozens of other packaging improvements in its restaurants and throughout its supply chain.” And, since then, Environmental Defense and McDonald’s have worked together on a number of initiatives to protect the environment and ensure that McDonald’s was an increasingly responsible corporate citizen.

And, we have to continue to urge or push McDonald’s to be smart environmentally, both in the packaging they use as well as the meats they purchase, and how those products are prepared.

These are great suggestions. I remember when McDonald’s changed their packaging–I just wasn’t yet at an age to really be aware of why. But your suggested approach makes a lot of sense. Everyone cares more about something when they can see how it applies to them and their families, and when they’re given the tools to make changes without destroying their livelihood.

Finally, I live in a lower-income neighborhood. Most of the women in my neighborhood don’t have access to adequate health care, and would find it impossible to shop at health food stores, buy healthier cosmetics, etc. What advice would you have for a woman in that situation who wants to be more environmentally aware and improve her health? What’s an affordable first step?

Let me try and address the total picture.

For health care services, all families (and individuals) can obtain health care services (on a sliding fee scale) at a federally qualified community health center. There are more than 4,000 such centers across the U.S. You can find the center closest to you at the HRSA website – and if you cannot find one, please email Jeffrey Lewis (jlewis AT heinzoffice DOT org) the President of the Heinz Family Philanthropies for help. Jeff and I work with these Centers every day to help connect uninsured people with affordable health care and prescription drug coverage.

With regard to helping women from low income neighborhoods become more environmentally aware and interested in improving their health, I recommend starting small to see what works best. That means eating more fruits and vegetables, and avoiding junk food as much as possible.

Here is a rule I use - the harder the fruit or vegetable and the less likely you are to eat its skin, the safer it is to eat non organic fruit and vegetables.

Those fruits and vegetables that do not readily absorb pesticides into their body need not be organic. Think of those as fruits and vegetables that have peels that we would never think of eating, such as bananas, broccoli, avocados, sweet corn (frozen), pineapples, mangoes, sweet peas (frozen), kiwi, cabbage, papaya, etc.

The ones that should be organic are those things that you can’t easily peel, or that are grown in the ground, such as berries, peaches, apples, celery, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, and nectarines.

For questions, please go to the website for the Environmental Working Group for their free guide, Pesticides in Produce.

For a woman who wants to be more environmentally aware and improve her health, there are lots of things she can do. Here are a few. First, start by visiting some specific environmental websites such as:

• the League of Conservation Voters, where they follow and chart specific votes in Congress that are important to the environment, and you can see how your Member of Congress or Senator is rated;
• the Breast Cancer Fund out of San Francisco, CA, where they are a leading force in advocating for and protecting the interests of women at the state legislative level as well as nationally;
• the Heinz Center, where environmentalists, businesses and academics come together to collaborate on solutions to environmental problems;
• Environmental Defense and the Environmental Working Group, who are doing some pioneering work on the impact of chemicals and the body burden.

There are a myriad of environmental groups and organizations – so take your time learning about the specific groups you want to become involved with or more knowledgeable about. In the book John and I recently published, This Moment on Earth, there is a detailed section in the back of the book giving readers lots of resources to refer to.

To improve your health, the one thing each of us has to do is to decide we are serious about becoming and staying healthy. It is like anything else, start with what is manageable and affordable – for example, changing the kinds of eggs you buy; the milk you drink; perhaps buying organic chicken instead of the store brand.

But, it is important to remember that organic products cannot be found in every community. However, that does not preclude us from asking questions and seeking answers.

For example, in 2004 when I was campaigning in Iowa to elect John President, I met a family farmer, Paul Willis, who raises hogs outdoors (not in factory buildings in an unnatural system) who shared with me the importance of understanding where your food comes from and how it’s raised.

It is never too late to start, but we all need to be smart about what we are doing and how we are doing it. In addition, try to talk online with some of this country’s real experts, for example,
• Dr. Bernadine Healy who created the Women’s Health Initiative while she was the Director of the National Institutes of Health;
• Dr. Frederica P. Perera, one of our foremost authorities on children and the environment;
• Dr. Devra Davis, an expert in environmental oncology and author of When Smoke Ran Like Water
• John Peterson “Pete” Myers, co-author of Our Stolen Future
• and Dr. Lovell Jones who is an amazing and thoughtful researcher who continues to lead efforts regarding the specific impact the environment and socio-economic conditions have on people of color. Dr. Jones also believes that poverty, is itself, a carcinogen.

My point is that there are some extraordinary people out there who are happy to help – seek them out and ask your questions. If you can’t find an email address, email Jeffrey Lewis, the President of the Heinz Family Philanthropies and we will try and help.

However, there is also another challenge that I would like to recommend and help with. Imagine if we took one community and helped organize the lower income women as a purchasing group and used that clout to begin to create changes such as where they purchase their food and who they purchase it from, thus bringing affordable solutions at a grassroots level. For example, imagine if these women organized themselves across a city like Detroit or New York or Atlanta or Jackson, Mississippi, etc., so instead of shopping at two or three different markets or Seven-Elevens, they agreed to shop at one store and used their purchasing power to leverage change and prove and underscore that poor women are still smart consumers.

Remember numbers mean dollars and dollars mean change. You lead the way to good choices. When managers see changes in numbers, they will respond!

This is very inspiring. Thank you so much. Making changes or helping people to make changes often seems so overwhelming, but you gave me some excellent, very doable things to start out with. It’s given me some ideas to take to my neighborhood association.

Thank you again, Mrs. Heinz-Kerry, for being my guest today. I just want you to know how much I admire you and the work you’ve done in these areas of women’s health and the environment. Thank you for giving so much of yourself.

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I hope everyone will take the time to visit the Heinz Family Philanthropies website and check out the rest of the blog tour schedule. Tomorrow’s stop: The World Women Want (and introducing…Big Green Purse). Please stop by and leave some comments!

Also, please do check out Mrs. Heinz-Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth, co-authored with her husband, Senator John Kerry. I have my copy, and am really enjoying reading it. It’s not like any other environmental book you’ll ever read–it’s about real people doing real things to improve the world in which they live. I think you’ll find it very inspiring.

Apr

2

Thoughts on Home Schooling

April 2, 2007 | 1 Comment

Last week, I finished reading Randall Balmer’s Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical’s Lament. I agreed with so much of it and was encouraged to read about the progressive history of the evangelical movement and the emergent signs that at least some of our community may be starting to return to their progressive roots.

However, I had to take exception to Balmer’s characterization of home schooling in his chapter on Education. Admittedly, his main point in the chapter was to discuss the effect that public funding of private schools has on the integrity and efficacy of public schools. I found that point interesting and enlightening, as I haven’t followed that debate very closely. And though he does affirm the right of parents to make educational choices for their children, his overall opinion of home schooling seemed rather dour. He portrayed home schooling families as conservative Christians and fundamentalists who are home schooling out of a desire to shield their children from any beliefs that conflict with their own. He presented a rather Utopian picture of public school as this collegiate playground of ideas and cultures, where children come together on an equal level to learn from each other.

As a former elementary teacher, I just don’t think that’s a realistic view at all. As a former public school student myself, I didn’t experience anything even resembling that sort of give and take until I was a senior in high school. Certainly not at the elementary level. My parents chose to home school me from 5th through 8th grade, about a year after it became legal in Nebraska, not so much for religious reasons (though they are conservative Christians) but because I was miserable in the public school. I was a gifted child in a classroom where being gifted was reason for other kids to ostracize me, and my intellectual hunger was not being met by the paltry servings of a supplemental “challenge” program once a week. My parents were leery of grade acceleration, so home schooling seemed to provide the best way to meet my academic needs away from the pressure and scorn of other students. I’ve always been grateful to them for making the sacrifice to home school me–I benefited immensely from those years out of the classroom.

I now home school my children for nearly the same reason. My oldest daughter is extremely intelligent, but also struggles with sensory integration and sequencing learning disabilities that would not bode well for her in a regular classroom setting. At home, I can match the curriculum and the schedule to meet her very unique needs. I would never expect a classroom teacher to offer the sorts of accommodations that I do at home–it would be impossible.

It’s true that most of the first home school pioneers–the ones who fought for the legal right to home school and even underwent arrest and jail time in their efforts–were Christian fundamentalists. I don’t agree with a lot of their beliefs or political affiliation. But I am very grateful to them for the work they’ve done in securing the right to home school and in protecting it from people who misunderstand what home schooling is all about. Yes, some of them do have a “cave mentality” where they want to shield their children from outside influence. But not all.

If Balmer were to take a closer look into the home school community, he would find families home schooling for reasons as varied as the people doing the home schooling. A growing number of families with gifted or twice-exceptional (gifted with LD) are choosing home schooling because a regular classroom offers inadequate accommodations for our children’s needs. Families of many faiths and cultures choose to home school because they recognize that the home should be the primary place for religious and cultural education, and they don’t want these valuable and unique aspects of their culture to be lost in a generic American classroom.

I appreciate Balmer’s concern for public education. I share that concern. But I think it is unrealistic and unfair for him to seemingly suggest that families put the preservation of public schooling ahead of what is in the best interest of their own children. Maybe he wasn’t trying to imply this at all, but that is what I was getting from it.

Sometimes, home schooling is a real challenge for me as I try to also juggle my dual careers of writing and editing. But I am confident we have made the right decision for our daughters. I also must admit there is a certain joy in being the one to help my children learn and grow. I hope that when they are grown, they will look back on our home school years with as much appreciation and fondness as I do on mine. These are precious years.

Mar

24

Thy Kingdom Come, by Randall Balmer

March 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament

Got to hear this guy speak recently and had to buy his book. He really speaks my language–not just in ideas and opinions, but also in beautiful use of words. It’s all about the history of evangelicalism and the rise of the religious right. He documents how the current tone of evangelical Christianity in America and the dogma of the religious right is a radical departure from the progressive traditions of evangelicalism. He’s an evangelical himself, and speaks of this culture with a lot of compassion and concern. As I get further into the book, I’ll share some more thoughts about it.

Mar

23

I blame John Kerry

March 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment

It’s really all his fault. He’s the reason I became a Democrat. And got involved in the political blogging community. And found a great group of people who’ve become my friends. They live all over the world but also in my computer.

Yeah, I was already trending left before 2004. I’ll save that story for another time. But the more I researched this guy my dad scornfully said was “as liberal as they come” the more I found to admire and respect. A leader with integrity and good ideas, someone smart and dignified, who still knows how to laugh and enjoy life.

Being from a very conservative community, I didn’t know a lot of “liberals” but I decided if that’s what they were like, that’s what I wanted to be part of. My quiet, personal revolution happened at my computer, reading a few blogs and sipping a cup of chai. But it was a deep and thorough about-face because for the first time in my life, I’d found an honest and sincere politician. You can’t just ignore a find like that.

So you see, it really is all his fault.

I’ve been wanting my own blog to write about my thoughts on politics and parenting and women’s issues for awhile. But I’ve met a lot of political bloggers who are brilliant, articulate, and very knowledgeable. It is rather intimidating company. What do I have to offer?

But I’m in a unique position. I live in a very “red” part of the country, grew up here actually. I am an evangelical Christian. I was raised in a strongly Republican family and had little exposure to an alternative view. Through a series of experiences in my late 20’s and early 30’s, I’ve done a lot of soul searching–resulting in a political 180 that must have my family doubting my sanity.

At this point, I’m happy to say I’m a liberal. A progressive. Both are fine terms with a history to be proud of. But I don’t totally fit the stereotype. I still consider myself an evangelical Christian (it’s a theological term, NOT a political one!). I home school my children (for non-religious reasons). I love my conservative family and community (even though they drive me nuts).

Because of all this, I have a unique perspective. And that’s why I decided to have my own blog, even though I’m not the most politically savvy or a brilliant activist. I’m a mom. A novelist. A freelance fiction editor. And I’d like to be a peacemaker, a thinker, someone that has good ideas and tries to serve others.

Like John Kerry. (You knew I was going to bring it back around, didn’t you?)

See, it’s really all his fault. But I think it’s an okay thing to be guilty of–being an inspiration and role model to others. It’s better than being guilty of…I don’t know, starting wars or lying to America.

So while this blog isn’t about John Kerry, per se, it is in many ways a tribute to him and his wife Teresa. Don’t worry–I promise I won’t gush…too much.