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June 2020. America is currently teetering on the edge. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that it could disintegrate into civil war. It’s day 9 of mass protests, and the national guard, FBI and riot police are all out in force. The race riots of the 60’s look like a warm up compared to protests across all 50 states, as well as many countries overseas. Here in Australia many of us are reckoning with our own wake up calls to the ongoing police brutality and persecution of Indigenous Australians. The sheer scale of the outcry to George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police has sparked awareness of the need to speak up in many places, both likely and unlikely. Over at The Beyond Sleep Training Project, they’re one of many parenting pages sharing content related to anti-racism, white privilege, and the need to speak up. Predictably there’s been a few comments from people claiming that sharing such content isn’t relevant to the page. (Newsflash, what’s relevant to any page is what the page creators feel is relevant.) But here’s the thing, TBSTP isn’t just any parenting page; it’s an anti-sleep-training page. Why is that relevant? Because Sleep Training is a tool for racism. (Cue outrage and denial) Still with me? Here’s 4 ways Sleep Training is racist. 
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Whilst sleep training is the dominant paradigm in western parenting, and has been for quite some time. It is historically and culturally, an anomaly. A blip on the radar of human existence. For good reason, since it goes against the biological norms of our species. If you have ever wondered how we got here, how sleep training came to be "required" to be seen as a "good parent", read on:  When thousands of women complain of the same side effects from their contraception; when business is considering adopting period leave; when maternal morbidity and mortality is rising in the USA and the western world has abysmal breastfeeding success rates, we have a much bigger problem than any of those issues individually suggest.  Maybe instead of throwing insults and shutting ourselves off to any discussion of the downsides of vaccines, we should all be fighting to make vaccines as safe as humanly possible. By ensuring better testing, more transparent and easier complaints lodging, regularly reviewing for improvements, having whole of life schedules, and using the least invasive juvenile schedule possible.  If Jesus were alive today, what would he be like, and perhaps more importantly would the average Christian even agree with him? I'm thinking probably not.  The Administration aren't going to change gun laws. Obama has been trying for years. But perhaps the people of America can bring change without the Administration's support.  This is part 4 in an ongoing series on Gun Control in the USA
I finally watched “Bowling For Columbine” last night. Yep, I know it’s 14 years old. That’s not the point. Anyway. It made me think that in the 18 years since Columbine there are thousands of kids who have lived through school shootings who are now old enough to vote. The number of people who have been directly affected by mass, school and accidental shooting must be up into the millions. Surely some of those people are lawyers, sheriffs, mayors or local government members, Journalists, and if none of the directly affected are, then surely there are people with connections. Connections to people who could help put together a class action. The world is very different to what it was like in 1999. We now have the means to mobilise extremely large numbers of people behind a cause. We have the means to raise capital that was once the biggest stumbling block. We have the ability to make the press sit up and take notice, building momentum like a snowball. So it’s time for American’s to start being “We The People” and holding their government to account. Sure there’s been plenty of petitions go around, but clearly petitions aren’t enough to make congress budge, because we all know that America only understands one thing - litigation. Sue Congress for neglect of Human Rights, and for allowing terrorists to thrive. Because that’s what it is. Every child should have the right to go to school without fear of being shot. Every parent should have the right to be able to send their child to school without worrying if today’s the day a terrorist will come and shoot kids who are just there to learn. Every worshiper should have the right to go to church without the fear of being shot. Every citizen should have the right to go to the cinema or the mall or anywhere else without fear of being the victim of a mass shooter - a home-grown terrorist. Every black, brown, hispanic and muslim American should have the right to live their life free from racial profiling, and be able to play a game of cops and robbers in the park without being killed by police. Every baby and child has the right to not kill their own parents because they discovered a loaded gun in mummy’s purse and were curious. Human Rights neglect. As for the NRA and the gun manufacturers. Class action suing for damages. It brought big tobacco down a few notches. It can do the same here. 96% of Australian Women want to Breastfeed. By three months 35% of them will have partially or completely moved to formula. At 5 months - a whole month before public health bodies recommend introducing solid foods, only 15% of babies are exclusively breastfed. So what's going on? We live in a culture where the odds are stacked against us. We live in a culture that is following a recipe for mass breastfeeding failure.  Part three of a series on gun control in the USA, this is a roundup of some of the interesting and important articles I have read since Thursday's Oregon College shooting.  In other desperate attempts to place blame anywhere but the easy access to machine guns, the second post in this series on gun control in America looks at the most annoying and possibly most offensive argument that has sprung up recently. That the mass shootings are a mental health issue not a gun control issue. I'm sorry, what?  Yes people used to think you were cool, but then they realised that actually, you're not. You just like to claim you are.  |
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