Valerie McClain writes:  "What concerns me about this Ad Campaign, is that
the breastfeeding community has aligned itself in this campaign with a
government agency that is run by someone who is politically appointed.  A
person who is known for his associations with multi-national
corporations--particularly Nestle (as Wsiconsin governor he got into trouble
because of his alliance with Perrier-Nestle company)"

Whoa--wait a minute--the problem is not that the breastfeeding community in
the US has "aligned itself" with its own government--

--our government was designed to do precisely this--to work FOR citizens.  

Tommy Thompson, who may have ties to both Nestle AND Gerber, both
corporations with terrible human rights records, may be a very flawed person
to be appointed to work in my government.  It IS a political appointment,
and if I had the political power to make this appointment, I personally
would have appointed Miriam Labbok, or one of many others, equally
qualified. 

But rejecting the US government as a whole, releasing it from its
obligations and refusing to allow it to create a breastfeeding campaign
because the current, temporary (ALL our presidents in the US are temporary)
administration values corporations over people would be absurd.  Our
government has power because we give it power--now we give it direction.

The rest of Valerie's post I take as a good reminder to keep in mind whom we
are dealing with, and to be mindful of our own responsibility to keep our
government (which exists to serve the people) honest and working for "we the
people," not the corporations.  Keeping a critical eye on our government's
breastfeeding promotion is good stewardship by the people.

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC

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