I got this from a friend..
Subject: Outrageous editorial
The following was sent to me by a DA (not mine, but a friend) in angry
outrage. I will reprint it here; I checked the posts I haven't read yet,
just in case someone already put it on. The e-mail and snail mail
address for the newspaper, Patriot News, Harrisburg are at the end. My
fingers will be smoking while I type this.
"A right to breast-feed? Get a life"
"Motherhood, apple pie and Americcan flags are all wonderful
things.
"That said, I have a beef with mothers, some mothers anyway.
"They would be the mothers pushing for laws that give women the
right to breast-feed their babies anywhere - in public or private -
without threat of violating any laws - such as indecent exposure.
"These groups have convinced state Sen. Allyson Schwartz to
introduce two bills that, I assume, would allow women to nurse their kids
at the table next to you or me in a restaurant, at a ball game, in a
movie theater or the middle of the mall.
"Despire all the stuff about mother's milk and mother/child
bonding, I still think some things are best done in private.
"Case in point: I'm at the Capitol one day for a rally, and I
take a seat in the front row waiting for the show to begin. All of a
sudden, the woman next to me starts nursing a baby, in the Capitol, at
high noon, in front of bright TV lights and dozens, if not hundreds, of
people.
"According to Schwartz, the Women's Law Project, the Pennsylvania
Breastfeeding Coalition, the La Leche League and others, that was
perfectly OK.
"But it made me uncomfortable, so I moved.
"The above mentioned groups and individuals probably would say
that is my problem, aand perhaps it is. But I don't think I'm the only
one with the problem.
"We live in a society where people cover certain parts of their
bodies. Forget your shoes or shirt and you can't buy a quart of milk or
order a hot dog in most places. Go to the beach without your swimsuit
and you wind up in the slammer.
"Their comeback, of course, is that in many other parts of the
world, public breast-feeding is OK>
"Sure. So are wearing a loin cloth, living in a tar paper shack,
throwing human wastes [sic] into the street, buying a bride or having six
wives.
"The point is, we live here. And certain things aren't done
here.
"For a lot of years, most moms didn't consider breast-feeding an
option. Then yuppies discovered pregnancy.
"Couples share with co-workers their timetables for becoming
pregnant. Strangers lecture pregnant women if they drink alcohol or
caffeine or - heaven forbid - smoke a cigarette. The pregnant gulp
vitamins by the hundreds, know the sex of their unborn child almost
immediately after it's conceived, and share "photos" taken in the womb
through the marvels of modern science.
"Overeducated professionals who once became obsessed with
microbrews and gyms and computers turned their obsession to their
offspring, and along the way, rediscovered breast-feeding.
"Because breast-feeding is natural, they decided, it must be OK
to do it in front of anyone and everyone, the way they would run five
miles through the park or work out at the gym.
"Well, urination is natural, too. But if a man tries that in
public, he winds up with a citation for indecent exposure.
"It's not that I'm against women who want to nurse their babies.
I just don't want to watch them do it.
"Maybe - as someone suggested recently - I am becoming a
conservative in my old age, but I just don't think we need to pass any
more dumb laws, particularly laws that would encourage moms to make the
people around them uncomfortable."
Nancy Eshelman is an assistant city editor for The Patriot-News. Her
column appears Thursdays.
Me again, folks. You just can't make this stuff up. This column
angers me so much, I don't know where to begin. The ideas about equating
breastfeeding with public urination, nudity and so on, are so
narrow-minded, so antiquated, so backward, so, so, I'm running out of
adjectives.
The newspaper's address is
Letters to the Editor
Patrios News Co.
P.O. Box 2265
Harrisburg, PA 17105
FAX - 717-255-8456
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Personally, this lady has done me a favor. I didn't know there was
legislation pending in PA; now I can get in touch with Ms. Schwartz to
express my support for the legislation and find out more about it.
Time to go before my keyboard explodes in anger.
Martha in central PA
------------------------------
Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet, LLLOL, Corgi-L (In Vermont)
Independent Consultant
LACTNET WWW site: http://www.mcs.com/~auerbach/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html
|
