>Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 19:49:29
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Patricia Lynn Cordeiro <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: **Newspaper Article to Share**
>
>        Here is a newspaper article I fell in love with. It ass written by
a free-lance writer in Missoula, Montana named Kim Harvey.  Kim gave me
permission to get it printed in my local newspaper and to share it with you
all.  However, if anyone wants to do anything besides read it, please
contact her at PO Box 4682, Missoula, Mt. 59806 or <[log in to unmask]>.
>
> ***"Whispering Humans Should Act More like Animals, Let Nursing Moms
Nurse"***
>
>        I'm so very glad we live in such an enlightened age.  We as a
society have come a long way in the last 100 years.  Women have the vote and
can wear pants.  In most circles, it is no longer considered a mental
disorder to be gay.
>We can all ride the same bus and drink out of the same water fountain.
Although
>we have a long way to go, we're getting closer to equality than we've ever
been...unless you happen to be a nursing mother.
>
>        I was in the mall the other day and sitting on a bench was a young
mother nursing her baby.  Anyway, I think there was a baby under all that
draping she had on her shoulder.  She was trying hard not to look at all the
people passing by who were trying hard not to look at her.  I was trying
hard to look at everybody.
>
>        Men were cutting there eyes sideways in an oh-so-inconspicuous
manner as to appear not to be paying attention.  Women were cutting there
eyes at the men
>who weren't paying attention to the fact that there was a woman with a bare
breast less than a few feet away from them.  Little children were openly
staring out if curiosity, and being scolded by their mothers for being rude.
Imagine that.
>
>        Apparently, it's still considered bad taste to breastfeed in public.
>
>        There has to be a solution to this that will make everyone happy.
If we women are going to insist in feeding our babies in this manner, we
should do so in the privacy of our own dark closets at home?  We wouldn't
want to offend the family pets.  This solution probably wouldn't have worked
for me.  My closets are too full of skeletons and I just don't have the
inclination to clean them out.
>
>        Short of mothers staying at home for the duration of babyhood, or
training our babies not to get hungry at "inconvenient" times.  I'm not sure
what the answer is.  I suppose we could do something rash like change the
attitude of the general public as to what breasts were meant for.
Realistically, this may be a difficult task.  I understand "Baywatch" has a
huge following.
>
>        Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just act like animals when it
comes to feeding our young.  We manage to act like animals at other times,
why not in this instance?  I've never seen a cow take her calf behind a tree
before she feeds it.  She just stands out in the open and lets her baby eat.
Amazingly enough the other cows and bulls do not stop grazing to stare.
Neither do they all turn their backs or mosey to the other side of the
meadow.  There no low whispers, no pointing of hooves, and no animal is
offended.
>
>        Even human's attitudes are different when we see animals nursing.
To see nature at work fills us with a sense of peace and awe.  Maybe the day
will come when we'll show nursing mothers the same respect we show nursing cows.
>Wouldn't that be something?
>
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>