Connie Schultz from Creators Syndicate

Mothers Lactate; Bosses Hyperventilate for 09/02/2009

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

If you think breast-feeding is a gender-specific ability, then you are so out of step with Ohio's Supreme Court.

Last week, in a 5-1 ruling, the highest court here ruled that an Ohio law that bans discrimination against pregnant women does not protect them from punishment for taking unauthorized breaks to use breast pumps after they birth those babies.

And you thought we were a tr ...

Updated: Wed Sep 02, 2009

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Unity After 9/11 Was but a Dream for 09/06/2009

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This Tuesday, as America prepares to observe the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to encourage children to work hard and stay in school.

Unfortunately, thousands of students across the country will not see his speech, which is scheduled to take place during the school day. These are children whose parents insist the presid ...

Updated: Sun Sep 06, 2009

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So, America's Kids Learned What, Exactly? for 09/09/2009

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Our president asked America's students to "make a pact" with him.

"Write me a letter," he told them in a nationally televised speech. "And I'm serious about this one; write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals. I think you know the address."

Oh, wait, that was George H.W. Bush, speaking to students at Alice Deal Junior High School ...

Updated: Wed Sep 09, 2009

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Shame Is Not a Health Care Strategy for 09/13/2009

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Apparently, it is now fashionable to bash the obese.

For the sake of health care, you understand. Nothing personal.

Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the Cleveland Clinic's CEO, got the ridicule rolling. The New York Times reported some comments he made last month at a conference on obesity. If he could get away with it legally, Cosgrove said, he would not hire obese people.

The Wall Stre ...

Updated: Sun Sep 13, 2009

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You Probably Knew Crystal Lee Sutton for 09/16/2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Crystal Lee Sutton died last week at the age of 68.

You may have known her by a different name.

Last year, in a recorded interview with the NC Policy Watch, Sutton recalled the moment that changed her life — and later elevated the lives of thousands of textile workers.

It was May 1973. She was a 33-year-old mother with three children, widowed once and remarried, makin ...

Updated: Wed Sep 16, 2009

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Outsourcing Hotel Housekeepers Creates a Real Mess for 09/20/2009

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Recently, housekeepers at three Hyatt hotels in Boston thought they were training new workers for vacationing staff.

Managers asked the housekeepers to do this, and why not? They were experts at cleaning up the messes of strangers. So they taught the new workers everything they know.

Unfortunately, the housekeepers didn't know they were taking a high road thick with weeds.

...

Updated: Sun Sep 20, 2009

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Outsourcing Hotel Housekeepers Creates a Real Mess for 09/20/2009

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Recently, housekeepers at three Hyatt hotels in Boston thought they were training new workers for vacationing staff.

Managers asked the housekeepers to do this, and why not? They were experts at cleaning up the messes of strangers. So they taught the new workers everything they know.

Unfortunately, the housekeepers didn't know they were taking a high road thick with weeds.

...

Updated: Sun Sep 20, 2009

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Never Trust a Viral Prayer for 09/23/2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A reader recently forwarded a rip-roaring e-mail titled "In Defense of Prayer." It circulates widely on the Web, is attributed to CBS commentator Andy Rooney and apparently originated as a defense of team prayer at football games.

"Keep this going around the globe," read one of the forwarding messages.

"Folks, this is the Month that we RE-TAKE AMERICA!&quo ...

Updated: Wed Sep 23, 2009

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With Identity Comes Online Civility for 09/27/2009

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A few months ago, an exchange with a reader prompted my own experiment with online anonymity.

It started after I accepted a self-identified conservative's request to be my "friend" on Facebook. My goal with Facebook is to coax out a wide range of views in discussions to illustrate how we humans have more in common than we may want to think.

To jump-start conversations, I ...

Updated: Sun Sep 27, 2009

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Banning a Book Near You for 09/30/2009

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

We call them school librarians, but in these contentious times, I'm inclined to call them heroes.

Take Karin Perry, for example. That's "Mrs. Perry" to you middle schoolers. She cast the winning bid in an auction to bring best-selling author Ellen Hopkins to speak to her students at Whittier Middle School in Norman, Okla.

This was a big "whoo-hoo!" for Perry's ...

Updated: Wed Sep 30, 2009

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It's Not News That Working Mothers Feel Guilty for 10/04/2009

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tomorrow the majority of American mothers with young children will hug their little ones goodbye and rush to full-time jobs they wish could be part-time.

Only 13 percent of these mothers think this is an ideal life for their children, but most of them feel they have no choice. Most of them feel they are rushing through their lives some of the time; 4 in 10 say they are rushing all the ti ...

Updated: Sun Oct 04, 2009

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One Soldier Dies; Another Soldier's Mother Prays for 10/07/2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Whenever she reads an online notice that another American has died in Iraq or Afghanistan, Donna Faye Caudill posts the same response:

"Praying for the soldier's family."

Every time I read her response, I know that she is thinking about her son Army Spc. Ben Caudill.

This ritual began soon after I signed up for the Department of Defense "casualty" alerts ...

Updated: Wed Oct 07, 2009

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Getting Giddy Over the Gay Games for 10/11/2009

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Cleveland will host the international Gay Games in 2014.

No kidding. More than 12,000 athletes will compete in 30 different sports right here in the middle of the country. We beat Boston and Washington, D.C., for the honor, too.

Sweet.

Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Robert Smith wrote last week that this news sparked some major pooh-poohing from big-city snobs, particularl ...

Updated: Sun Oct 11, 2009

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The Rush To End Miss America for 10/14/2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miss America officials have decided to kill off their beauty pageant.

That's not what they're saying, but you tell me what it means when a beauty pageant that professes to champion America's young women issues a news release with "Rush" and "thrilled" in the same sentence:

"We are thrilled to have Rush join us for our pageant this year," said the Miss ...

Updated: Wed Oct 14, 2009

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Airing Our Clean Laundry for 10/18/2009

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

My mom was an early environmentalist, and she didn't even know it.

One of my fondest childhood memories involves my mother and the clothesline that stretched across our backyard.

Twice a week, she'd grab her bucket full of clothespins and lug a wicker basket full of wet clothes up the basement stairs and out into the sunshine. Only on winter's coldest days would she use the electr ...

Updated: Sun Oct 18, 2009

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Nice To Know We Still Can Be Duped for 10/21/2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Well, how stupid were we ?

Makes the cheeks burn just thinking about it.

There we were Oct. 15, millions of us huddled around TVs, radios and the Internet, breathlessly tracking that goofy balloon's trek across the Colorado skies because we feared a little boy had hitched a ride.

Minds raced: Would he live? Would he die? What if he hit electrical wires?

What ...

Updated: Wed Oct 21, 2009

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Suddenly We Care About Others' Paid Sick Leave for 10/25/2009

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In a perfect world, no working American would get sick with the H1N1 virus.

Alas, perfection eludes us.

In a slightly less perfect world, workers in America who got the flu would not infect friends, colleagues and total strangers, because their bosses would recognize there's a benefit to their businesses and the employees still standing when highly contagious workers are allowed t ...

Updated: Sun Oct 25, 2009

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Pay No Attention to the Wrinkles for 10/28/2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Last summer, I was at a reception in Washington, D.C., when a woman in her early 40s leaned in to whisper with lips so swollen with collagen they looked ready to burst.

It was one of those moments when my immediate response was a silent "Oh, honey. No."

Broke my heart. The longer she and I chatted the more I couldn't help but think that I liked her more than she did.

...

Updated: Wed Oct 28, 2009

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Cleveland Murders Raise Questions Around the World for 11/15/2009

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Over the past few weeks, Cleveland police have dug up 11 African-American women's bodies at the home of a convicted sexual predator named Anthony Sowell.

Thousands of miles away, during a visit to Hong Kong, young Chinese women asked me the same question over and over:

How could these women be missing for so long and nobody knew?

How could a woman's family tolerate even one ...

Updated: Sun Nov 15, 2009

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11 Women Are Dead, and the Distancing Begins for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

About two weeks into The Plain Dealer's coverage of the Imperial Avenue murders in Cleveland, some women from more privileged neighborhoods began to complain about the coverage.

As Managing Editor Debra Adams Simmons told me, the theme has been essentially this: Stop putting these stories on Page One. They are not relevant to the majority of your readers.

Translation: They are not ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

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