Health care

A Playground for Walker

~ Christa ~ Leave a comment

Parents of students attending Charlottesville City Schools would like to support our community in building a playground for Walker! If you are interested in getting involved, including taking a survey to provide student and parent feedback, please sign up to receive updates by emailing christa@communitywell.com.

Currently, Walker Upper Elementary School does not have a playground. Instead, it has a basketball court, a four square section of the court, and a soccer field (which is often unusable due to wear and tear from weekend soccer games). This is problematic, as it limits the options students have for critically important physical movement during the day. In a 2018 study by Oregon State University, researchers found that one of the contributors to quality recess experiences for students was “plenty of choices of play equipment and games.”

During a school project that engaged all sixth-graders at Walker in fall 2018, students identified a playground as one of the top things they wanted for their school.

The lack of a Walker playground is particularly unfortunate because it is at this upper elementary divide that economic and racial disparities in Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) become even more pronounced, per public data. Walker has the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students of any CCS school, and its percentage of students of color is higher than the citywide average, as well. We want for all students to have access to adequate spaces to play.

In conversations with community stakeholders over the last year, several key parties have expressed interest in supporting a playground for Walker. This includes local nonprofits; Walker’s principal, Dr. Adam Hastings; and CCS School Board members Juandiego Wade and Lisa Larson-Torres, in addition to CCS parents.

A Playground for Walker is being considered as a possible topic for this fall’s Participatory Budgeting at Walker, a design thinking and democratic process to determine creative, student-driven solutions to the question, “How might we improve the school experience at Walker?” Through this innovative approach, students would be part of the process of deciding what a playground at Walker should include. The final designs and equipment, as informed by students, may include innovative playscapes outside of traditional playground structures.

Thank you for taking time to learn more about A Playground for Walker!

If you have questions or would like to be added to a mailing list to receive updates on how you can be involved, please email Christa Bennett at christa@communitywell.com.

Cville Schools Support Student Responses to Shootings

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Charlottesville City Schools should be praised for their support of student-led responses to school shootings. On March 1, CCS Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins emailed parents with information about upcoming dates when student activism would take place (National School Walkout Day on March 14, March for Our Lives on March 24, and a possible walkout on April 20: see copies of the emails at the bottom of this post). Additionally, she notified parents that a community forum on school safety will be held at Charlottesville High School at 7 pm on March 15.

A reminder email was sent this past Monday, March 12, and this afternoon parents received an email summarizing today’s events. My heart is filled with pride that my school district sees the value in, as Dr. Atkins states in her March 1 email, using “occasions such as [these] as ‘teachable moments’ so our students – regardless of their political beliefs – can continue to learn how to engage in our community and world to make a positive impact.”

Thank you, Dr. Atkins, for your strong support of our students’ civic engagement.

From Dr. Atkins’ email today:

“As you know, today there was a national call for student-led school walk-outs.Thanks to our students’ leadership, maturity, thoughtfulness, organizational skills, and respect for others, today’s events went peacefully. At Walker, Buford, and CHS, students freely chose whether to stay in class or join the walk-out. The students leading the events presented statements, shared original poetry, and read the names of  the victims in Parkland, Florida. The students attending the events were respectful and returned to class promptly. The students who chose not to leave class were also cooperative as they continued their studies or participated in alternate community-building activities and discussions. Whether they chose to remain indoors or go outdoors, we are proud of our students and how they are learning to address complex situations.

We also want to thank our schools’ administrators and teachers for their support of all of our students. We respect both the rights of our students to advocate for causes that are important to them and their right to learn in an environment that includes diverse viewpoints.

Through the leadership of our students, today we accomplished both.”

March 1 email from Dr. Atkins

March 12 email from Dr. Atkins

March 14 email from Dr. Atkins

Roe v. Wade 45th Anniversary

~ Christa ~ Leave a comment

I stand with women.
I stand with children.
I stand with families.
I stand with my faith.
I stand with Planned Parenthood.

I am glad to be traveling to Richmond with Planned Parenthood today, the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This afternoon, we will be talking with our state representatives to remind them that reproductive rights matter to us mamas, and we are watching their votes. We will also discuss how important Planned Parenthood’s services are in providing care for our community, including the most vulnerable among us.

I’m Not Angry. I’m Awake.

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I’m not angry. I’m awake.

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about the manipulations that are used to keep people – especially historically disenfranchised people, such as women and minorities – out of places of power. This happens in systemic ways, and it happens in every day personal interactions.

A few years ago and again this week, I had an experience where I was, open-heartedly and with great vulnerability, sharing my thoughts and feelings with other women. What I was telling them weren’t my edicts on the world. They weren’t even feelings I would share publicly, as they were thoughts-in-process. I was searching, to sort through them and pick out conclusions that were good and useful.

The women cut my process short by leveling an accusation at me: I was angry.

This stung me, the pastor’s daughter. This stung me, the authority pleaser. This stung me, the woman who didn’t locate my nexus of control inside myself until my mid-20s.

An extra layer of hurt was added because both were women who would have described themselves as feminists, and because they were older women whom I looked up to.

Anger is a word lobbed at those-with-less-power to discount our experiences: “You’re just angry.” I don’t think the women I was talking with meant to invoke this historical context of the anger accusation. I think what we were discussing triggered their own feelings. It was still an arrow that hit an old, scarred-yet-tender mark in my heart.

I’ve been sitting with this today. I lit a candle. I said a prayer that I would find the truth I needed from this situation. The words just came to me: I’m not angry. I’m awake.

I am a gentle, kind, thirsting-for-righteousness woman who has taken back (from history and society and specific experiences) my power. I am human and imperfect, so sometimes I say the wrong thing or act the wrong way. I am always willing to apologize. In fact, I find peace and healing in saying, “I’m sorry.” I see injustice and powerlessness and pain, and I recognize it and I often use words to express my witness of it.

I’m not angry. I’m awake.

Amen.

Reproductive health care is not “just one issue”

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I love Bernie Sanders. I voted for him in the primary. But Bernie is wrong to refer to reproductive rights as “just one issue,” as he did yesterday in his defense of campaigning for an anti-choice mayoral candidate in Nebraska: “I think you just can’t exclude people who disagree with us on one issue.”

For context, Bernie recently declined to endorse Jon Ossoff, Democratic candidate for the Georgia congressional seat Tom Perez left open when he became Trump’s Health & Human Services Secretary, stating that Ossoff was “not progressive” on economic issues.

I want candidates who are progressive on economic issues, too. It is inconsistent, however, to hold such a hard line with Ossoff yet be willing to overlook the harmful anti-choice stance of another Democratic candidate.

Here’s the bottom line, and listen up, because this is important:

Abortion is not just one issue. It’s health and economics and education and stability of families.

Most of all, access to abortion is VIEWING WOMEN AS AUTONOMOUS BEINGS.

And that is everything.

The day I found out Christians could be Democrats

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One of the most important reasons I started this blog: to fill the void of too-few liberal voices talking about how our faith inspires our politics.

When I was about ten years old, growing up in a conservative Christian home, I asked my grandmother if she was a Republican or a Democrat. Obviously, I knew she was going to say Republican, because all Christians were Republicans. (My grandparents, who were given awards for their perfect Sunday School attendance – as adults! – and watched Bill Gaither Homecoming videos, were most definitely Christians, in the cultural sense and in the most personal.)

Except she said she was a Democrat, and it poked a hole in my worldview.

It was the first hint I had that politics might be more complicated than I had previously realized. (To be fair, I was ten. The entire world was more complicated than I had previously realized.) What I didn’t know then was that Democrats, with their New Deal and Social Security and fairer labor laws, had made the American Dream possible for people like my grandparents, who never graduated high school; who drove a garbage truck; who worked at a factory. Democrats made it possible for them, and so many others, to create a good life out of hard work and to raise children who had more than they did. One of their sons went on to own his own business. Another, my dad, got a doctoral degree. My grandparents were so proud.

My grandfather who was a garbage truck driver was also a farmer. At his funeral, people our family didn’t even know packed into the church and later told us how he would bring them food from the farm when they were down on their luck. That was part of my inheritance from my family: I learned that you’re supposed to help other people because that’s what Jesus would do. That’s what love would do.

Republicans argue that government shouldn’t be in the business of helping people, because people should be helping people. I can understand that to some degree. Certainly, the onus is on us as individuals to love our neighbors as our selves.

Unfortunately, no matter how I and my local faith community may help people, I have to recognize that not all people have access to a community that gives generously. I have to recognize that too often churches place restrictions on their helping, that exclude the very people who may need it the most. Additionally, I recognize that not all congregations have equal resources to help their communities. Some areas of the country need more help than others. I appreciate that there is a federal government that can provide help and is accountable to us, its people, for doing so in fair ways.

One may deride that as socialism, but when all is said and done, it is, for me, more personal than any political label. It’s about my faith. It’s about what I learned, deep in my bones, from the words of Jesus and the life of my grandma and grandpa.

How I became a pro-choice mother – and why I’m voting for Bernie Sanders

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Pro family pro choiceBecoming a pro-choice mama
I became pro-choice after I had my first child. Previously, I would have identified as non-judgmental but non-committed – I couldn’t judge other women’s choices, but I had yet to explore my own conscience on the issue of abortion. But there I was, having carried a baby inside my body, now holding her in my arms. She was perfect. She was utterly defenseless.

I experienced how exhausting and scary it was to take care of a baby, even when she was deeply wanted and loved, when there were two parents and an extended family dedicated to her well-being, and health insurance and a steady income and maternity leave.

I now felt as Anne Lamott so eloquently articulated about abortion access: “It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present.” Because children are vulnerable. Because they are precious.

I also came to understand how important it was for the lives already here – women and their families – to have access to abortion.

Women terminating pregnancies weren’t the irresponsible people I had been told they were. The Guttmacher Institute states, “The reasons most frequently cited [for having an abortion] were that having a child would interfere with a woman’s education, work or ability to care for dependents” [emphasis my own].

These were women already taking care of others.

As a mother fiercely protective of my daughter and with a better understanding of how reproductive rights affect families, I became deeply committed to promoting reproductive health and choices, including access to abortion.

Supporting public policies and candidates that are pro-choice
In the 2016 campaign to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency, there are two candidates with a grade of 100% from Planned Parenthood: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Whichever candidate wins the nomination, I will vote for them without hesitation. However, I am supporting Bernie to be the nominee because his policies will be the best for women both including and beyond reproductive rights.

Access to abortion and birth control is about me and other women having agency to create the best lives for our selves and our families. But there are other crucial factors necessary for true agency, as well.

We need family leave policies that are humane, instead of forcing mothers to make a choice between caring for a newborn and her own health versus losing her job. We need a fighting chance at financial stability, with living wages and without college loans debt that cripples our ability to provide for our families. We need fair treatment by institutions like the police, courts, and education systems, regardless of our race (did you know that in the ‘60s, Bernie was arrested for protesting segregation in Chicago schools?). We need to know that we will always, always be able to get our children the healthcare they need, and medical bills won’t bankrupt us if we get sick. We need to know that our money won’t be spent on wars that don’t make us safer. We need legal protection, regardless of our sexual orientation.

Bernie Sanders has been fighting for these things his whole life. He is consistent. He says what he means and always has. He wants every American to have access to a good life, where we have choices, about our reproductive health and more.

“Love will bring justice to victory.”
Whenever I talk about abortion publicly, I try to focus on what I hope to accomplish: access for all women who need it. One day several years ago, after hearing someone make cruelly disparaging remarks about women who terminate pregnancies, I went home and wrote this personal manifesto: I’m not interested in telling people how they’re wrong or defending how I’m right. I’m about sheltering bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. I’m about walking alongside the shamed, with my head held high. I’m about holding and loving and comforting and rejoicing. I am not about fighting or defending. Love will bring justice to victory.

I grew up reading the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus cast his lot with those without power, the disenfranchised, the last in line. Women, minorities, the poor. It was from Him that I first learned to do the same. That is one reason that access to health services – including abortion – for all is so important to me. Also important are the financial, legal, and civil policies that can make or break women’s abilities to direct our own lives and mothers’ abilities to take care of our families.

I am pro-choice. I am pro-family. I am voting for Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 2016.