Call to Service -EDITED to add video

i think that i contribute a lot of service to the country in my everyday job, for several reasons. one, we are in the direct business of strengthening the weakest link, as i see it. i think that poverty and drug and alcohol use marginalize people in a profound way. disempowered, mostly undocumented, poor, drug using, law breaking, probation violating, school failing teenagers are a volatile and deeply marginalized group. i love them. i love doing counseling with them. i love watching some of them figuring stuff out. it is beautiful, and i think it is of service to this country. this population "costs" everybody eventually, in resources, and emotionally. it is a disgrace that the treatment is so scarce. but at least i am involved in it.

i also think the same as you do about raising my child...especially a son. i see the gender of my child as an opportunity to put a strong, enlightened, unafraid man into the world and i think that is a powerful contribution to society.

along the lines of what obama is talking about, doing your fair share and taking your fair share of the hit, i think i am doing it already.

areas of improvement:

using my family dollars in a more ethical way. not supporting the lowest common denominator of capitalism. in a nutshell, stop shopping at wal mart even though it is the closest and most affordable market.

our family footprint. there is a chance that about a year from now, punkpapa may be teaching at a school that i can see from the front yard. i don't think he will be into literally getting rid of his car, but i am kinda psyched about being an essentially one car family on a daily basis if this works out.

and then, speaking of about a year from now, i hope to be in private practice at least part time, directly offering services on a sliding scale fee. i will be fully and unconditionally licensed (finally!!) and able to be a medicaid and northstar provider in june. i have such lofty goals for that part of my life, i can't even go into it here! let's just say i wish we lived in the same place, cause i have a kick ass empowerment health center brewing up in my head. that everyone can afford and that has a room for your fucking KIDS to play in so that being a MOTHER doesn't exempt you even if you have the lousy cash.
/rant.

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.
- Golda Meir

All of our donations this x-mas were local. Later, when we're employed we'll donate to some larger national scale charities again but right now we're both unemployed so we focused on giving a lot of stuff we already had and agreed on a cash amount for the food bank in addition to extra food and clothes and some new toys we had here.

Right now I'm working on becoming a para-educator in a special ed class. I'd prefer younger kids (only because I have more experience with little ones), but I might consider older kids too.

My kid is shaping up to be an awesome guy. He is anti-racist, very passionately so. He's learning about sexism, classism, and gender bias and lately has been talking about those topics at length.

Bismarck is in the dark ages when it comes to curbside recycling. Many of the people who worked tirelessly for North Dakota Grassroots for Obama are now looking into ways to channel the energy we had focused on Obama into his call to service. Some of us are bouncing a recycling initiative around. This week my local Y finally got recycling bins in (by our request)and that is a nice start. I have been tapped to serve on a committee to look into the greening of the hospital that I work at. I'm excited about this opportunity. I think one small thing at a time for each of us really does make all the difference.
Personally, I think I am working on community building. I want to know my neighbors and contribute to making my community a place that I *want* to live in and a place where I feel good raising a family. As a mama I'm dedicated to raising a good citizen. I like how you mentioned the importance of being good parents and raising our kids to be great humans. This is the one thing that no matter what else I have on the burner, I'll be devoted to also.

I'm organizing my clinic to choose a local charity to adopt every month- the first will probably be a local housing network or food pantry. I've convinced our social worker to contact the charities and get a list of needed items, then at our monthly potluck we'll collect the items and invite someone from the charity to accept the donation. Since so many of our patients utilize the services, it makes sense to support them when we can.
I'm also working on a project that would offer nutrition and physical activity support to low income patients who are trying to make healthy choices. We found a donor to fund Y memberships for 20 families, and have some other services we'll be offering.

Thank you for sharing the video!We can make a change, even a small one, every single day.