activism

Today's New York Times features an important article: "Stop the Presses, Boys! Women claim space on Op-Ed Pages" profiles Catherine Orenstein, a writer and activist who teaches women the techniques of editorial opinion-piece writing.

Orenstein says of editorial writing, "It's a teachable form. It's not like writing Hemingway. You show people the basics of a good argument, what constitutes good evidence, what's a news hook, what's the etiquette of a pitch."

Many women are never taught these key structures and formulas, yet we need to learn them if our voices are to to be included in media coverage of all the key issues of the day.

The Times feature shares enough of Orenstein's tips that you'll learn just from reading this piece.

Who ever decided that motherhood and politics should be kept separate? I find this very frustrating in Moms' groups. Many groups have stated policies that political views and discussions are not welcome within the confines of the organization. The mandate to be "nice" is holding us back. There seems to be a fear that it's more important to "all get along" than to allow an open dialogue.

Mothers aren't going to get political power unless we act like we want it, and in fact demand it. That is why I am so drawn to MomsRising and "The Motherhood Manifesto." The facts are aired and the stage is been set for real discussion. Sure, we won't all agree, but as mothers there is a whole lot of common ground we can cover together.

Back a long time ago at Playground Revolution I blogged about my friend Liz. Liz runs the PA Housing Alliance, an organization in Pennsylvania devoted to finding more and better housing for people with low incomes. Liz is very smart and very serious about her work. One night when a bunch of us were doing our usual political rants over dinner, she excused herself to go hang out with the kids. When she returned, she simply announced that she has little truck for political rants that go nowhere. She named a powerful local politician in our city, a man known both for hardball tactics and getting the job done. “Vince Fumo plays to win,” she said. “We need to play to win, too.”