Launching MomsRising is a leap of faith. Even though mother’s issues are not front page news they touch us all personally, some more than others and I believe passionately in the power of grassroots engagement. MomsRising is all about growing a more powerful voice for the caring people that are the heart of this country.

Reading stories coming in from new mothers about absurd office incidents in which their co-workers were repelled by being in the vicinity of breast milk makes me chuckle, I can’t help it. Then I connect with the reality of mothers sitting in bathroom cubicles trying to pump milk for their babies and I touch sadness- what in the heck are we thinking?!

I’m a mediator by training and inclination. I believe that it is time for us to focus on the issues that bring us together as a nation. Supporting parents’ capacity to raise their children with the love and resources they need is simply the right thing to do. Common sense as well as common values all lead us here. Our future depends upon it and our present is going to be vastly better too when we get back to these basics.