Before moving into our show topic tonight, we celebrated reaching our "due date"! From a Collective Conception to a fully grown baby, you have supported us through the birth of this radio show, and we could not be more grateful. Now we are DUE for bigger and better things to come! We have grown our family to welcome Cheryl's newest son Jonah, and we are thrilled to be joined by Lauren the Wonder Intern from New College of Florida! We have exciting guests, topics and events to share with you in the weeks and months to come...so keep listening, keep sharing, and THANK YOU for Joining the Conversation!
We also discussed the Supreme Court’s ruling last Thursday to uphold the Affordable Care Act, aka health care reform, aka Obamacare, and its potential for having wide reaching implications for women, children and families insured and uninsured. We asked several local officials and candidates for statements on the Court’s ruling.
Florida State Senator Arthenia Joyner said, “This decision is a major win for the people of Florida. For the first time, working families will no longer find themselves at the mercy of the whims of the powerful insurance industry as to who to cover, who to drop, and who to deny. For the first time, no Floridian will ever be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition like diabetes or asthma, and young children can remain on their parents’ policies until they are 26. Pregnancies will also be among the services insurance companies will be required to cover for women - a change long overdue.”
Keith Fitzgerald, Candidate for Florida’s 16th Congressional District, echoed Senator Joyner’s statement, “Today's Supreme Court ruling ensures that millions of Americans with preexisting conditions are now covered, insurance caps on coverage are outlawed, the practice of forcing women to pay more for insurance than men is prohibited, and students and recent college graduates are able to remain on their parent's health care plans until the age of 26.” However, he said, “There is still much hard work to be done to bring down the costs of health care for small businesses and middle class families.” Fitzgerald’s opponent Vern Buchanan did not respond to our request for a statement.
And finally, Adam Tebrugge, Candidate for Florida House of Representatives District 71 reminded us of the battles we’ve been seeing at the state level surrounding this legislation, “Since passage of the Affordable Health Care Act, the Florida Legislature has spent considerable legal fees fighting the law, while at the same time turning down Federal grants designed to help implement the act. Florida has so far declined to create a health exchange that complies with the law and has rejected or refused to pursue tens of millions of dollars in funding the federal government offered to help implement the exchanges and other provisions in the law.” Tebrugge said, “When I am elected I will ensure that Florida implements the Affordable Health Care Act for the benefit of all of our citizens.” We reached out to Tebrugge’s opponent, Jim Boyd, for a statement and did not receive a response.
Then we moved on to the night's topic - Summer Reading. It's estimated that school children will loose up to 3 months worth of learning over their summer vacations. Parents can help combat this phenomenon, known as "summer reading loss", by encouraging their children to participate in summer literacy programs. Here are a few we mentioned:
All of the initiatives mentioned have accompanying reading lists. In addition, book suggestions can be found via the New York Times Best Seller lists. And once again, Heidi Dahlborg came through with a great suggestion for audio books - BooksShouldBeFree.com.
During tonight's episode we also got into the reading mood by listening to Storyland, a monthly half hour show for children ages 5-11 from KPOV in Bend, Oregon. Every show features a story read with sound effects and music, a puzzle, and a youth segment where one or more kids read their own stories.
Lastly, we discussed books relating to pregnancy, postpartum and parenting. We asked our Facebook Fans to vote for their all-time favorite pregnancy or postpartum book and Ina May's Guide to Childbirth was the clear winner. Runners up were The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. Our Facebook fans also listed The Continuum Concept, Sacred Pregnancy and Birthing from Within as favorites.
What will your family be reading this summer?
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