STORM2K

I swear, you'd think the United States is FULL of PRUDES!! When did we become so self righteous, my God man, go to Europe, the billboards you see, PUBLIC restrooms that are UNISEX, half of these people would throw a HISSY fit!!

http://www.azcentral.com


Rule on nursing babies canceled

Edythe Jensen
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 12, 2005 12:00 AM

About 40 mothers brought their babies to Chandler City Council chambers Thursday night to challenge a controversial breast-feeding directive.

The council answered their pleas by voting unanimously to scrap the directive and form a committee to study the issue.

Over the past few days, the officials have been inundated with phone calls and e-mails over the directive, which could have subjected nursing mothers to criminal charges. advertisement




Two council members, Donna Wallace and Phill Westbrooks, said they hope the angst will lead to Arizona legislation similar to laws in other states that make breast-feeding a right and exempts nursing mothers from indecent exposure penalties.

That pleased the audience, many of whom questioned the city's wisdom and motives and threatened to boycott Chandler businesses.

"I believe that public breast-feeding should not be regulated," Chandler resident Lisa Munson Crews said. "No city, state, county or federal employee should have any say in a breast-feeding matter."

Under the controversial directive, criminal trespassing penalties would have applied only if a nursing mother were exposing her breast on city property, if someone complained and if she failed to either cover up or move to a private location when requested by a city employee supervisor, Community Services Director Mark Eynatten said.

Eynatten said he knows of no other Valley city that regulates public breast-feeding.

Gilbert resident Sandy Pace said she was asked to leave a Gilbert park because she was breast-feeding and is taking the case to that town.

Arizona doesn't protect nursing mothers from indecent exposure laws and is not among more than half the states in the nation that allow women to breast-feed anywhere as a matter of right.

The issue came to light after Amy Milliron, a nursing mother from Tempe, was asked to leave a city pool picnic area this summer.

Eynatten said an inexperienced employee mishandled the incident.

"Just because one party is offended by another doesn't mean the city has to act on it," Crews told the council. "We cannot write directives that accommodate every custom, more, personal belief, religious conviction and preference. . . . One person's reasonableness is another person's outrage."

Another Chandler mother, Deahdra-Lyne Atencio, asked the council, "If I'm in a water park nursing, do I have to cover more of my breast than an overweight woman in a bikini going down a water slide?"

The new committee will be asked to bring recommendations to the council by Sept. 29.

What does "righteous" have to do with prudishness?

I'm always pretty amazed by this sort of stuff.

Nursing babies does not offend me. If you are offended, don't watch. Why anyone would be offended is beyond my understanding...

The bathrooms in my house are unisex. The bathrooms in some of my small workplaces have been unisex. Having lived in Europe as a child, I'm not worried about unisex bathrooms. Nor, for that matter am I particularly offended by small children who pee in the bushes, etc. But again, it seems to be one of those cases of if it offends you, don't watch... Or knock on the door first. Or go home and pee.

Most stuff is taken care of with the "if you think it is wrong, then don't do it rule." Lots of religions have restrictions on eating certain foods or eating certain foods at certain times (e.g., eating fish on Friday). But if it's not your religion, then I guess you don't have to eat fish on Friday. And if it is your religion and you believe it is a sin to eat X, then don't eat X. But others should be allowed to eat what they please...

I might comment that European women do not have to choose between nursing their babies and working as many women do here. And while some of the "in your face" militants seem extreme, they are the ones who change the laws for those who do not have the courage to do that. It was the same with "women's work" back in the 1960s. The truth of the matter is that many women don't want jobs as firefighters, or steelworkers, etc. but for those who do, the "militant" women did get the laws changed.

I personally have no problems with where and when women nurse their babies.

I also have no problem with what children under 5 wear (including nothing) in backyard wading pools or public beaches for that matter. I'm always amazed when some idiot calls the cops on some 2 year old who has taken off a diaper and is running around their own backyard "bottomless." And it turns out that there is a 6 foot privacy fence around the yard and the person who reported this to the police is using binoculars to see what is going on in the yard! Amazing. But this sort of stuff happens around here all the time...

But it would be nice if people worried about stuff like why elderly people can't afford the medicines they need, why people who work 40+ hour weeks (but get classified as "part-time" because of loopholes in the laws) at scummy minimum-wage paying companies with no health insurance, etc. and the upshot is that they can't afford to see that they and their families live indoors and eat regularly... You should be able to LIVE on minimum wage! We should worry about why our soldiers don't have the protective gear they should have and why the vehicles aren't properly armored, etc.

If we put all the energy that is presently devoted to how other people do stuff into the really important issues, we could probably find a cure for cancer, diabetes and the common cold within a year!