Casey at Expectant Waiting had an interesting post on midwives and homebirth…

I did not have a homebirth. I had to have hospital births for both due to birth defects on my part making it just too risky. BUT I did have a midwife at the second birth – or else Logan might not be here. Yes, my first birth experience was THAT bad – I considered no more children just so that I wouldn’t have to do that again.

But something Casey said struck me. “I learned a lot from both of my birth experiences, and anyone who says birth experiences aren’t that important can suck it.”

I too learned a lot from both of my experiences. And those experiences made me a different woman. Both of them. I learned from the first one never to let other people have control of my body ever again. It felt like a mental rape, and since I’ve already been there physically, I will never again let that happen mentally. I also learned that I can be violent with “authority” when necessary. They were yelling at me so much to push harder that I kicked an intern in the face and punched a nurse in the face (yes my birth defect is so interesting they invited students and interns in to look up my crotch – while giving birth. Without my permission.)

In the second birth, I learned that I can be strong. And that sometimes just letting go and screaming is a good thing. And that when you feel like you’re going to be split in two – you really can keep going. I went through the entire labor and birth completely drug free with the second one. I did that. Me. The doctor did not deliver my child. I did. And I now compare everything. You gave birth to a child, you CAN do this.

The first birth gave me an instruction manual in how NOT to let people treat me in life. The second birth taught me just how strong I really am if I let myself.

Yeah Casey. Anyone who says birthing experiences aren’t important can suck it.

Please remember that this is my blog and therefore my opinion. My opinion cannot be wrong as it it subjective and my opinion – just as yours is not wrong. Please remember that before you send the flaming comments my way.

I actually slept on this to make sure I did indeed want to post about it. I’m having a hard time articulating what I’m thinking, but I think I need to speak out about it. ATM had her opinion on it up, which is how I came to be aware of it.

Jill Greenberg, a photographer, has put together a collection (I guess exhibition is the proper word in the photography world?) called “End Times.” Go take a look at the photos, and come back. I’ll wait.

Okay, now that you’re back, a quote, “The children are provoked by Greenberg taking away their candy or toys. This technique is known as ‘manipulation.'”

There was such an outrage about the exhibition, that Ms. Greenberg had to respond. Apparently this is her interpretation of what the children would express in reaction to world events, if they understood them.

I understand that in the grand scheme of life, a bully (which is what she is) taking someone’s candy away is not going matter. You know, except to the kid the candy was taken away from. I’m NOT saying this is child abuse, as some have claimed. I AM saying it’s mean. And I don’t think any adult, with or without the parents permission, has the right to make a child cry on purpose – to be mean on purpose when they know that what they’re going to do is going to be hurtful to them.

Is this art? No. I don’t think so. Capturing a moment of pain from an unwilling participant is not art. She is simply recording the moment her heart actually turned to stone on film.

I fully understand that pain has been turned into art. I know that in erotic art, there are many portrayals of things of a hurtful nature – the difference? Those participants (hopefully) had consented. I know there are photo journalists who’s photos have turned a nation onto its ear with the stark realities of pain. The difference? They didn’t cause the pain they’re capturing.

“Greenberg’s daugther appears in some of the photographs, and the other children’s parents were present when the photos were taken, the photographer said. ”

The bottom line here is NOT that candy was taken away, or that the child cried – or even that she captured the picture and calls it art. I think the real issue is these toddlers and children now have an imprint on their minds of what it feels like to have an adult hurt them on purpose. No child should have that imprint. I have that imprint. Picture a parent doing it (which is exactly what she did since her daughter is one of the kids) – I can picture it, “Here honey want a lollypop? Good isn’t it? Nope can’t have it.” If you saw this at, say, a block barbeque, you’d be shocked at that parent because it’s just plain mean. We should be even more shocked that this woman did it to many children, and their parents let her make their kids cry on purpose, and then called it art.

“‘If I thought that would have caused any harm to a child then I wouldn’t have done it,’ she said. ‘And as soon as their lollipop was returned they were happy little campers.'”

SO NOT THE POINT. She was mean to children on purpose. To portray an idea that wasn’t their idea.

“Greenberg’s next exhibit features photographs of monkeys in similar poses. She said the monkeys were not harmed in the process.” GREeeeaaaaaat.

An interview with my own comments thrown in – it is after all my blog.

Your images have certainly caused an uproar. What do you say to people who call you a child abuser?

I think they’re insane. I know the comment you’re talking about. I don’t know what the guy’s personal problems are. I don’t think he’s got kids. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and she cries for no reason, a hundred times a day. It’s normal. Maybe getting kids to cry isn’t the nicest thing to do, but I’m not causing anyone permanent psychological damage.

It is normal for children to cry when they’re not getting their own way – especially the younger ones as they’ve no other way to express their displeasure. However, that is entirely different than crying because someone was purposely mean to them for their own motives.

How many kids did you shoot altogether?

Around 35. Some were the children of friends, plus my own daughter; others came from the Ford or Jet Set model agencies. Kid models aren’t very expensive—not as expensive as monkeys, for example.

This one really bothers me for some reason. As if these living creatures, the kids and the monkeys, simply exist for her to express herself – commodities if you will.

How did you get the kids to cry?

Mostly we did it by giving them something, a lollypop, and then taking it away. Some would just cry for no reason—my daughter did that; she didn’t like standing on the apple box I used for a platform because it was a little wobbly. Some just wouldn’t cry at all. For all the kids I worked really fast. We would book 12 or so for one day, and see who we could make cry. At the end of the day I was not in a good mood. I don’t like making little kids cry.

Then for the love of Pete don’t do it.

The lighting is very dramatic. How did you accomplish that?

It’s the same lighting I used for my portraits of monkeys, and I’ve been using it for some recent magazine cover portraits. It’s really flattering frontal light, so the subject doesn’t have to have any actual shine on his or her skin to appear shiny. None of the kids had any makeup on. And also I work on that shiny quality in postproduction.

How did you come up with the idea for the project?

I saw this little girl who’d come to a party with her mom, and she was beautiful, so I thought it might be interesting to photograph her. When they came to my studio, the mother brought along her toddler son, and I decided to shoot him too. We took off his shirt because it was dirty. He started crying on his own, and I shot that, and when I got the contact sheets back I thought, “This could go with a caption, ‘Four More Years,'” like he was appalled at George Bush’s reelection. The images have a real power—they immediately get under your skin. The emotion you see is just so compelling, yet they’re beautiful at the same time. That was one of the things that interested me about the project—the strength and beauty of the images as images. I also thought they made a kind of political statement about the current state of anxiety a lot of people are in about the future of the country. Sometimes I just feel like crying about the way things are going.

Here’s what I don’t like. Those kids are making HER political statement without it being the reason for their emotion. She’s manipulating an image into something that it’s not, but she seems to want it to be in her head.

She’s hurting children (yes, temporary – but she IS causing them pain) to make a political statement about how they would feel about the political climate if they knew about it. In my eyes, it’s wrong and it is not art.

Fashion Cover Girl Killed in Crash

By BONNIE PFISTER

AP

TRENTON, N.J. (July 30) – A young woman who died in a fiery auto crash on the New Jersey Turnpike last weekend has been identified as Heather Bratton, a fashion model from Florida that many predicted was on the cusp of fame.

Full article here

What a terrible way to go. Can you imagine? Trapped in a car on fire and dying that way? Claustrophobia and fires have always been fears of mine…

Update: Here’s the link.

“The United States stepped up efforts Tuesday to evacuate U.S. citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus as complaints grew that the effort was slow getting started and appeared poorly organized,” McClatchy Newspapers reports. “Up to 1,000 more are expected to leave today for Cyprus aboard a U.S.-chartered cruise ship that docked in Beirut late Tuesday…. After criticism from Congress, the State Department dropped plans to ask Americans to pay for their rides on commercial vessels.”

Thank goodness.

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Update: Apparently Congress made a huge stink about this, and have changed it so that these people do NOT have to pay anything to be evacuated. I’m looking for a link that confirms this, which I’ll post here if I find it.

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I am a proud American. I am patriotic, and truly feel I live in the “best” country. Of course, I feel there are issues, but all in all the question becomes, would I want to live anywhere else? No.

But today, I’m ashamed of our government. Please go read This.

I’m excerpting here as well, in case it goes away as it’s in a blog format… – EMPHASIS MINE

Frontpage Headline
Lebanon Situation Update – July 15, 2006
July 15, 2006
This information is current as of today, Sat Jul 15 12:20:12 2006.

A message to the American citizens in Lebanon:

The Department of State continues to work with the Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens depart Lebanon. As of the morning of July 15, we are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel. Commercial airlines provide the safest and most efficient repatriation options to final destinations.

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur. We will also work with commercial aircraft to ensure that they have adequate flights to help you depart Cyprus and connect to your final destination.

The Department of State continues to work around the clock and will continue to send updates as appropriate.

In other words… We’ll get you to Cyprus, but then you’re on your own – in a different country, that you don’t have a visa to be in, and you can try to get back to the US on your own. Oh, and by the way, this whole war you didn’t know was going to happen? You have to pay us to get you out.

Students, tourists, etc? Remember there was no war. There is an American University there. I mean, people were simply traveling etc. But then war broke out – totally unexpectedly. And now, those students, tourists etc, get to try to get back to the states from Cyprus, another country than the one of origin. Oh, and they’ll need to sign a promissory note to get saved, so they can be billed later!!

It is reprehensible that our government would bill our citizens to save them from a war that has taken everyone completely by surprise. It sickens me.