Meet the Moms

Dianne

I am a mother of two boys, a freelance medical writer, and founder of Moms for the Future. When I became a mother, my children changed my role in the world and demanded so much more of me than I ever demanded of myself. I think nearly every mother knows this experience. Because of them, I have deep concerns about the sustainability of our ecosystem, our economy and our freedoms.

I feel I owe it to my children to try to make their world better, and help make their future a promising one. I also feel I owe it to them to be an active role model, and to show them that mothers are strong, powerful and smart. I want my children to know they should never stop striving for their ideals, that if we ignore our ideals or push them to the sidelines when they become too hard to practice, then we lose our freedoms, our rights, and our sense of who we are. If I don't do these things, I will one day look back on my life and on the lives of my sons and feel regret. Just before her death, my husband's grandmother told us that the things we regret are the things we do not do. I believe this is very true-in every aspect of life.

My hope is that this group will give mothers a venue for coming together to address their concerns for all of our children in a positive and productive way. I believe we can do this if we work from our deepest and most universal common ground: Our love for our kids, and our shared hopes for their futures. Who does not want our children and grandchildren to live in a just and sustainable world?

In this group, I have found friendships that are real and honest. I have found support, and the meetings offer a way for all of us to work together while we enjoy each other and our children.

Drew

Hi, I’m the dad of a 6-year-old who has made me re-evaluate my priorities. I recently retired from the merchant marine (the commercial containerships, not THE Marines) after 20 years. Trained as an operating engineer, I intend to get back to the creative, people-oriented side of my personality. I think Moms for the Future will help me to realize these changes.

I am also starting a group very similar to Moms for the Future in Chester County, which is aimed at promoting renewable energy. I can envision photovoltaic panels being funded and installed on school buildings, county and township government buildings, and non-profits. I hope to see wind generators erected where a potential exists. I hope to see green building technologies applied to residential new-construction. I hope to see Clean Cities programs in fleet vehicles (electric, CNG, biodiesel).

By aligning with like-minded people and groups in this area, we can achieve synergies to propel Chester County, the fastest growing and most affluent county in PA, to be a leader in achieving energy independence, reducing global warming and realizing major cost savings.

Karen

I am mother of three, a son age 21, and two daughters, 18 and 12. I am back in Chester County after an absence of twenty years which I spent living in the beautiful state of Colorado. My children have grown up learning about recycling, conservation of natural resources and the importance of energy independence. I have tried to instill in them the importance of sustainability so that all the beauty we have now will still be here for their children to enjoy.

Until now, I have never been involved in any advocacy organizations but I joined Moms for the Future because I am concerned about the direction in which our great country is heading, not only in the areas of sustainability and energy independence but also in human rights, civil liberties and what seems to be apathy on the part of many Americans.

While these issues are large and scary and, in the past, made me feel helpless, I now believe I can do something about it, thanks to Moms for the Future. As a core member of this group, I have learned more than I could have possibly learned by myself. I have learned to see issues from different perspectives and have come to believe that individuals can make a difference. Having dedicated so much of my adult life to my children, I often feel uncomfortable in groups, but here, I am not only comfortable, I am empowered. I have an impact.

When my country, into which I had just set foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir. - Thomas Paine

DEMOCRACRY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!

Kristy

I am married and a mother of a precious little girl with a mild learning disability. I work from home in direct sales so I can get her the therapy and attention she needs and deserves. I joined Moms for the Future because I am worried about the current political environment and how it will affect my daughter's rights as she matures. I am concerned about voters' rights, workers' rights, our educational system, our health care system, religious freedoms, and the environment and our responsibility as caretakers of the earth. I see our country becoming more divided and extremist, rather than being the melting pot we claim ourselves to be.

I believe it is important for us to stand up for those who, because they are simply struggling to survive, cannot otherwise stand up for themselves. I think it is important for government to respond to the needs and wants of the people rather than prescribing what to believe and think. Therefore, I am deeply concerned about how the current Bush administration will affect our country in the years to come. Will my daughter be able to grow up in a world where she cannot make her own health care decisions? Will she even be able to afford health care? Will she be able to breathe clean air in 20 years? Will her vote be counted when she is of voting age? Will there be fair wages paid for fair work, or will there only be huge corporations outsourcing to foreign countries for cheap labor, leaving nothing for my daughter to contribute to society when she is grown?

I think it is important to be aware of what is going on around us in our own communities and in the country as a whole with respect to the world and to make our voices heard on the issues we care about at the grassroots level. Moms for the Future is a place where we can do this.

Lyla

My name is Lyla Kaplan. I settled in PA two years ago with my husband, son and two dogs after living in Ann Arbor, MI, Durham, NC, Blacksburg, VA, Moscow, Russia, Pindamonhangaba, Brasil, and Columbus, OH. I work from home as a potter and a community counselor for a national au pair agency. I started to get involved in social activism because I became tired of my "kvetching" and decided that, as an American citizen, it is my obligation to DO, rather than just complain. I feel lucky to be able to complain because our forefathers and mothers, including those from my own family who fled to America after WW II, had little time to complain. They were striving for my "freedom!" If our forefathers had chosen to complain rather than act, our country's representative democracy and constitution would never have been articulated, and I wouldn't be sitting here. Not long ago, I realized that, because I have the freedom to choose to complain, I also have a moral obligation to choose to become part of the solution.

To better understand the world around me and what my role can be, I felt I needed other people to learn from and draw on for support and ideas. The role of our Moms group is to stay away from partisanship, and instead to focus on the future of our children, something we all care about, regardless of our political leanings. To discuss and debate needs to be embraced, it is how we learn and grow.

Moms for the Future makes me feel hopeful that I can make my tiny part of the world a better place for our children's future. My story would not be complete, however, without a mention of my brother, Nick Kaplan, who has opened my mind to many ideas and facts that I never would have been savvy to otherwise. Here is a picture of him with his diesel truck he converted to run on waste vegetable oil, which he indirectly learned about from a Mom for the Future, Karen Barnett!

Marybeth

I've worked as a dancer, choreographer for the theatre, writer, music agent, and special events producer, among other things, and most recently as an actor, performing as a "featured extra" in five Hollywood films, two television series, and countless industrial training films where I have lines like, "Impressive results! But what about my patients with ankelosing spondelitis?" I have over three decades of professional experience in the arts, both fine and performing, and my career path has been unusual. But none have been so demanding, stimulating, and possibly important as that of "mother" these past 23 years.

I am not interested in the political process. I am not interested in power, nor the inner workings (or lack thereof) of American government at every level. But I've come to learn that I MUST be involved, whether or not it is a pleasant activity. To use an oft-quoted maxim, "All that's necessary for evil to prevail is that good men [and women] do nothing."

I have worked with a consumers' group in Philadelphia, and various peace groups, and when my boys were younger in the 1990s, I took them on many, many protests. I learned that it never matters what you SAY to your children, only what you DO, and that it's important to be a good example of Action - Not Words for them. This is the motto of the women who taught me all growing up, because what you say to them goes in one ear and out the other, but what you do makes a lasting impact on them.

As a mom, I must figure out the most important things to do to help ensure a good life, or at least a living, breathable life, for our children and theirs to come. One of the ways I try to do this is to take time off work, play, and other time-consuming events, and speak up for all I believe in, and all I believe must be stopped.

American life is so very full of distractions, and for those who are at a certain comfort level, and of a certain busy-ness with getting through each work day, it is very difficult to make time to care about the world with all its problems. Sometimes my family and all its problems are enough to handle!

But our Moms for the Future group is a wonderful way I can join other women who care, and together, our voice[s] might be heard more by those in power or those who seek it, and we can be a good force in a world that truly needs more good. I'm paraphrasing the Irish playwright Brendan Behan when I say, "It's a terrible world we live in, but it's the only one we've got".