Help Us Weave An E-quilt for A Secure Mom Nation
on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 11, 2003
'How Long Will It Take?'
 

From 'Hands: For Mother’s Day' by Nikki Giovanni (1983)

Some people think a quilt is a blanket stretched across a Lincoln bed . . . or from frames on a wall . . . a quaint museum piece to be purchased on Bloomingdale's 30-day same-as-cash plan . . . Quilts are our mosaics . . .Michelle-Angelo's contribution to beauty . . . We weave a quilt with dry, rough hands . . . Quilts are the way our lives are lived . . . We survive on patches . . . scraps . . . the leftovers from a materially richer culture . . . the throwaways from those with emotional options . . . We do the far more difficult job of taking that which nobody wants and not only loving it . . . not only seeing its worth . . . but making it lovable . . . and intrinsically worthwhile . .

Why an E-Quilt ?

Beginning on Mother's Day, Securemom is extending the gift of poetry, and the invitation to join our quilting bee to sew a patch into our quilt of security for mothers across the nation.  The bee ends when our quilt is done. How long do you think that it will take?

Our mothers quilted to pass the time, to make something out of nothing.  Most importantly our mothers worked to create and in doing so renewed themselves.  Let's renew and fortify ourselves with a securemom e-quilt and what better time than Mother's Day?  To sew a patch in the quilt,

-   SEND an email from www.securemom.com/equilt.htm to the Senators for your state about Social Security improvements for mothers
-   TELL a friend to do the same.
-    EACH EMAIL MEANS ONE PATCH. Each time that one of us emails a Senator, a new patch is stitched into our SecureMom e-quilt.
-    AT 100 , the quilting bee is done!
-    EACH ONE, TELL ONE.  We will sew the quilt of 100 patches in no time.
-    Sew a quilt for financial security: it is as simple as Q.U.I.L.T.

QUILT Principles:

QUESTION:   Question your financial choices to unearth the hidden truths that may hold you back.   As a woman and a mom, you must think critically about your financial future and the fact that like most mothers you are probably in danger of poverty in old age, especially as a mother of color. Do you have to be financially at risk in old age?  No!

UPLIFT:  Your future should be paramount.  Commit today to prioritizing a secure retirement.

INVEST:  Your financial future is a three legged stool. You know about 1)savings and 2) a pension fund.  But did you know that you need to protect and enhance your Social Security benefits by pressing your Congressman for improved Social Security benefits for mothers and women in retirement.  You need to work for 3) Social Security improvements including - a reduction of the marriage qualification period to 7 years b) protecting the solvency of the Social Security Trust Funds and c) attaining caregiver credits and other
benefits for mothers.

LEARN:  Learn about Social Security benefits and caregiver credits and the implications for mothers at www.securemom.com.  Return to the Securemom e-quilt to see the progress of our quilting bee.

TEACH:  Tell your Congressman about the dire need for social security improvements to benefit mothers,  the foundation of our community.  Teach your Congressman: 1. Go to www.securemom.com/equilt.htm and send an email or print and fax the letter online.  This letter tells your congressman about the need for Social Security benefits for mothers.  2.  A patch in the quilt is completed each time that a different Senator receives an email.  So, every friend that you tell helps us stitch our quilt.  The more friends that
send an email during our erally, the bigger our quilt grows.

  We want to build a beautiful and large quilt that extends all across the nation.  So please send an email to a Senator and a friend and let's enwrap ourselves in a SecureMom e-quilt that covers the nation.

Starting on Monday, May 13 return to see our e-quilt.  You can see our e-quilt at www.securemom.com/equilt.htm


 
A FEW FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND WOMEN

You have to be married for at least 10 years to qualify for the Social Security dependent spouse benefit, which is half of your husband's (spouse's) benefit (based on the spouse's earnings).

The years spent earning little or '0' income will drag down the average retirement benefit to which we would otherwise be entitled.

Full retirement age for most of us is 67, with at least 35 years of work.

By the year 2030, only four out of ten women will be earning more Social Security benefits based on their own work records than on their spouse's. Depressing!

Motherhood is the number one risk factor for poverty in old age.

Approximately forty five percent of women[vi] with infants under the age of one work inside the home and outside the [vii] labor force[viii].

There are approximately 38 million mothers between the ages of 15 and 44[i], and this is what they face.
In 2002, women earned 77.5 cents to the man’s dollar[ii]. 

Mothers typically experience an even larger wage gap than other women – at the rate of 8 points larger than that of nonmothers  [iii].

In old age, the story gets worse.  An alarming 12% of women over 65 live below the poverty line[iv].
Factoring in those who hover near poverty, one third of women over 65 live in or near poverty[v].
Too many of the elderly poor are our mothers.




On quilting...

"These grandmothers  and mothers were not saints, but Artists, driven to a
numb  and bleeding madness by the springs of creativity in them for which
they had no release"  Alice Walker


"The Quilting"
by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.


"Dolly sit a-quilting by her mother, stitch by stitch,
Gracious, how my pulses throb, how my fingers itch.
While I note her dainty waist, and her slender hand,
As she matches this and that, she stitches strand by strand.
And I long to tell her Life's a quilt and I'm a patch;
Love will do the stitching if she'll only be my match"

Help Us Weave an e-quilt for a secure mom nation
on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 11, 2003
www.securemom.com/e-quilt

copyright. Securemom equilt.  All rights reserved.