Hello, im bonnie erbe. Welcome to to the contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, diversity in congress. The new congress is the most diverse ever with 20 women senators and 78 women in the house of representatives. The House Democratic caucus has more women and people of color than it does white men, another historic first. We will explain what this means to you. But first we introduce you to one of those freshman. Illinois democrat Tammy Duckworth, one of two female war veterans to be sworn in this week. The illinois democrat is the first doubleamputee to serve in congress. The iraq war veteran is using her story to get more support for veterans across the country. I sat down with this incredibly inspirational person to hear her story, in her own words. I had been in iraq at this point eight months, i had been away from home 11 and i was just doing a regular days mission flying a black hawk helicopter. I was the copilot on the crew and we
Hello, im bonnie erbe. Welcome to to the contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, births at home and births in the wild lifetime tv, the commercial womanoriented cable channel, is it was inspired by an online video of an australian woman and up to more than 2 for white women, who are a lot more likely than women of color to give birth at home with a midwife. Why is home birthing on the rise. Bonnie, thats what i want to know. I can only hope that this is a hapless fad that will fade before somebody dies. Finally we agree on something. You know, it is on the rise. I think it is a fad. There is some concern people have about the super bugs going in to the hospitals but it is much safer to have your baby in the hospital than it is at home. To the point of why. Many women are concerned by over medicalization of child birth they feel that is happening. I dont think its a surprise that the people who have access toe home birthing are women with mo
Hello, im bonnie erbe. Welcome to to the contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, politics and the crisis on the border. President obama, Texas Governor rick perry and republicans in congress agree theres a humanitarian crisis at our border. But theres no agreement on how to address it, that as unprecedented numbers of mothers, Young Children and teen girls continue to flood our southern border. The president also faces criticism for not visiting the border during his trip this week to texas. After meeting with governor perry the president laid down a challenge to Congressional Republicans that as hes asking them for 3. 7 billion to house, feed and process the 50,000 mothers and children. What i emphasized to the governor was the problem here is not a major disagreement around the actions that could be helpful in dealing with the problem. The challenge is, is congress prepared to act to put the resources in place to get this done. But republ
Brazil is a series of contradictions. It is the worlds secondlargest emerging economy. Unemployment is low. A decade of heady growth and Progressive Social policies has reduced glaring discrepancies between rich and poor, to the point where now half the population is middleclass. But the hundreds of thousands of People Living in poverty in rio de janeiros shantytowns or favelas, have been left behind, concrete and corrugated metal shacks perch one atop another on the hillsides above rio. They are the locus of much of the violence. Gang on gang, militia on gang and gang on militia violence confirm cultural notions of hypermasculinity. Brazilian culture is rife with violence and it comes from all sides. It comes from the petty cartels, to the government. To the government. Brazil claims the globes seventhhighest homicide rate. Violence and murder have remained stubbornly high even though the police started to wrest control of many of the favelas from drug lords that in advance of brazil
Sidelines. Hello, im bonnie erbe. Welcome to to the contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, the nfls rice saga. A National Debate about nfl rules and Domestic Violence continues beyond ray rices firing by the Baltimore Team and his wifes stance in his defense. The nfl suspended rice indefinitely after a video surfaced showing him in the elevator punching his wife. He was originally only given a twogame suspension but the commissioner of the nfl has since admitted to getting it wrong by not punishing the player more harshly. I cannot image up the nfl performing more poorly than they have. First of all the facts were known, he admitted to beating his wife. There was a video him dragging her out of the elevator. There were no facts in dispute. Still he was given a slap on the wrist. It is illus centertive of a harder problem when institutions protect their own. This week debate focused on why janay rice is staying with her abuser, and continui