Sunday, August 16, 2009

Thanks for listening and responding


I got a great email from a listener today, about the interview I did with Jody Allen Crowe about "The Fatal Link - the Connection Between School Shooters and the Brain Damage from Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol". Thanks Gerry!

If you missed the interview, you can listen here.

Heidi-
Thanks once again for the great job in the interview with Jody Crow.
I'll pass on his book title to many others.
It's that time of year to head back and teach at HCC and this
information will fit right into my drug course.
Thanks once again for providing such a vital link in people's lives.
Gerry

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Go to where the silence is and say something

Author Amy Efaw (rhymes with Hee-Haw she told me!) told me that her mission statement as a writer came from a NPR report she heard by Amy Goodman where she said: "Go to where the silence is and say something".

In many ways both the authors on this week's Realgoodwords have done that. They are talking about what we are AFRAID to talk about. For Minnesota educator and author Jody Crowe, that silence is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the link to school shooters. For Amy Efaw, it is young girls getting pregnant, having their babies and leaving them in motels or bathroom stalls or dumpsters.

Here's some startling findings about fetal alcohol syndrome-
A MN study identified women who were at risk for drinking during pregnancy...
the risk factors were:
Single
College educated (most likely to drink)
Working in high level white collar jobs
Younger (college aged) or older (35-45)
Affluent (over $50,000)
Living in the Metro
As Jody said in our conversation, this is clearly NOT just a native American issue.

Amy Efaw's young adult novel "After" is about a teen who has a baby and leaves it in a dumpster. Here's some of the statistics about teenage pregnancy.
Each year almost 750,000 teenage women 15-19 become pregnant.

The U.S. has the highest rates of teen pregnancies and birth among comparable countries.

In a year, over 365 babies are found abandoned.

Both authors on this week's show are saying something. That's for sure.