My Mom Rawks!!!

On this day, and every day, I thank the heavens above and the earth below for my mother. She worked 2 jobs to keep us alive and got her masters degree in special education while raising us 3 kids, all at the same time as reforming her life as a single mom in Pittsburgh. She came to town knowing exactly one other single mother. Both of them forged a road that would allow us kids whatever futures we desired. My mom taught in prison, taught special needs kids in Philadelphia, helped rehabilitate ex convicts after their sentences were served and is currently living and working as a special needs teacher on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I miss her and wish she could come home, but I know she is happy doing what she does best, helping people realize themselves and stand up and learn to live their lives as whole human beings and not take the judgment of ignorant fools who may decide they know better.

My mother marched in the Civil Rights marches when she was a young woman in the 1960's in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My mother spent a decade as a union representative in Western Penitentiary on the Northside of Pittsburgh. She taught me many things, how to cook porcupine balls, how to love to read and write, the love of music, but the most important thing she ever taught me was to never let someone stare you down. It's ok to be yourself, if you treat someone with respect, they should respect you back, and if they won't, then they aren't worth your time.

My mother is named Sally Russell Baker Kivowitz and I am proud to be one of her three children. If I had one wish for my mother it would be that she could stop working long enough to enjoy the love and respect she has fostered in so many lucky people whose lives she has affected in her extremely busy life, and write her book. She's got so many stories, I wish she'd let them out.

On this day and everyday, I say, "Thank you Gods and Goddesses for my mother and all the mothers who have gone before and all the mothers who shall be, but mostly my mom cuz she rawks!!!"