Prometheus 6   

Mother�s Day 2003
Super sisters engender family values

As popular and, perhaps, prophetic as the Mother�s Day tribute: �The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,� has become since it was penned by the great 19th-century American writer/poet William Ross Wallace (1819-1881), it no longer adequately addresses the myriad of roles that �Super Sisters� play in the 21st century. Thus, let�s borrow the following lines from author Edith Wharton�s 1897 The House of Mirth: �Ah, lucky girls who grow up in the shelter of a mother�s love - a mother who knows how to contrive opportunities without conceding favors, how to take advantage of propinquity without allowing appetite to be dulled by habit.�

Somehow it seems a more apropos tribute to Spec. Shoshana Johnson, a single mom who spent 22 horrific days as a prisoner in an Iraqi hellhole, insofar as she certainly validates a preponderance of evidence that a mother�s hands do a lot more than rock cradles today. Fact is, mother�s hands are likely to put a woman�s touch on every endeavor pursued by her male counterpart.

… For sure, you�ll learn all about Shoshana when she appears on the Oprah Winfrey show, and there has even been talk of a book, and, perhaps, a movie of her life. Nevertheless, there are many naysayers who have already concluded there is nothing super about Johnson, who just got lucky.

African American News&Issues, Texas� widest-circulated newspaper with a Black perspective, might even be considered to be a wee bit out of order to laud a sister who got knocked up and had to choose between the Army and welfare as being a �Super Sister.� But on Mother�s Day 2003, we would be remiss not to set the record straight when it comes to the all-too-often misconception that young Black women -- having babies out of wedlock -- are responsible for most of America�s problems. Ergo, we would like to share the following national study (funded by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), for your edification, and at the same time, salute our Super Sister on Mother�s Day 2003.