"Respect" is the word.

This Mother's Day, you have the opportunity to give a precious gift to your mother. You can give her respect. Sign the pledge and give respect today. Join others in taking a stand to show compassion and support for a respectful world. Declare your belief in respect now.

Send an e-card to your mom this mother's day to send your respect and thank her for being a positive role model throughout your life.

The Give RESPECT! campaign promotes healthy relationships nationwide through respect education and positive role modeling. The RESPECT! Campaign works to raise awareness of the critical roles that parents, teachers and other role models play in the shaping of young people's lives. With these efforts, the campaign hopes to create a world that is free of relationship violence.

It happens about this time every year. Suddenly you realize Mother's Day is just around the corner, and you have no idea what to get for dear old Mom. Well this year the Marion Institute is offering a unique alternative to the same old greeting card and flowers. Their Mastate Charitable Foundation is currently running a campaign for Mother's Day that not only gives you a great gift idea, but helps others as well.

Mastatal is a small community in rural Costa Rica about two and a half hours from San José, and the Mastate Charitable Foundation for has been working to improve the living conditions there for the past four years. Their most recent endeavor is to build a Community Learning and Sharing Center (CLSC), which aims to serve as a social center in the town, as well as a library and meeting place. That's where you come in.

The CLSC building in Mastatal will be naturally built using local labor and resources. In honor of Mother's Day, The Mastate Charitable Foundation is selling daub bricks that will be used in the construction of this building that will help so many families. Each brick is $4, and you can buy one (or as many as you like) for the CLSC in honor of your mother for an original and unique gift idea. It takes 5,000 bricks to build the entire CLSC, and the Mastate Charitable Foundation hopes to sell as many as possible to try to reach their goal.

Perhaps buying your mom some daub bricks wasn't the first thing that came to your mind when you thought about Mother's Day presents, but the reality is that it's a thoughtful and different gift that most moms would appreciate. The mothers in Mastatal are trying to give their community and their children the best opportunities they possibly can, so why not give your mother a gift that helps other mothers as well?

For more information, follow the Mastate Charitable Foundation on Facebook.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all the mothers out there.

Last week I gave my Mom a whopper of a Mother's Day gift of sorts -- the news that I would be moving back east in June as I've just accepted a job doing netroots outreach for Kirsten Gillibrand's 2010 Senate campaign. I'm extremely excited about the opportunity but unfortunately it will mean I'll be leaving MyDD, most likely right after the May 19th CA-32 election. I'll miss this crazy place and blogging every day, of course, but I know this is the right move for me professionally and personally and I look forward to the new adventure.

But more on that in a future post. For now, in the spirit of Mother's Day, I wanted to share this CNN interview with my new boss.

I hope all you Moms are having a great day!

Consider this an open thread.

Update [2009-5-10 21:15:31 by Todd Beeton]:More on Senator Gillibrand (Mom-NY) at Politics Daily.

There's more...

Hillary spent part of her day in Grafton WV today.  How fitting that the first woman to make a serious run at the White House - who just happens to be a mom like me, would visit the town where this holiday was first celebrated.  More so that today's the 100th anniversary of that first Mother's Day celebration there.

But first, I finally got my pictures from the May 7th event on to the computer - here's one of my favs...

Ok back to Hillary's visit to Grafton, WV.  Several folks have reported on her rally there.  From First Read...

Not over 'til lady in the pantsuit says it is

"Women have been standing up for what we believe in, defying convention and going forward for a long time," she said.

There's more...

In the hyper-digital age, one of my hobbies in addition to following the politics sphere like a hawk (or a vulture, heh) is uploading piano covers and originals.  

There's more...