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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, Johnson, a single mother (of 2-year-old Janelle Johnson), has become one of the best-known African-American soldiers who helped smash Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime. And, surely, it warmed the hearts of often-denigrated, young, unwed Black mothers, a.k.a. “Hoochie Mommas,” to see their heroic “Super Sister” being greeted by a welcoming, cheering crowd at Briggs Army Airbase.
It was a happy ending for Shoshana, after three weeks of captivity at the hands of Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. While hundreds of onlookers carried American flags that blew in the wind, Johnson's family members held miniature flags adorned with her face and the message, "She's Free! Thank You for Your Prayers and Support." Two soldiers helped Johnson to her feet moments after she was carried off the C-17 airplane. Thousands of people, many with signs and waving flags, greeted Johnson, 30, a graduate of Andress High School in El Paso, Texas, who was captured on March 23, along with six other members of her 507th Maintenance Company. Johnson, who was released on April 13th, was all smiles as she waved to the crowd.

Johnson, who was shot in both feet and underwent surgery in Germany, waved flags of the United States and her native Panama as she rode on a stretch golf cart. "It's wonderful!" the crowd exclaimed of Johnson's return home. But wonderful doesn’t begin to describe the glory that is in store for the Black, single mom who joined the Army to help support her daughter and learn a trade, inasmuch as she has already been booked for a talk- show tour. 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.

To wit: “Good parenting style and a positive personal outlook can help black single mothers in poor rural areas raise children who do well in school and cope well with life in general, according to new research. Despite poor surroundings and little access to services, black single mothers living in rural areas can raise socially and emotionally competent children,” concludes Gene H. Brody of the University of Georgia, in a study appearing in the 2003 September/ October issue of Child Development. “Black mothers in rural parts of Georgia who had good self-esteem and were more often optimistic than depressed women were more likely to implement good parenting practices, such as talking with their children, knowing what they are doing and where they are and generally supervising them.

“These factors were linked to their children developing good self-regulation, which, in turn predicted performing well in school, handling social situations well and staying out of trouble. Active involvement in discussions with parents leads children to perceive that they have input into the norms that govern their behavior. This increases the likelihood that the children will behave in accordance with those norms in their parents' absence and evince higher levels of self-regulation," the researchers say.
“Self-regulation is defined as the ability to set and attain goals, to plan a course of action and consider the consequences of their actions and to persist in this course. The study included three sets of interviews in three years, with the mothers and teachers of 150 children who were 11 years old when the study began.

“Three-quarters of the families had incomes below the poverty level as set by the Census Bureau. The study showed that mothers with more years of formal education had higher incomes and were also more likely to have higher levels of self-esteem and optimism, and were less likely to be depressed. The women were, in turn, more likely to be supportive and involved in their children's lives while also engaging in regular dialogues with their children. Children approaching early adolescence are more inclined to adopt parental norms and values when they and their parents openly discuss issues and potential areas of disagreement as part of the flow of daily events," Brody explains.
"Such discussions have been found to promote the development of good conduct. Over their lifetimes, children who are able to set goals, plan how to attain them and work persistently toward them are better able to adapt to their environment and develop their potential.

“Implicit in this study's theory and design is the idea that supportive home environments foster the development of these abilities, a hypothesis that our prospective findings support," concludes Brody.
For more information, please call Health Behavior News Service at (202) 387-2829 or visit www.hbns.org. Meanwhile, have a Happy Mother’s Day.