Coffee with Milk

This just in:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blago-ya-hummina-hummina-vich recently signed the Right-to-Breastfeed Act, ensuring that babies from Waukegan to Carbondale can be breastfed in public.

This is an odd issue. Has it ever been illegal to breastfeed in public? I know I've seen women engaged in it, and it doesn't bother me, but others tend to have more violent reactions, i.e. "that's not what I want to see when I'm shopping/working/exercising/wrestling alligators, etc." These are the same people who hear a crying baby, and immediately think those lousy parents should do something, anything to SHUT THAT KID UP. (Before I point fingers, this was me about a year ago.)

I would imagine that there are several mothers who nurse who do so privately, moreso for modesty than concern for others' disapproving glances and comments.

However, the more militant stance garners more press...

I just came across an article on the Washington Post site (registration required) where about 30 moms staged a "nurse-in" at a Virginia Starbucks to protest an incident where a nursing mom was told to "cover up or go to the ladies' restroom". They've even launched a website to support their cause. (Come on, who doesn't have a website nowadays? Having your own voice in cyberspace is like breathing. Simply everybody does it. Case in point: OUR WEBLOG.)

From the article:

At the coffee bar inside, Kalen Johnson, 19, who described himself as a regular at the store, said Charkoudian's demonstration was an "overreaction" to the employee's reasonable request.

"In a place where I'm eating or drinking, that's the last thing I want to see," he said.

But the mothers maintain that breast-feeding is only natural.

"When women breast-feed, you see less breast than you do in the average Coors Light ad," Charkoudian said. "The breast is doing what it's designed to do."

True, and sorta makes me feel like having a Coors Light.