Mother's Day Call
Can you guess how Mother’s Day came about? If you’ve guessed “it was Hallmark holiday” or “some son wanted to honor his mother” or “the church promoted it” or “it’s a royal family holiday” – you are way wrong!
Mothers Day was a call summoning women to turn our backs on home – as men often do at the summons of war – to gather together as women & to seek our counsel to determine how we are going to have peace in our nation and our world.
Julia Ward Howe, in 1870, wrote the most beautiful and inspiring Proclamation* (see below) calling for us to “Arise then women, Arise”, to leave home, gather together: first to bewail the dead; & then decide how we will have peace in our world.
Can you imagine what kind of a nation we would be living in today if women, mothers, had been gathering annually for the past 137 years to determine how we will have a peaceful nation?
It’s not too late! Every year, for the past 4 years, CodePINK: Women for Peace has been reclaiming the origins and purpose of Mother’s Day – as a time to leave home, gather together and work for peace in our nation and world.
This year, Code PINK is once again putting out the call for women who are willing & able to put their “normal, every-day” life-styles on hold this month, to come to D.C., to stay for as long as possible, and to work our hardest to not let Congress rest until they vote NO MORE WAR!
This year, we are joining Cindy Sheehan’s call to embrace the intent of Mother’s Day by calling for 10,000 women to surround Congress on Monday, May 14th, and to stay there until Congress votes NO MORE WAR!
Before you decide whether you will answer this call or not, we want women to ask ourselves are we women of 2007 willing to heed Julia Ward Howe's edict, be the force of democracy in action, & help lead our government, our nation, ourselves into peace?
Before you decide, we want you to think about separating our daily “life-styles” from our daily lives – and putting our significant energy & spirit into maintaining and protecting our lives, rather than our life-styles.
Before you decide, we also want us to think about our government's blatant intent to go to war against Iran. Not one of us will be shocked when we begin bombing Iran. But we will all be in anguish if we allow this to happen without doing something huge & now to stop it.
And one more thing to think about – this is not pleasant or fun or nice for any of us (least of all for Iraqi’s), but is it not the time we put aside our ‘normal’ daily lives, our ‘life as usual’, in a much bigger way in order to work to end war this year? Paraphrasing Alice Paul, one of our great suffragist foremothers, she said: “stay home next year – this year, work to end war”.
At the very least, organize and participate in a Sistah Solidarity Action in your home town on Monday, May 14th. Go to www.codepinkalert.org to sign up, for more info, and to become an activist with CodePINK. Or call 510-524-2776.
Mothers Day was a call summoning women to turn our backs on home – as men often do at the summons of war – to gather together as women & to seek our counsel to determine how we are going to have peace in our nation and our world.
Julia Ward Howe, in 1870, wrote the most beautiful and inspiring Proclamation* (see below) calling for us to “Arise then women, Arise”, to leave home, gather together: first to bewail the dead; & then decide how we will have peace in our world.
Can you imagine what kind of a nation we would be living in today if women, mothers, had been gathering annually for the past 137 years to determine how we will have a peaceful nation?
It’s not too late! Every year, for the past 4 years, CodePINK: Women for Peace has been reclaiming the origins and purpose of Mother’s Day – as a time to leave home, gather together and work for peace in our nation and world.
This year, Code PINK is once again putting out the call for women who are willing & able to put their “normal, every-day” life-styles on hold this month, to come to D.C., to stay for as long as possible, and to work our hardest to not let Congress rest until they vote NO MORE WAR!
This year, we are joining Cindy Sheehan’s call to embrace the intent of Mother’s Day by calling for 10,000 women to surround Congress on Monday, May 14th, and to stay there until Congress votes NO MORE WAR!
Before you decide whether you will answer this call or not, we want women to ask ourselves are we women of 2007 willing to heed Julia Ward Howe's edict, be the force of democracy in action, & help lead our government, our nation, ourselves into peace?
Before you decide, we want you to think about separating our daily “life-styles” from our daily lives – and putting our significant energy & spirit into maintaining and protecting our lives, rather than our life-styles.
Before you decide, we also want us to think about our government's blatant intent to go to war against Iran. Not one of us will be shocked when we begin bombing Iran. But we will all be in anguish if we allow this to happen without doing something huge & now to stop it.
And one more thing to think about – this is not pleasant or fun or nice for any of us (least of all for Iraqi’s), but is it not the time we put aside our ‘normal’ daily lives, our ‘life as usual’, in a much bigger way in order to work to end war this year? Paraphrasing Alice Paul, one of our great suffragist foremothers, she said: “stay home next year – this year, work to end war”.
At the very least, organize and participate in a Sistah Solidarity Action in your home town on Monday, May 14th. Go to www.codepinkalert.org to sign up, for more info, and to become an activist with CodePINK. Or call 510-524-2776.
posted by Xan @ 4:55 PM
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