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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Call in PINK Mother's Day Monday: Sistah Solidarity Stand with Cindy Sheehan

Sistah Solidarity Stand with Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan has put out the call this Mother’s Day Monday May 14th, for 10's of 1,000's mothers to come to D.C., surround Congress and stay there until Congress votes NO MORE WAR! Or until we get arrested.

We in the bay area stand in solidarity with women in D.C. and around the nation on Mother’s Day Monday. Will be surrounding our own replica of “Congress” at Union Square from 9:00a.m. until Congress votes NO MORE FUNDING WAR!

CodePINK: Women for Peace has reclaimed the original intent of Mother’s Day for the past four years. Mother’s day is a call for women to leave home, gather together, and seek our own counsel as to how we will have peace in our nation.

This year we will have peace as soon as Congress stops voting to fund the continuation and escalation of war. We say NO FUNDS to continue war until July! We say 2008 is way too late! Women say PULL OUT NOW!

We are putting out the call to “Call in PINK” and work the whole day for peace. Come to Union Square, beginning at 9:00a.m., as our com madres are gathering at noon in D.C. Help us surround Congress and end war NOW!

Mother As A Verb - Gloria Steinem

MOTHER AS A VERB
By Gloria Steinem
for CODEPINK on Mother¹s Day, May 13, 2007

I want to extend my solidarity to all the CODEPINK women today, all you
brave liberators of Peace, Motherhood and the Color Pink who are taking
action today! I'm grateful to a member of CODEPINK for reading what I'd
intended to say:

I've been thinking about Mother's Day, and why I and others, who are
not mothers, identify with this day just as much as if we were.

Of course, it's partly because we owe our lives to our own mothers, but
I think there is another reason. Even if we are not mothers, the noun, we
may be mothering, the verb. Indeed, unless mothering is a verb, it is a
state but not an action.

Think about it: As a noun, mother not only excludes half the human
race, but is also limited by fertility and age and intention. In some
societies, motherhood is honored only in marriage, or only in giving birth
to sons. In most societies, a woman is encouraged to give birth to another
person, but not to give birth to herself.

As a noun, mother may be good or bad, willing or unwilling, on welfare
or rich, worshipped or blamed, dominating or nurturing, accidental or
chosen.

Perhaps that's why the word mother is so much used in profanity; in
war, as in ³the Mother of All Bombs;² or by war-makers who honor Hero
Mothers.

But when mother is a verb - as in to mother, to be mothered - ah, then
the best of human possibilities come into our imaginations.

To mother is to care about the welfare of another person as much as
one's own.

To mother depends on empathy and thoughtfulness, noticing and caring.

To mother is the only paradigm in which the strong and the weak are
perfectly matched in self-interest.

Besides, one may be forced to be a mother, but one cannot be forced to
mother.

So perhaps what Julia Ward Howe had in mind when she created this day in 1870 - a day of opposing war and uniting for peace - was not so much a Mother's Day as a Mothering Day; a day that reminds us all, whether we are young or old, male or female, of the possibilities within us.

I thank Julia and I thank each of you. Forever more, we will be
reminded that peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence and
possibility of mothering.

Walk across Golden Gate Bridge

amador county chapter angst

to the wimmin of amador county:
 
It seems there has been a huge mistake on your parts - you have totally misunderstood what CodePINK is and what CodePINK stands for - and who the wimmin are in CodePINK - at least my understanding of CodePINK & I have been working in CodePINK for over 4 years now.
 
If you think telling your stories about who said what to whom and when and how is any reflection on CodePINK, you are really sadly mistaken.
 
Your emails & stories and missives you are writing here say something about one thing only - and that is yourselves =- each and every one of you. It is only up to YOU to make your chapter viable, responsible, pleasant, etc - or whatever you want to make it, including squabbling, hateful, etc.etc.etc. 
 
In my understanding, CodePINK is not about taking sides; CodePINK is not about telling stories about other wimmin; CodePINK is not about pointing the finger and spouting off about another womon.
 
Whatever any one of you have said about any other womon, is more of a reflection upon your own selves than that womon you are pointing the finger at.
 
Amador CodePINK - I think you should be ashamed of yourselves and of presenting yourselves in this way to other CodePINK chapters & to national CodePINK.
 
CodePINK is about learning how to work together, valuing each other, and putting aside those differences that annoy, upset, or in any other way are a detriment to working together.
 
How dare you claim you are for peace when all I have heard is hate, anger, recriminations spouted at wimmin I don't even know - not that I know any of you very well. Nor do you obviously know me.
 
I am a volunteer with CodePINK, just like you are. I do not have the time, energy, or desire to listen to you wimmin berate each other, fight amongst each other, try to belittle each other's work - I do NOT want to hear who has done what to whom and when.
 
If you have truly done good works, your works will speak for you - NOT your words.
 
Please, I don't know what you are thinking about. We have a WAR to end. You should be putting so much of your time & energy into doing that, you don't have time for this.
 
What did you do for Mother's Day in Amador County? This is our time to heed our foremother's call, to leave home, gather together & figure out how to have peace in our world.
 
If you wimmin of Amador County cannot read that proclamation & be inspired to put all yuor time, energy, love, efforts into do something for peace today, I can't imagine how you will be inspired!
 
Almost every other CodePINK chapter around the country did a march over a bridge, or a movie, or a picnic, or a 5 minute peace, 10 minute wailing,something - I want to hear from Amador County the actions you did to end war. I do NOT want to hear who doesn't like whom, who should be or shouldn't be on whose list or not.
 
Tomorrow, Cindy Sheehan has put out the call for us to surround Congress, demand NO MORE FUNDING WAR, and 10's of 1000's of wimmin have heeded this call, and are willing to get arrested & jailed.
 
We in the Bay Area have made our own replica of Congress that we are taking to Union Square to surround.
 
I want to hear what the wimmin of Amador County are doing to add your voices to the 10's of thousands around the country. I want to see pictures of your actions. I want to hear report backs of how you stood, vibrant & hot pink for peace - whether there's one of you, 2 or 20. And whether you have to stand in opposite sides of the county.
 
It is YOUR challenge to find a way to work with every single womon who is willing to work for peace - as it is ALL of our challenges.
 
We ALL have individuals we find it challenging to work with. But guess what, let us not be so self-centered - it is hard, we are Americans, it is our way - but let us put aside our pettiness and remember the big picture - how many wimmin, children, men in Iraq have been KILLED the time it has taken you to read this? Pretend your mother, your son, YOUR SELF is the next to be killed, and get in gear PLEASE!
 
How many people could we have influenced to end war, had we put our energy into organizing a march on the streets of Amador County today.
 
You have a HUGE challenge ahead of you. YOU have to model for the rest of the cities, the county, the state, the nation, the world, how the inidividual wimmin in Amador County will rise to the challenge of working together to end war.
 
I do not have another ounce of energy to deal with words about past injustices and I will NOT take sides with any of you - I am on the side of peace, of harmony, of collaboration and cooperation.
 
I'm not saying it is easy to find a way to work in peace. I'm saying it is our only choice. So let's do it  -or we can never expect anyone else to do it.
 
CodePINK wimmin are the leaders - please embrace that and start leading, stop rehashing.
 
I am willing to work with anyone or talk with anyone about organizing an action, a chapter, a WITS= any action. I am NOT willing to talk more about one womon vs another. There is so much war to do, we need EVERYONE who is willing to work - the others who are not simply need to be left behind.
 
Peace, Zanne Sam Joi