Mother's Day For Peace

It's time to take back Mother's Day. Let's celebrate the true meaning of Mother's Day

What's in this email message?* true meaning of Mother's Day -- the original Mother's Day Proclamation* ways we can celebrate Mother's Day --making a donation to No More Victims to bring Salee, a war-injured Iraqi child, to the US for medical treatment--sharing the "Mother's Day for Peace" video on your website, blog or MySpace page--signing CODEPINK's "Women's Appeal to Congress for Mother's Day"--join Mother's Day actions in your area which promote peace--invite friends and family to view videos, like "Women Say NO to War: Iraqi & American Women Speak Out" (about CODEPINK's Iraqi Women's Tour & the 24-hour vigil in front of the White House last Mothers Day, 2006)HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! ***********************************1)

Original Mother's Day ProclamationIn 1870, after the devastation of the American Civil War, social activist and poet Julia Ward Howe wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. (See end of this message for more info on Julia Ward Howe.)

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

2) Donate to No More Victims Give your mother an e-card with a donation or make a donation in your mother's nameto No More Victims. No More Victims is a non-profit organization which brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Your contribution will help bring Salee, a ten-year-old girl who lost both of her legs in the war, to Greenville, South Carolina where she will receive surgical treatment and prosthetics. www.nomorevictims.org

3) Share the Mother's Day for Peace video on your website, blog or MySpace page(4:26 minutes) http://mothersdayforpeace.com/Director: Robert GreenwaldMoms: Felicity Huffman, Christine Lahti, Fatma Saleh, Ashraf Salimian, Gloria Steinem, Vanessa Williams, Alfre WoodardYou can help share the Mother's Day for Peace video by hosting it on your website, blog, or MySpace page. It is easy to embed the video onto your page. Webmasters and bloggers, just copy and paste the code into your page. MySpace hosts, just copy and paste the code into your "about me" section in your profile. Get the code at http://mothersdayforpeace.com/.If you want to copy the audio from the video to your iPod, or if you PodCast online, download the mp3 audio from the video.

4) Sign CODEPINK's Women's Appeal to Congress for Mother's DayPlease sign Code Pink's Women's Appeal to Congress for Mother's Day, informing our representatives of the origins of this day as a call to rise up against war. We ask Congress to give us a special gift this Mother's Day: a commitment to bringing our soldiers home by the holidays. http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=565&message=Some+required+fields+are+missing%3A+%3Cli%3EState

5) Join Mother's Day actions in your area which promote peaceFor example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, on Sunday, May 13, here are some events that the Watada Support Committee/APIsResist are supporting:*

9:30 am Press Conference at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco 1187 Franklin St.(at Geary), San Francisco. Members to encircle Historic Church with Peace Ribbon for 2007 Mother's Day Proclamation for Peace featuring Iraq war resisters Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia, Pablo Paredes, Sean O'Neill of Iraq Veterans Against The War and Karen Meredith of Gold St Mothers Speak Out.(followed by 11:00am Worship Service for Peace)For more info, contact: Galen Workman at 415-647-8830 or flame@uusf.org*

noon-2pm Golden Gate Bridge Convergence For Peace Gather at the north or south end of the bridge and march to the middle. Note: Signs and banners may be banned. Wear peace messages on clothing. Sponsored by Code Pink Contact: Toby Blome at 510-215-5974 or ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net (Followed at 2:00 pm with Funeral Procession through streets of San Francisco to arrive at 4:00pm at Camp Feinstein [Lyon & Vallejo Streets] and at 5:00pm at Camp Pelosi [2640 Broadway, between Divisadero and Scott] for grieving, singing and cleansing).

You may also be interested in:*

3pm & 5pm Special screening of “The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez” Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St. (at Mission), San Francisco. Featuring Iraq War veteran resisters Agustín Aguayo and Camilo Mejía.More info: courage@riseup.net*

7pm Iraq Veterans Speak Out Against War Veterans War Memorial Bldg. (Room 207) , 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. Featuring Iraq War veteran resisters Agustín Aguayo, Camilo Mejía and Pablo Paredes. Sponsored by Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace Chapter 69 and SF CODEPINK. More info: courage@riseup.net6)

House Party with Friends and Family to View VIdeos
Invite friends and family to view videos, like Women Say NO to War: Iraqi & American Women Speak Out $10.00 http://codepinkalert.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=15&products_id=150
This powerful DVD chronicles CODEPINK's Iraqi Women's Tour & our 24-hour vigil in front of the White House last Mothers Day, 2006.
In March 2006, CODEPINK invited eight Iraqi women to the U.S. to speak about their experiences under the U.S. invasion and occupation. They were doctors, engineers, professors, and journalists. Two of the women had their entire families killed by U.S. troops. They were denied visas to enter the U.S. on the grounds that they did not have sufficient family to guarantee they would return to Iraq.
The six women who were given visas traveled separately to dozens of cities throughout the U.S., speaking with community groups, churches, veterans, and families of active duty GIs. They asked Americans to end the occupation and bring all the troops home immediately. Upon their return to Iraq they faced death threats, lost their jobs, and some were forced into exile.
The remarkable courage of these women and the authenticity of their witness to the horrendous reality of the occupation challenges Americans to take responsibility for the actions of the U.S. government and force an end to the brutal, illegal, and immoral occupation of Iraq. ******

Background Info on Julia Ward Howe (from http://mothersdayforpeace.com )In the United States, Mother's Day was originally suggested by poet and social activist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after witnessing the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War, she wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. This "Mother's Day Proclamation" would plant the seed for what would eventually become a national holiday.

After writing the proclamation, Howe had it translated into many languages and spent the next two years of her life distributing it and speaking to women leaders all over the world. In her book Reminiscences, Howe wrote, "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" She devoted much of the next two years to this cause, and began holding annual "Mother's Day" gatherings in Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

In 1907, thirty-seven years after the proclamation was written, women's rights activist Anna Jarvis began campaigning for the establishment of a nationally observed Mother¹s Day holiday. And in 1914, four years after Howe's death, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother's Day as a national holiday.

Julia Ward Howe was a poet, writer and activist who fought vigilantly for peace, the abolition of slavery, and women's rights.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, she co-published The Commonwealth, an abolitionist newspaper, with her husband Samuel Gridley Howe. In 1860, she penned the Battle Hymn of The Republic to inspire Union soldiers fighting in the war. The song became a rallying cry for the Union throughout the war, and remains her most famous work.

The horrors of the war moved her to campaign tirelessly for peace. She served as president of the American branch of the Women's International Peace Association, and in 1870 she wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation. Julia Ward Howe was also instrumental in the women's suffrage movement. She was a co-founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association and served as editor of Woman's Journal. Her influence on the movement ranks her alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton as one of the most important voices of the period.

In recognition of her tremendous effect on American culture and history, Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Association of Arts and Letters in 1908. A true American pioneer, Julia Ward Howe remains one of the most influential figures in the history of both the civil and women's rights movements.