Mother’s Day: Reclaiming and Standing With women Globally

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 bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up withOur own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”Blood does not wipe our 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 homeFor 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 meansWhereby 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 askThat a general congress of women without limit of nationality,  May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenientAnd 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. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if on some distant Mother’s Day, the wishes of Julia Ward Howecould be fulfilled and the human race could celebrate a day when, all over the world, nomother would have to mourn the death of her child lost in war or terrorist attacks… To all of the mothers whose children are fighting in wars – and to mothers whosechildren are growing up with wars raging around them or with terrorism threatening theirsafety… Wishes of strength, peace and hope for this Mother’s Day…

Please stand with us for five minutes of silence at 1 p.m. your local time on May 11, 2008, in your local park, school yard, gathering place, or any place you deem appropriate, to signify your agreement with the statement below.  Please stand at a different hour with a different time zone if 1 p.m. is not your preferred time.We ask you to invite the men who you care about to join you.  We ask that you bring bells to ring at 1 p.m. to signify the beginning of the five minutes of silence and to ring again to signify the end of the period of silence.  During the silence, please think about what you individually and we collectively can do to attain this world.  If you need to sit rather than stand, please feel free to do so.  Afterwards, hopefully you and your loved ones can talk together about how we can bring about this world.

WILL YOU STAND WITH US?