Mother's for Peace

Cindy Sheehan is a Mother for Peace of today.
What happened to Mother’s Day as it was originally intended?
Let’s follow these great women of history who were Mothers for Peace also.
Julia Ward Howe's accomplishments did not end with the writing of her famous poem, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." As Julia became more famous, she was asked to speak publicly more often. Her husband became less adamant that she remain a private person, and while he never actively supported her further efforts, his resistance eased.
She saw some of the worst effects of the war -- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause. Distressed by her experience of the realities of war, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality in its many forms) and seeing war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War, she called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.
She failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who had attempted starting in 1858 to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
Anna Jarvis' daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mother's work, and the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna Jarvis had taught Sunday School. And from there the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912, and in 1914 the President, Woodrow Wilson, declared the first national Mother's Day.


Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
by 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 voice 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 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 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.
• in 1872, Julia Ward Howe began promoting the idea of a "Mother's Day for Peace" to be celebrated on June 2, honoring peace, motherhood and womanhood
• in 1873, women in 18 cities in America held a Mother's Day for Pace gathering
• Boston celebrated the Mother's Day for Peace for at least 10 years
• the celebrations died out when Howe was no longer paying most of the cost for them, although some celebrations continued for 30 years
• Howe turned her efforts to working for peace and women's rights in other ways
• a stamp was issued in honor of Julia Ward Howe in 1988 -- no mention of Mother's Day, though

U.S. Out of Iraq Now!
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Come to D.C. for the September 24th Weekend
Mobilize for November 2, 2005
People are wondering, is it possible to stop this Regime from further horrors? Yes, but politics as usual is not going to outright stop the Bush Agenda. A new movement is needed to play a leading role in building massive resistance and outraged determination to force this regime from office. The World Can’t Wait- Drive Out the Bush Regime will be at September 24th calling for this regime to end the occupation of Iraq, and engaging people to take responsibility to stop this regime in their tracks. To do this we need a different approach, the one in the World Can’t Wait CALL:
“We are talking about something on a scale that can result in a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting the Bush Regime’s attacks on people one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where the Bush regime’s program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history.”
We must fight like hell to bring forward a movement that will inspire millions to take on the Bush Regime. On the anniversary of Bush’s re-election, November 2nd 2005, the people in this country will take responsibility for organizing a mobilization that pulls people’s imagination from the impossible to the possible. Our abilities to reach people on the September 24th can make the difference from a concentrated movement in some cities to a national movement in the millions.
The September 24th rally and march can open up this door to thousands of people who are looking for the vehicle, the organization, and the heart to totally reverse the course of society.
People are jumping out of their skin over recent developments. And many are looking at the September 24th March and rally as a way to voice their outrage. Public opinion is changing. Cindy Sheehan’s defiant stance, insisting on speaking with the President, and her bold position on the U.S. occupation has inspired millions of people to spontaneously speak out, hold vigils, go down to Crawford, and set up camp Casey’s across the country. Her message and bold stand has spread throughout the country, forcing the New York Times to write articles about Cindy, to Barbara Walters asking Colon Powell about Cindy Sheehan and her stance around the Iraq war. This is coupled with the horrific images on T.V of people stranded in the gulf. The world has been glued to the T.V. in disgust by the regime’s lack of response and acknowledgement of the thousands who have died and the thousands who are suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The World Can’t Wait - Drive out the Bush Regime presence at the September 24th rally can inspire thousands to want more. We are very serious about building a movement that Drives the Bush Regime out of office; we have lots of work between now and November 2nd 2005.

World Can’t Wait- Drive out the Bush Regime is calling on volunteers to join thousands on the September 24th for the Anti-War Weekend Rally and Activities. This administration has blood on its hands from New Orleans to Iraq. Millions of people are outraged that the Bush administration has the audacity to justify the occupation. There were No Weapons of Mass Destruction! The world witnessed the U.S. form of “liberation” from the images at Abu-Ghraib prison. This is what occupation looks like! People are getting at the truth, and recognizing that this administration needs to be run out of office. This cry of resistance needs to be ringing from every major city to every town square for the World Can’t Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime Nov 2nd mobilization. The world needs this first giant step towards driving out the Bush Regime. WCW is calling all volunteers who want to see the end of this Bush Regime to come down to D.C. during the September 24th and make a huge splash about the WCW effort and the call for embolden resistance on November 2nd 2005.
Drivers wanted
Worldcantwait.org