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MAY 14, 2006 YOUR NAME: YOUR NUMBER
Moms in YOUR TOWN Declare Peace on Mother's Day
Mothers Nationwide Call for Peace in Iraq and Iran
On Mother's Day—May 13-14, 2006—mothers and their families will gather XXX(YOUR DETAILS ABOUT YOUR EVENT HERE, make sure to include any interesting VISUALS)XXXX.
Citing the original Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, the organizers say that the holiday historically calls for women to act against war. Written in 1870, Howe's statement urges women to rise up with a call to “Disarm! Disarm!” and find “the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.” The full text of the proclamation is below.
“I don't want any more moms to grieve for a child lost in this unjust, unnecessary war in Iraq,” says Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan. “This Mothers Day we'll be outside the White House all day and all night demanding that our children come home from Iraq and not be sent to another reckless war in Iran.”
The event in YOUR TOWN is part of a wave of nationwide actions against the war in Iraq on Mother's Day. In Washington, D.C., women will gather for a twenty-four hour vigil in front of the White House, using the time to create Howe's “congress” of women to strategize against war, and women as agents of peace. Their star-studded overnight event includes personalities like Susan Sarandon, Patch Adams, Cindy Sheehan, Randi Rhodes, Dolores Huerta, Reverend Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Ann Wright.
“The original intent of Mother's Day was not to give your mom chocolates or breakfast in bed, but for mothers to join together to stop war,” says Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. “With the war raging in Iraq and another war looming in Iran, we invite mothers all over this country to join us in demanding a peaceful world for ourselves and our children.”
YOUR ACTION is emblematic of shifting sentiments against the war. Six in ten Americans now consider the war in Iraq a mistake. Furthermore, 72% of deployed troops and 62% of American women favor a full withdrawal of troops before the end of 2006, according to a Zogby poll of February 2006 and a Gallup poll of December 2005, respectively.
For more information, please see YOUR WEBSITE and www.codepinkalert.org.
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Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
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.
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