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Dear CODEPINK Supporter,
This Mother's Day, during our 24-hour vigil in front of the White House, we will honor all the mothers -- US and Iraqi -- who have lost sons and daughters in the conflict in Iraq. We will call for our troops to come home so that no more mothers will suffer the unbearable grief of losing a child to Bush's war. And with your help, we'll also send a message of sorrow, friendship and peace directly to the women of Iraq and their families.
How? For the first time ever, a group of Americans will challenge the free press in Iraq to print an advertisement calling on the people of both nations to work together to end the occupation. Below is an English version of the ad we'll be taking out in newspapers all over Iraq on Mother's Day. We'll also set up a special website in Arabic that so that Iraqis with access to computers (and electricity!) can communicate with us directly.
Please join us in this Mother's Day appeal to Iraqi families by donating to this ad campaign. For a donation of $25 or more, we'll include the name of your city (or your mother's city) to show that support for ending the occupation comes from all over this country. Click here to make a donation.
Let's make this Mother's Day a special one. Come to Washington to join us during part or all of our 24-hour vigil at the White House. You'll be in the best of company, including Susan Sarandon, Dolores Huerta, Randi Rhodes, Jill Sobule and Patch Adams, and grieving parents Cindy Sheehan, Fernando Suarez del Solar and Elaine Johnson. Click here for more info, to sign up, and to send a notice about the vigil to your friends. And join us in this first-ever effort, through ads in Iraqi newspapers, to reach across oceans, across borders, across cultures to show our love and compassion for the Iraqi people.
With hope for peace,
Allison, Dana, Farida, Gael, Jodie, Medea, Nancy, Rae and Tiffany
P.S. Any extra funds will be used to bring Iraqi and Iranian women to Washington DC for Mother's Day and to send them around the United States on a speaking tour, following the tremendous success of the tour we organized in March. One of our new speakers is Dahlia Wasfi, a powerful Iraqi-American doctor who gave a searing testimony at a Congressional hearing on April 27, 2006. Click here to hear her testimony. Contact june@globalexchange.org if you'd like Dahlia or another Iraqi woman to visit your community.
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English version of the ad:
From American Women to Iraqi Families on Mother's Day:
Let's Unite to Bring the US Troops Home and Put an End to the Bloodshed
In the United States, today is Mother's Day. But many mothers -- in the US and Iraq -- have little to celebrate. We've buried too many of our loved ones in this conflict. We've seen too many lives crippled forever by physical and mental wounds. We've watched in horror as our precious resources are poured into war while our families' basic needs of food, shelter, education and healthcare go unmet. We've seen the growing plague of fear, hatred and intolerance seep into our homes and communities.
This is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. That's why we are marking this Mother's Day by holding a 24-hour protest outside the White House in Washington DC to call for an end to the occupation of Iraq, an occupation that has fueled an endless cycle of violence.
We have seen in poll after poll that the majority of Americans and Iraqis want the US troops to return home. Even the majority of US troops (72%) think they should return by the end of this year. It is time for the politicians in both countries to listen to us, the people.
We want you to know that we will continue to organize protests and pressure our government to end this illegal occupation of your country so that you, with the help of the international community, can begin to heal your wounded nation.
We have also been circulating a petition demanding an end to the occupation and an end to US permanent bases in Iraq; the petition also calls for money for rebuilding to go directly into the hands of Iraqis -- not US companies (http://www.womensaynotowar.org). We will be delivering these to George Bush, Iraqi officials, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. You can read our petition here and join the call. You can also contact us at info@womensaynotowar.org with your ideas of how we can work together, family to family, to promote peace.
This Mother's Day, we extend our hand in friendship to Iraqi mothers and their families. We look forward to the day when we can work together in peace.
Sponsored by CODEPINK: Women for Peace
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