Recently, I was told of a group of women in Russia who refused to allow their soldier-sons to be sent to Chechnya, even though their sons' military pay was their only source of income. My friend (a man), went on to say it would be good for me to facilitate such a movement among all mothers.
For over 40 years, I have been working, in one way or another, on what i've phrased "future-possible". In '95, I began compiling articles to our webpage which speak to me of positive possibilities. I have many additional items I'd like to post to our weblibrary. [see: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/future/] My time for the last five years has been tending to the present moment in the Black Hills (He'Sapa in Lakota).
Many circles of prayer and focus groups e-mail me to join with them. (I'm writing to you because your address has come to me through one of these.) Each of these are good and I add my prayers to the issues brought to the fore; the weather, environmental crises, wars, acts of violence, genetic engineering, famine, disease.
My thoughts turn to the questions: Are these prayer foci all just an act of applying a bandaid to a gaping wound? What would happen if just a small group of mothers in each nation joined together, let their voices be heard saying, "Our sons will not murder any other mother's son on any battlefield"?
Is it possible to talk with mothers and allow them to see that any son is just as precious as theirs?
I see a chance for a true healing for Our Mother and all her children through, what seems to me, to be an obvious, simple answer to this question. Yes, we can!
Now for my reason for writing each of you: How?
It has come to me since my conversation with my friend that this, the InterNet, is a very good way to start. But, many, many people are not on the InterNet so we also must pass the idea on to every woman we know. So, here I begin with what I have been posting each Mother's Day for my 12 years on the Net:
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Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,
proposed Mother's Day as a day for women to join together in the
pursuit of peace and disarmament. Sounds like a good idea to me.
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Mother's Day Proclamation 1870
[2000 - 130 years and counting]
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,From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
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.
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.-- Julia Ward Howe****++++****++++****++++****++++****++++****++++****++++****++++**** I would like to set a date for this "general congress" - how about Mother's Day, 2001? I ask the support of any of you who would join me in facilitating.
rebecca michele lord
mosa