On Mothers Peace Day: cut the garbage

 

Don't give me any garbage about Mother's Day--flowers, breakfast in bed, saccharine cards.

It's Mothers Peace Day, set up by Julia Ward Howe and other activist women after the Civil War to stop the killing of our children in wars.  She wrote her Mothers Peace Proclamation in 1870, and the first demonstration was held in 1872 in New York City.

The Mother’s Day Proclamation was partly a lament for the useless deaths and partly a call to action to stop future wars. The call was directed, not to men, many of whom may have felt proud for their “service,” but to women, who often have proved more thoughtful and humane about issues of human suffering.

Mother’s Day Vigil for Peace by Voice of Women (VOW) at the Royal Ontario Museum on May 11, 1963. Photo B. Palmer Ward, Toronto Telegram.

Then, on June 2, 1872, in New York City, Julia Ward Howe held the first “Mother’s Day” as an anti-war observance, a practice Howe continued in Boston for the next decade before it died out.  (from website above)

Now on the streets of American cities in this godless, gun-filled culture we inhabit, those who birth and those who don't all demand an end to killing. 

Stop lynchings by cops.  Stop executions.  Pull American troops out of Afghanistan and every other country where we are waging active wars.  Use diplomacy, not weapons.  

Abolish the police, or at least take their guns away.  Let them keep the peace with tasers and billy clubs, or get rid of them.  Let 911 calls lead to trained de-escalation teams.  

I go into hiding 2-3 days before the onslaught of every grocery store clerk and every television newscaster wishing me a Happy-Sappy Mother's Day.  

I never go to church on this profaned holiday.  It's not safe from saccharine.  Today I will give my new church by Zoom, HerChurch in San Francisco, a chance.  At the first drop of syrup, I will pull the plug.

My kids can do an action for peace on this day.  Or they can clean all the bathrooms in the house if they want to make me happy.

When they were 9, 6, and 4 years old, I took them to a Mothers Peace Day event in Orange CA sponsored by Medea Benjamin, who in 2002 co-founded the antiwar group called Code Pink.  She went on to co-found the human rights group Global Exchange.

Now my daughters Roz, Ellen, and Marie call or visit saying "Happy Peace Day, Mom,"  and usually make a donation to a feminist peace organization.  I trained them well.   

By the way, attending HerChurch turned out to be a safe choice today.  May 8 is the feast day honoring Julian of Norwich (1343-1416 or so), and Pastor Stacy Boorn centered our worship on Julian's famous words, "As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother."  

See more about Jesus as our Holy Mother in this post by Kittredge Cherry on the blog QSpirit: "Julian of Norwich: Celebrating Mother Jesus."

In the "Prayers of the People" portion of today's worship, Jennifer Mantle led us with these petitions and others:

Please pray for the mothering spirit in each of us, however it expresses itself.

Pray for those who wish to become mothers but have not been able to realize this desire.

Pray for those who have troubling relationships with their children...

Pray for mothers who have lost children...

Pray for us as we mother ourselves...

Pray for our first trans bishop, the Reverend Dr. Megan Rohrer (elected bishop yesterday in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).