Next Mother's Day Let's Invite the Whole Family
By Medea Benjamin
Created May 13 2008 - 8:59am
Next Mother's Day, I don't want to be organizing yet another rally of
Mothers Against War in Wa****ngton DC and lamenting the state of our
dysfunctional human family. I want to be celebrating the successes of the
first 100 days of a new administration. I want to see us healing the
collective traumas of the past eight years and becoming a nation that
reflects the values of compassion and kindness that most mothers hold
dear.
Next Mother's Day, I want us to be welcoming our soldiers home from Iraq
and
taking care of them when they get here. I don't want to hear any more
bickering in Congress about whether we should provide decent educational
benefits to our vets -- especially from those who sup****ted the war! I
don't
want to read more horror stories about dilapidated VA hospitals and
bureaucratic sinkholes that keep veterans from getting the care they need.
I
want us to come together -- whether we were for or against this war -- to
nurture our wounded sons and daughters.
Next Mother's Day, I want us to have come to grips with the disaster we
have
wreaked upon the Iraqi people. I want us to mourn their losses, express
contrition and help rebuild the nation we destroyed. I want us to ensure a
viable homeland for our Palestinian sisters and brothers. I want us to
rebuild a relation****p of trust and respect with our Arab neighbors so
that
we can mutually address the threat of terrorism.
Next Mother's Day, I want us to repair old family feuds. I want us to
restore relations with the Cuban cousins we banished some 50 years ago,
starting with lifting the embargo. I want us to sing and dance and drink
mojitos with our Caribbean kin, reli****ng in our common zest for life.
We shouldn't stop with Cuba. I want us to reach out with a mother's open
arms toward other nations we are today bullying, from Venezuela to Iran. I
want us to bring out the carrots and put away the sticks, as we have
recently done in the case of North Korea. I want us to abandon the "do as
I
say, not as I do" approach to nuclear deterrence and sup****t global
disarmament.
Next Mother's Day, I want us to be immersed in a crash course on
overcoming
our oil addiction and cleaning up the mess we have made of our Mother
Earth.
I want us to stop pillaging the family jewels and instead embrace
conservation, restoration and a fairer distribution of our planet's
wealth.
Next Mother's Day, I want us to practice unconditional love. I want us to
heed the words of Julia Ward Howe's original Mothers Day proclamation when
she said that "We, the women of one country, will be too tender to those
of
another country to allow our sons to injure theirs." I want us to form
kin****p circles that stretch across the globe, to teach our children to
feel
empathy towards other children, to truly embrace the concept of universal
oneness.
Next Mother's Day, when we sit down to a bountiful brunch, I want the
other
members of our global household to be seated at the table. That will truly
be a fitting tribute to the women who brought us into this world.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues.
I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an op****tunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are
at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
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