My home is very quiet this morning. My children’s mother is in Maryland because her grandfather is gravely ill. My son has just left for work and my daughters are still asleep. In the few hours I have before leaving for work myself I’m cooking a big breakfast for the girls and trying to fill the void their mom’s absence has created. There is a void in my own life because I’m estranged from my own mother since the death of my father three years ago. And though the damage done is irreparable and I have no expectation of our relationship ever being saved, I still can’t help but feel some pride…still, and even love. Certainly gratitude for the woman who made me who I am and for the women I know who are so very much like her. She was and is a fierce antiwar activist. She never hesitated or wavered when it came to confronting the militaristic government of this country because for her it was about protecting her children and all mother’s children from the horror of war and from those in power who have always found it so easy to throw threats across oceans and continents while backing those threats up with the blood of others.
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.
Julia Ward Howe
There are two women, mothers, in particular that I’m thinking of this morning. I’m fortunate to have met both, though whom through my own laziness and sad habit of taking some things for granted have neglected to contact lately. I beg their forgiveness for that. But despite not talking to or being with them for a long while I still think of each of them nearly every day and wonder how they are. Mostly I wonder how their adversarys are because I know that they, like my own mother, leave nothing on the field when confronting the enemies of peace!
I know that many of you here are relatively new to Boomantribune. I also know that this site is focused on elections now. Some of you might not be aware of the great burst of antiwar activism that existed here back in 2005 and 2006 or of the many people who found their activist sea legs through friendships and alliances made here. Those bonds are what have defined this place for me, even as we’ve mostly drifted apart, sometimes not on the best of terms. That’s a sad part of life, but it doesn’t mean those people’s influence on me is lessened in any way.
I think it’s important to take time to remember that great solidarity of purpose that existed then and personally for me, to pay a small tribute to two of the most influential women in my life. And also as a way to introduce them to those of you who never knew of them. There is a history of their commitment in this site’s archives. Their contributions remind me that it is the people who will bring about change in this country, not politicians and candidates. It’s mothers like Damnit Janet and
Alohaleezy are the real heroes in my world because in spite of their fears and the obstacles arrayed against them they stood up anyway and defended and still defend the children of all mothers and strive for peace defiantly and lovingly.
For my two friends and for all women who sacrifice all for their children,
Happy Mothers Day