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mothers day
This Mother’s Day, Take a Stand Against War in Gaza and Everywhere
As a creative force, mothers must speak out now to counter the destructive force of war and violence.
May 12, 2024
This Mother’s Day, children around the country are celebrating their mothers with cards, flowers, and brunch. But few likely remember that Mother’s Day originally started as a day for mothers to call for peace.
In 1870, in the aftermath of the bloody American Civil War, Julia Ward Howe, a prominent American abolitionist, feminist, poet, and author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” gathered mothers to issue the Mother’s Day Proclamation, appealing to moms across national boundaries to take action toward achieving world peace.
On this Mother’s Day, as students across the country protest U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where two-thirds of all Palestinians killed and injured are women and children, women must revive the anti-war origins of Mother’s Day and take a stand against more war and violence.
One thing American mothers can do now is to call on President Joe Biden and Congress to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept terms for a cease-fire, and withhold any more military aid to Israel until the fighting ends.
As a creative force, mothers must speak out now to counter the destructive force of war and violence. Mothers teach their children to be courageous, to speak up when there is injustice, to care for one another, and to resolve interpersonal conflicts with their words, not their fists. We insist now, as then, that our children were not born to fight and die in wars.
According to a May 6 United Nations report by the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, of the nearly 35,000 Palestinians killed since the war on Gaza began, 14,500 have been children and 9,500 women. Three out of four of the 77,000 injured are women, 17,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned, and each day since the start of the war, an estimated 37 Palestinian mothers have been killed. As feminists, we must say enough is enough.
One thing American mothers can do now is to call on President Joe Biden and Congress to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept terms for a cease-fire, and withhold any more military aid to Israel until the fighting ends. Every F-16 fighter jet, every Apache helicopter, every bomb that is dropped on Palestinian civilians is American-made and financed with U.S. taxpayer dollars. As Biden speaks of a “red line” around an Israeli invasion of Rafah—an invasion that, in fact, has already begun—American women must unite across race, class, and religion to insist an end to this carnage against Palestinians.
Women have long played a vital role in peace movements. During the height of the Cold War, Women Strike for Peace mobilized 50,000 women to march in 60 cities across the United States to protest nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War. Led by feminist firebrands Bella Abzug and Dagmar Wilson, they pressured the Kennedy administration to sign a nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviet Union. In 2015, on the 70th anniversary of Korea’s division by Cold War powers, I marched hand in hand with Nobel Peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Leymah Gbowee, renowned feminist Gloria Steinem, and 10,000 Korean women on both sides of the demilitarized zone to call for a peace agreement to end the Korean War.
For many mothers today, their children are college students protesting the assault on Palestinians much like youth did during the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa. Today, thousands of university students have formed over 120 encampments on college campuses across the country to call on their universities to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturers. Students today are risking suspension, expulsion, and arrest to awaken us to the atrocities that our government is backing by continuing to send military aid and weapons to Israel.
At these encampments—racially and religiously diverse gatherings—students provide mutual aid, conflict resolution, and share stories from all over the world about liberation and democracy. What they have learned in the classroom has called them to take action. They are protesting the hypocrisy of their academic institutions preaching human rights while remaining silent on the war, and directly investing in companies that are enabling Israel to kill Palestinian children.
“This is not about Columbia,” Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University Professor of modern Arab history, reminded us, after students were forcefully detained by police. “This is the conscience of a nation speaking through your kids.” When Columbia University students occupied Hamilton Hall, as they did during the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, they renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of six-year-old Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl whose entire family was killed in a car by Israeli tanks, and who Israel willfully killed despite international cries for her protection.
As Israeli planes drop seemingly endless American-made bombs on Palestinian civilians, we should all be haunted by the words of seven-year-old Kareem, a Palestinian boy in Rafah who, when asked in an Instagram video why he wrote his name on his arm, replied: “So that when we are bombed, they will know who I am.”
At a time when the U.S. can send $95 billion more to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan for more militarization and war but can’t seem to come up with $85 billion for the Child Tax Credit Act, which lifted half of our nation’s mothers and their children out of poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, what message are we sending about whose lives are worth making more secure? Our young people are deeply wise as they scream for Palestinian freedom. They have learned the lessons of the civil rights and anti-war movements, and now it is our turn to listen.
Just as 154 years ago women anti-war activists gathered in churches, social halls, and each other’s homes to call for a Mother’s Peace Day, today we must return to the 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation with the clarion call: “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
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Mothers on Six Continents Demand Action to Protect Children From Climate Crisis
"If we don't act now, it will be too late," one mom warned. "I could not live with myself, as a mother, as a doctor, and as a human being, if we didn't do all we can to try and bring about the much-needed systemic change."
May 14, 2023
From Australia to Zimbabwe, mothers on Saturday peacefully occupied public spaces and called for urgent societal transformation to avert the worst impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
Joined by loved ones on the eve of Mother's Day, moms across the globe sat down in protest circles, where they highlighted the deadly consequences of the status quo and demanded lifesaving climate action.
"With our circles we convey that we refuse to look away, that we refuse to give up, and that we will do everything we can," Mother's Rebellion for Climate Justice said in a statement.
Participants made clear that children and impoverished people who bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis face the most harm, and that failing to fundamentally reform the global political economy threatens to decimate younger and future generations.
"Children are feeling betrayed because they see that governments are not doing enough, or are actively delaying meaningful climate action."
"Children are feeling betrayed because they see that governments are not doing enough, or are actively delaying meaningful climate action," said Marion, a mother and member of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (Health for XR). "Those that are meant to protect and safeguard them, are ignoring and turning their backs on the children in this country, and on the children in the Global South who are already facing the impacts of a heating climate, as well as the fallout from environmental destruction and exploitation of resources."
"If we don't act now, it will be too late," Marion warned. "I could not live with myself, as a mother, as a doctor, and as a human being, if we didn't do all we can to try and bring about the much-needed systemic change."
Mothers' Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion launched last year in Sweden, describes itself as "a growing global community of women who want to be able to look our children in the eyes and say that we truly do all that we can." Fed up with "the lack of a powerful, transformative response from our politicians and leaders," the alliance "will not give up the fight for a sustainable present and future for the current and coming generations."
On Saturday, moms gathered in more than a dozen countries on every continent except Antarctica to build support for "the necessary changes to keep our planet healthy so that all its inhabitants can thrive," Extinction Rebellion Families (XR Families) explained.
Demonstrations took place in Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Germany, India, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
\u201cGlobal #MothersDay "Mothers Rebellion"! Demands climate action across six continents. \nAll photos c/o @ExtinctionR \nhttps://t.co/yXO3mxm6lc\u201d— Antonia Juhasz (@Antonia Juhasz) 1684079271
"My heart aches when I think about the extreme heatwaves and devastating floods that my relatives in Malaysia have endured over the past few months," said Feng, a mother of two and member of XR Families. "It's not just about my family, but the countless others who are facing the brunt of climate change. That's why I will be at the Mothers' Rebellion, fighting for a livable planet for today’s children and all future generations. We owe it to them to take action now, before it's too late."
Kristine, a mother and member of Health for XR, said that "as healthcare professionals, it is our duty to identify and act on risks to children."
"As a mother and doctor, I cannot sit silently and watch this injustice to children across the world."
"Currently 85% of the burden of climate health impacts is falling on those under 5 years of age," said Kristine. "These health impacts include malnutrition, heat exposure, water scarcity, infectious diseases such as malaria and Lyme disease, and high levels of air pollution causing worsening asthma and childhood cancers."
"I am seeing these devastating impacts on children in my daily work, even in the U.K.," she continued. "As a mother and doctor, I cannot sit silently and watch this injustice to children across the world and that's why I will be at the Mothers' Rebellion and demand urgent climate action from world leaders."
According to XR Families:
Mothers' Rebellion wants a livable, socially just, inclusive world for all children. Almost all children on Earth are already exposed to at least one form of climate and environmental danger or stress. Mothers' Rebellion demand immediate action to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2025, starting with the phase-out of fossil fuels, and to protect and repair ecosystems whilst also addressing social inequality.
Approximately one billion children—nearly half the world’s 2.2 billion children—live in one of the 33 countries classified as [being at] "extremely high-risk" to the effects of climate change. These figures are likely to get worse as the impacts of climate change accelerate. The climate crisis is also affecting children's mental health. A global survey illustrates the depth of anxiety many young people are feeling about climate change. Nearly 60% of young people approached said they felt very worried or extremely worried. 83% think adults have failed to take care of the planet.
The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health is calling for child health to be a central theme in all climate change policy decisions. All children should have the right to clean air, safe water, sanitation, affordable and nutritious food, and shelter. The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and governments should mobilize and allocate resources to protect those rights and include a child rights risk assessment as part of all climate policy decisions.
"I consider the crowning glory of my life to be in the presence of my four grandchildren," said Valerie, a retired doctor and Health XR member. "How, in my late autumn years, can I justify my existence on this beautiful planet if it is not dedicated to whatever action I trust may play a part in preserving it and its glorious biodiversity—for them and all the world's children, born and yet to be?"
"Nothing else in my life can take precedence over this," Valerie continued. "Science does not lie. I call upon all grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts and friends, older siblings, and those who work with young people in this ultimate expression of love for them—and for their children."
"Without a habitable planet, what value has everything else we may wish to bequeath to them?" she asked.
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In Honor of Mother's Day, Let Us Organize
Moms are the best hope for Americans who are concerned about climate change.
May 14, 2023
To be a good mom, you have to be a great organizer. Whether it’s fair or not, in most families, moms organize just about everything—transportation to school and sporting events, shopping, meals, medical appointments, and much more. That’s why we’re the best hope for Americans who are concerned about climate change. We’re already skilled organizers. Many of us are already successfully applying our organizing skills to the climate crisis. If we want to have a planet that is safe for our kids, more of us need to do so.
While it’s mostly a forgotten history, Mother’s Day was never meant to be a day for expressing gratitude to mothers. The original Mother’s Day was an effort by women in the 1870s, horrified by the bloodshed of the Civil War, to exert their collective influence on our society in calling for peace. Julia Ward Howe led the charge, calling for a “festival which should be observed as Mother’s Day, and which should be devoted to the advocacy of peace doctrines.” Howe organized international peace conferences, and states created their own Mother’s Day festivities. She went on to advocate for women’s suffrage so women could shape our democracy as equal citizens.
Howe was by no means alone in recognizing the unique power of women—and particularly moms—coming together as an organized force for social change. Often these stories are left out of history textbooks that typically focus more on the individual heroism of charismatic leaders (usually white men), but from civil rights to marriage equality to vital environmental protections, women and moms have been key players in advancing public good.
This time around, it’s not the horrors of war that unites us but the terrifying prospect of a world made inhospitable for children–and all life–by the ravages of our climate crisis.
At Mothers Out Front, we’re carrying forward a vision of bold, women-led action in the tradition of what Howe exemplified and advocated. This time around, it’s not the horrors of war that unites us but the terrifying prospect of a world made inhospitable for children–and all life–by the ravages of our climate crisis.
In communities and states across the country, our moms have been advancing climate justice in a myriad of ways. They’ve helped pass policies in Massachusetts, California, and New York that protect families from pollution from oil and gas, whether that’s from appliances in their homes or drilling in their neighborhoods. They’ve pushed local school districts in Virginia and New York to transition to clean electric school bus fleets so that children don’t have to breathe dirty diesel fumes. They’ve secured more accurate air pollution monitoring in neighborhoods in Pueblo, Colorado, and run a successful no-idling campaign at Boston Logan International Airport to help address high asthma rates among children in East Boston. The list goes on. Energized by their collective concerns, our moms have become powerful leaders in their communities and beyond.
Mothers Out Front is one example of how mom power can be turned into a force for good. But if we're talking about the power of moms organizing, we have to talk about how motherhood has been weaponized by some groups as a front for reactionary, divisive politics. Oddly, far more media attention has been paid to this minority of moms who, under the guise of “parental rights,” promote banning books, removing curriculum that teaches about civil rights and racism, and restricting classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Sometimes it feels like those of us who have a more hopeful and inclusive vision for the kind of world we want for our children are being out-organized. There’s no reason for this.
We’ve learned at Mothers Out Front that any mom out there can learn how to organize effectively around creating a better world for her kids: Start by talking to other moms—get together, discover the values you share, and identify the changes you want to make in your community. You’ll be surprised by how your relationships with one another will sustain you and the work that you do together. Pick your targets. Strategize: Figure out how to turn the resources you have into the power you need to achieve your goals. Work in teams with clear roles so that you can share the responsibilities and decision-making. Start small, win early, get more moms involved, and build from there.
We need to pay more attention to the stories of moms who are working to make our world more safe, equitable, just, and sustainable. These are the moms who can inspire a sense of hope and agency in all of us, allow us to imagine a better path forward, and spur us into action.
This Mother’s Day, we would do well take inspiration from Julia Ward Howe and embrace the uniquely powerful role we can play as women and as moms in driving transformational change for a better world. Let’s get to work.Keep ReadingShow Less
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