MOTHERS DAY PEACE RALLY

SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008 On the SANTA FE PLAZA

On Display: Eyes Wide Open: An Exhibition of the Human Cost of the Iraq War, and Iraq/Afghanistan Memorial Installation

1:00 – 2:00: Kumusha Marimba Ensemble: Peace Through Music

2:00: Sounding of Church Bells

Bring Bells, Whistles, Cymbals, Drums and Horns and Join in Making A Joyful Noise

2:00 – 4:30 Formal Program

Fran Martone, Master of Ceremonies

Mayor David Coss, Welcome and Proclamation of 2008

Choral Recitation of Mothers Day Proclamation of 1870

English, Virginia Miller

Spanish, Marcela Diaz

Arabic, Imam Aziz Eddabbarh

Hebrew, Rabbi Schwab

Speeches and Performances By:

Bonnie Greathouse

Bernadette Vadurro

Consuelo Luz

Roshi Joan Halifax

Tubes and Tentacles

Louise Diamond

Warehouse 21 Poets

The Raging Grannies

Craig Barnes

Co-Sponsoring Organizations: Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch-Malabar Rite, Christ Lutheran Church of Santa Fe, Code Pink Santa Fe, First Presbyterian, Mission - Social Concerns and Justice Committee, GandhiGuy.com, Healthy Families First/Primeros Pasos, Monte del Sol Charter School – Peace Studies Class, Network of Spiritual Progressives, NAACP Santa Fe, New Mexico Conference of Churches, New Mexico Department of Peace Initiative, Pax Christi New Mexico and Santa Fe, Peace Action New Mexico, People for Peace, Returning Peace Corps Volunteers, Rev. Talitha Arnold, Senior Minister, United Church of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Monthly Meeting of Friends, Santa Fe Waldorf School, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, TaHa Mosque/Ibn Asheer Institute of Islamic Studies, Tewa Women United, The Green Party of Santa Fe, Temple Beth Shalom – Social Justice Council, Unitarian Universalist Congregation – Social Justice Committee, Veterans for Peace, Warehouse 21

Flowers Donated By: Albertson’s Zafarano, Blumen Kenner Exquisite Flowers, Heaven Scent Flowers, Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods

Sound System Donated by: College of Santa Fe, with technical assistance by Tom Knoblauch.

The original "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Initially written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.

Mother's Day Proclamation 1870

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided 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."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out 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 at 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.”