Yesterday I drove a couple hours north to Ellsworth (near Acadia National Park) for another of our monthly peace vigils we've been holding in a different part of the state since 2022.
When I left Brunswick it was snowing which turned to light rain as I headed north. I arrived early for the vigil and hung up our Bring Our War $$$ Home banner on two utility poles facing the busy intersection and stood with my sign waiting for others to get there.
Once folks began to arrive (25 in all) the honks and waves increased dramatically. Everyone is now remarking that the response lately to our Palestine solidarity protests has been so much better. National polls now say that at least 53% of the people want the war to end and for the US to stop funding Israel's genocide.
People came from many places around the state to join us. Two women (a mom and her daughter) drove down from Lubec which is right next to Canada. It's a long way north from Ellsworth. They don't get many protests up their way and were thrilled to be part of the crowd.
Our closing circle was quite moving as several expressed very emotional feelings about how much this vigil meant to them due to the isolation they often feel these days as our out-of-control government continues doing everything possible to embolden the rule of oligarchs and fascists.
One young women connected to a Libertarian organization just happened to be driving by and saw us. She stopped her car, made a sign reading 'End the Genocide', and joined us on the street. That is always a great gift when it happens - for her and the rest of us.
We usually invite vigilers to come with us for lunch at a local restaurant after our monthly vigils. About half the group came along to a nearby Mexican joint and we had a good late lunch and alot more time for deep sharing.
Our next monthly vigil will be held on Saturday, May 10 (Mothers Day) in Saco along the bridges between that town and Biddeford. We always begin at 1:30 pm.
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe – an abolitionist best remembered as the poet who wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic” – worked to establish a Mother’s Peace Day. Howe dedicated the celebration to the eradication of war, and organized festivities in Boston for years.
Today’s commercialized celebration of candy, flowers, gift certificates, and lavish meals at restaurants bears little resemblance to Howe’s original idea.
But here, for the record’s sake, is the proclamation she wrote in 1870, which explains, in her own impassioned words, the goals of the original holiday.
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall 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 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 is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow 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 then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place 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.
Bruce
No comments:
Post a Comment