Next Mothers Day, I don't want to be organizing yet another rally of
Mothers Against War in Washington 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 Mothers 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 supported
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 Mothers 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 relationship of trust and respect with our Arab
neighbors so that we can mutually address the threat of terrorism.
Next Mothers 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, relishing 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 support
global disarmament.
Next Mothers 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 Mothers 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 kinship 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 Mothers 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.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange. If you would like to help the Iraqi refugees, see www.codepinkalert.org.
|