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Broome County Courthouse
Binghamton, NY; May 9th, 2009
Statement From the Organizers:
The
Broome County Veterans for Peace announces a special celebration in honor of the original Mother’s Day Proclamation, by
Julia Ward Howe in 1870. [see below for complete text]
Binghamton actor
Patricia Donohue will offer a dramatic reading of this Proclamation on the lawn of the Broome County Courthouse.
Colleen Kattau, a multi-talented bi-lingual singer-songwriter will perform some music specially chosen for this occasion.
Carol Linskey, a Binghamton University graduate student, will offer an historical analysis.
Stuart Naismith, WW II veteran, educator, and long-time member of Veterans for Peace will emcee the event.
Bagpipes by
Marty DeVault of Highland Piper: (607) 743-8475
“Our nation says it is for peace, yet we are again involved in multiple wars with our military might around the world. People are for peace, while our government practices war. It’s time we start listening to the mothers of the world,” said George McAnanama, president of the Broome County Veterans for Peace chapter. “Our members have served in wars and know the pain first-hand. We have felt our mother’s pain as we leave, and seen their joy at our return. We have seen the Gold-Star mothers weep for sons and daughters who don’t come home, watched the injured veterans being tended by their families, and seen the faces of civilian mothers desperately asking why their family is being bombed. Enough of this, we need to work together for peace. I would like to call this event remembering the origin of Mother’s Day”
Mother's Day Proclamation 1870
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
Arise then...women of this day!
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."
From the voice of a 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 our 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 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.
This event is endorsed by ten local organizations, and co-sponsored by
Broome County Peace Action.
Endorsers
Broome County Council of Churches Social Justice Committee
Binghamton Community Friends Meeting (Quaker) Peace and Social Concerns
Binghamton Political Initiative (BU-SUNY campus)
SUNY Social Justice Network
Catholic Community's Justice & Peace Resource Center
Citizen Action of New York – Southern Tier Chapter
Methodist Federation Social Action, Wyoming Conference
St James (RC) Johnson City, Peace & Justice Committee
Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Binghamton Social Justice Committee
Patricia Donohue is an actor who has appeared in Professional, University, and Community Theatre, and the
Tri-Cities Opera. Among her many presentations are two One-Woman Shows - THE BELLE OF AMHERST - based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson, and SOLO FLIGHT - The story of Jeannette Piccard - One of the first Episcopal women ordained to the priesthood and also the first woman in space.)
Ms. Donohue has been honored for her contribution to the arts with a Star on the Walk of Fame in Binghamton, NY. She has been inducted into the Archives of Women at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, NY - for her work in furthering the cause of equality of women in Church and State.
Colleen Kattau is a poignant and playful performer with a soaring voice and a socio-enviro bent, bi-lingual too!
"Joe Hill would be proud. Great singer and organizer at the same time," says Pete Seeger about Colleen Kattau. She is a bi-lingual singer-songwriter and dynamic performer, whose voice is both powerful and warm. Her music has been featured on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now and she is a featured artist at the SOAWatch vigils. Her music is described as "Power and beauty steeping in a fine tea."
In the spring of 2004, human rights activist
Kathy Kelly, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was sent to Pekin Federal Prison for leading a protest at the School of the Americas. While in prison, Kelly's organization, Voices in the Wilderness, was targeted by a US State Department lawsuit charging that Kelly violated US-imposed sanctions when she took humanitarian aid to Iraq during numerous visits over the last five years.
In this fiercely eloquent book, Kathy Kelly recounts such trips to Iraq, tells the largely unknown story of the School of the Americas and describes daily life inside a federal prison, where America's poor are warehoused. Like Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Kelly's powerful narrative gives voice to the unheard millions suffering at home and abroad.
