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10th Anniversary Mothers Day Peace Walk on Golden Gate Bridge!

Published May 3, 2017 | By editor

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Mother’s Day Proclamation:  Julia Ward Howe Boston 1870
Mother's Day Proclamation 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 decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of 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 to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”


From the bosom 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 out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have 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 solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his 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 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.

Following this very potent Proclamation made in 1870, the Mothers’ Peace Day Observance was held on the second Sunday in June, 1872. Such observances began to take place each year thereafter and paved the way for Mother’s Day Holiday in US on the second Sunday of May.

 

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 Mothers, daughters, sons and fathers and even grandmothers are invited to celebrated the roots of Mothers Day Sunday calling for an end to war. We converge in the middle the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco on our annual CODEPINK Mothers Day Walk for Peace, standing in stillness for a short while in the middle, holding our signs with peace messages over the railing, invoking contemplation for the bigger issues facing the day.  Tons of cars will honk and passersby flash smiles, peace signs and nods of approval. By educating people about Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Mothers Day Proclamation, and inviting them to join us in our call out to ‘DISARM, DISARM’ at home and abroad.

As we proceed together to the S.F. side, we will stop at the bridge tower, to “mike check” and read the Standing Women. net statement (see below) , proclaiming our vision of that better world we want to create. We dream of a world where children have enough food, water, education, a safe and loving home and free from the threat and violence of war.
This is 10th anniversary of CODEPINK’S peace walk and one of great joys is talking to and meeting people from all around the world to encourage peace, Toby Blome tells us her experience from last’s years peace walk. “As we were getting ready to go, one young father came up to me with his young pre-school child, and asked if his son could hold my heart-shaped sign,  “MUSLIM LIVES MATTER,” for a photograph.  I learned that the family was from Libya.  A few moments later, a young pre-adolescent girl enthusiastically ran up to me with the same request.  Her father informed me that he is from Afghanistan.  It’s these precious moments that reinforce in me the incredible connections that we are making across the world by coming to the bridge each month.  We will never fully understand the seeds that we are planting, but the ground is certainly being fertilized with a more hopeful world by our presence.  Based on the small percentage that we surveyed, we know we made contact with:  Kenya, Libya, Afghanistan, Mexico, China, Russia, Poland, India, France, Germany, England…..Toronto, Paris, Stuttgard, Chicago, Philadelphia, Arcata, New York, San Diego and more.”
We hope you can join us this 10th Anniversary Mothers Day Golden Gate Bridge Peace Walk to raise our voices and proclaim: “We will not raise Our Children to Kill the Children of other Mothers!”   ! 
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CodePink is a women's grassroots-initiated, worldwide organization of women and men working for peace, social justice and a green economy. CodePink SF serves the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

 

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The national CodePink organization organizes for justice for Iraqis and to hold war criminals accountable. CodePink actively opposes the U.S. war in Afghanistan, torture, the detention center at Guantanamo, weaponized and spy drones, the prosecution of whistleblowers, U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and repressive regimes.

Rooted in a network of local organizers, CodePink's tactics include satire, street theatre, creative visuals, civil resistance, and directly challenging powerful decision-makers in government and corporations. And, of course, wearing pink!

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