"This Memorial Day, Talk About the War"

Today, I received the following message from Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Paul is asking "We the People" to never forget our troops and to Pay Attention, ask questions, and Speak Up.

"Dear IAVA Supporter,

This Memorial Day, how can you best honor the sacrifices of Troops, Veterans, and their families? This holiday weekend, we're asking you to make a commitment to remember the Troops and Veterans -- by talking about the war with your friends, your family, and in your community.

* If you're planning on attending a Memorial Day event, please bring along the our Memorial Day flier.

* If you're the family member or friend of a vet, ask them about their experiences. And help them get the support they need by telling them to join IAVA's TroopNet.

* If you're an IAVA supporter, tell a friend to learn more about the war .

Please help make this Memorial Day more than a long weekend. It only takes a minute to remind your friends and family of the sacrifices our Troops and Veterans have made. Thank you for being a part of IAVA, and for helping build this crucial national dialogue about Iraq."

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Mother's Day 1870

The roots of Mother's Day go back to the first Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870. This declaration speaks for all mothers who have felt the pain and witnessed the horrors of war.

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

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 of murder is not the balance of justice.'

Blood does not wipe our 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 bearing after their 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."

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

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