Mothers . . . and War
Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder
May 14, 2006
Psalm 46, Matthew 5:1-9
The classroom at Columbia University was packed one day this past February, the students eager to hear two very different women - different, at least, by background. But not so different in that they are both mothers of three, and both want their children to live together in peace. That is not so easy, given where they live. Nonie Darwish. Is an Egyptian who grew up in Gaza; Miri Eisen is a a recently retired colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Each was raised to believe that the other was evil. Each was raised to hate the other. But they are speaking this day in February about peace, motivated by their common love for their children, a common desire to understand the other, and to have their children learn how to live in peace. They are sponsored this day by a group called Mothers for Peace.
Mothers for Peace was born at the height of the Vietnam war, in 1969. A young mother had written a letter to the editor of a local newspaper asking that people who shared her sadness and frustration at the needless loss of life in the Vietnam War join her in searching out ways to stop the killing. The compelling need to act that originally brought the group together, and the continuing need in our world to find alternatives to war, have motivated these mothers to continue their work to make the world safer and more humane for their children, and their children's children.
Nonie Darwish and Miri Eisen are two mothers working for peace.
And they are not alone. In 1988 a group of women protesting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza formed a group called Women in Black. Standing in silent protest, Women in Black have grown to be an active presence in England, Italy, Columbia, Spain, Azerbijan, the Balkans, and here in the US. In New York, Women In Black have held a weekly silent vigil since 1993 to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing, and human rights abuses all over the world. They explain who they are and why they do what they do this way:
"We are silent because mere words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring. Our silence is visible. We invite women to stand with us, reflect about themselves and women who have been raped, tortured or killed in concentration camps, women who have disappeared, whose loved ones have disappeared or have been killed, whose homes have been demolished. We wear black as a symbol of sorrow for all victims of war, for the destruction of people, nature, and the very fabric of life."
Another group with a common purpose, but very different tactics, is "Codepink." Formed in the fall of 2002 to try to avert the coming invasion of Iraq, Codepink members don't wear black, but shocking pink. And they are not silent.
"We call on mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters, on workers, students, teachers, healers, artists, writers, singers, poets and every ordinary outraged woman willing to be outrageous for peace. Because of our responsibility to the next generation, because of our own love for our families and communities and this country that we are a part of, we understand the love of a mother in Iraq for her children and the driving desire of that child for life. "
Mothers for Peace, Women in Black, Codepink, and Cindy Shehan were not the first mothers to raise their voice in protest against sending their sons and daughters off to war. On this Mother's Day we need to remember that Mother's Day was first proposed back in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe - the author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Looking back at the horrors of the Civil War, she issued her Mother's Day Proclamation that said,
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."
. . .
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.
In preparing for today I came across a fascinating little book by Jane Addams - the social worker activist who began Hull House in Chicago. Wriitten in 1922, Peace and Bread in Time of War tells the story of the formation of the Women's Peace Party in 1915 just as World War 1 was starting. She writes,
When the news came to America of the opening hostilities [in Europe], the reaction against war, as such, was almost instantaneous throughout our country. This was most strikingly registered in the newspaper cartoons and comments which expressed astonishment that such an archaic institution should be revived in modern Europe.
Wanting to do something that could stop the war from spreading, and avert future wars, Addams and others convened a convention. It was attended by over 3000 women and the Women's Peace Party was formed, with a platform that included these goals:
+ The immediate calling of a convention of neutral nations in the interest of early peace.
+ Limitation of armaments and the nationalization of their manufacture.
+ Organized opposition to militarism in our own country.
+ Education of youth in the ideals of peace.
+ The further humanizing of governments by the extension of the suffrage to women.
+ The substitution of economic pressure . . . for rival armies and navies.
+ Removal of the economic causes of war.
+ The appointment by our government of a commission of men and women with [funding] to promote international peace.
Addams took the Women's Peace Party platform to governmental officials here and throughout Europe, urging nations to turn from the war about to engulf Europe.
Sadly, as we all know, the war continued and grew, despite heroic efforts of thousands of peace activists - women and men - from many nations, and 8.5 million people died.
Just as the Vietnam War went on another 4 years after Mothers for Peace was formed; and just as the violence between Israelis and Palestinians goes on despite the silent protests of the Women in Black; and just as the invasion of Iraq took place despite the demonstrations of the women of Codepink, despite the day of international protest a month before, on February 15th, 2003, when literally millions of people around the world said no to war, but the war began, and continues to this day.
Well, now. That's a lot of history. And on the face of it, not terribly encouraging history. Or is it? What lesson can we draw from the story of so many peace activists over the decades, even the centuries, who spoke eloquently and bravely and powerfully, but whose voices seems to have been ignored? Is the lesson that war is inevitable, that peace-making is ultimately futile? Is it that mothers who think they can end war are simply wrong?
I think the lesson is that the work of peace-making is hard - very hard, indeed. The forces and the mindsets that foment war are deeply entrenched. Changing the assumptions that political leaders and international strategists use to bring us to war is a long, long process.
But I consider this, and take hope: what would the world look like if there had been no Julia Ward Howe 135 years ago calling for disarmament, no Women's Peace Party a hundred years ago urging that nations learn peace and not war, no Mothers for Peace 35 years ago calling for an end to the killing in Vietnam, no Women in Black 15 years ago, and no world-wide war protests against the invasion of Iraq three years ago? One wonders: How many more wars would the world have fought if there had not been the faithful, peaceful, protesting few - or many - calling the world to peace, and not to war? The voices for peace, while they may not have yet ended war, have slowed it down, and served as the voice of conscience for us all.Blessed are the peacemakers, said Jesus - the peacemakers (not the warmakers) they are the sons and the daughters of God. We need to listen to our mothers. And we need to listen to our children too.
