KURDISH MOTHER'S DAY

"When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings."
~ Julia Ward Howe.

After seeing the reports on Roj TV today of Kurdish mother's out in full strength demonstrating against the violence of the Ankara regime, particularly the persistence of the Saturday Mothers in Istanbul, I'm reminded of the true origin of Mother's Day in the US . . . and it wasn't meant to be the retail event that The System would have you believe today:

"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."

As this weekend's demonstrations prove, it is Kurdish women in general, and Kurdish mothers in particular, who hold the torch for the true meaning of Mother's Day. And you won't see that unity of purpose or strength of numbers among any other group of women anywhere else in the world.

Anneler gününüz kutlu olsun!