On Mother's Day in a Time of War
By Mary Shaw
05/14/06 "Information
Clearing House" -- -- On this Mother's Day 2006, my thoughts
go out to all the mothers who have children fighting in George
W. Bush's illegal, immoral, and unprovoked war of aggression.
Your children volunteered for duty because they believed that
America is a beacon of democracy, freedom, and opportunity. They
signed up for job training, college money, and honor. They did
not sign up to kill innocent Iraqi women, children, and men.
They did not sign up to torture people. They did not sign up to
die in a war based on oily corporate lies. They did not sign up
to promote this country's transformation from freedom to
fascism. May they remain safe and come home to you soon.
On this Mother's Day, my thoughts go out to all the mothers who
have lost their children in Bush's illegal war of choice. My
thoughts go out Cindy Sheehan, who is still waiting for an
answer to her very reasonable question to George W. Bush: For
what noble cause did her son, Casey, die? And my thoughts go out
to more than 2,400 other mothers who won't be getting a Mother's
Day card or a phone call from their kids this year because those
kids were sent into a no-win situation with inadequate body
armor to fight against non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
These mothers lost their beloved children because, as Donald
Rumsfeld said, you "fight a war with the troops you have, not
the troops you want."
On this Mother's Day, my thoughts go out to First Lady Laura
Bush. In her privileged Stepford world, she will never know the
pain of losing a child to a political agenda. She will likely
spend this Mother's Day with her pretty and well-protected twin
daughters, whose greatest tragedy might be a broken fingernail
or a Sunday morning hangover. She will never feel the pain that
so many Iraqi mothers feel when their babies are blown to bits
for Bush's agenda. And she will never feel the pain of all those
American mothers of dead soldiers. My thoughts go out to her
because I believe that she works so hard to find a way to
justify the emotional distance. For that, I feel very, very sad
for her. Sleep must certainly be difficult.
On this Mother's Day, my thoughts go out to Barbara Bush, the
presidential family matriarch, who summed up her moral values
and her views on the war by asking the following on national TV:
"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's
not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on
something like that?" Why, indeed! She has always had the means
to protect her brood from the ugly truths of the real world. But
there are some things that money cannot buy. Like compassion.
Like personal redemption. Like humanity.
On this Mother's Day, my thoughts go out to every other mother
on this planet. You've got the most difficult job in the world,
and you do it by choice (in most cases), for no pay and no
glory. You dedicate your lives, 24/7, to something greater than
yourself: Your child, and his or her future. And, in doing so,
you're shaping our future as well. Happy Mother's Day. And thank
you.
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist. She
currently serves as Philadelphia Area Coordinator for Amnesty
International, and her views on politics, human rights, and
social justice issues have appeared in numerous online forums
and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas
expressed in this article are the author's own, and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty or any other
organization with which she may be associated. E-mail
mary@maryshawonline.com.
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