MAU on Mothering Mag's Mommy Chats This Week!!

MAU outreach coordinator & Nashville MAU community organizer is on Mothering's Mommy Chats this week: Wednesday June 13 at 1 PM Eastern. Come by and talk about community building, mother activism, and summer family field trips to visit elected officials.

And here's the transcript from last month's pre Mother's Day chat.

Ms. Booty Homemaker Explains It All To You.: On the radio.

MAU On the radio.

Code Pink Granny for Peace & MAU supporter in Tennessee Voices.

From the Tennessean

Sunday, 05/13/07

Honor mothers today by speaking out for peace

By ELIZABETH BARGER

Tennessee Voices

As we celebrate Mother's Day to honor the most important person in our lives, let us not forget the history behind its origin in our country. In the years after the Civil War, a young Appalachian mother named Anna Jarvis worked to heal both the physical and emotional wounds of families on both sides, calling for a Mother's Work Day to improve living conditions for all and build reconciliation between neighbors.

Inspired by the work of Anna Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, took up the cause. When the Franco-American War began in 1870, Howe used her fame to send a call to women of all nations to recognize their common humanity, seek peaceful resolutions to conflicts and take a firm stance against any and all wars.

She issued a proclamation calling for a Congress of Women, stating, "Our husbands will 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."

Across the years, Julia Ward Howe's words speak as true today as they did then. The conflict in the Middle East affects Tennesseans deeply, with tragic loss of precious Tennessee soldiers and the terrible reality of the wounded in body and soul who come home to the lack of proper medical and psychological care.

Five years ago, a group of Tennessee women, led by founders of PeaceRoots Alliance and More Than Warmth, came together with Middle Tennessee women to honor Julia Ward Howe, and remember that Mother's Day began as a call for our children's future and a call for peace.

Today, Mothers Acting Up (MAU) will bring mothers and their children together in Nashville with church and civic groups and a growing number of families to oppose the war and work for peace.

"My hope is to fully embody the inclusive message of peace for all," says organizer Paige La Grone Babcock, national outreach coordinator for MAU. "The action will be aimed at appealing to the Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi to be an advocate for the mother of all agendas: dealing with poverty, global warming and striving for peace."

Honoring our mothers is a good thing. Honoring the strength and fortitude of mothers who demand peace and stand for the protection of all children and families is the true meaning of Mother's Day.

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On Special Day, Mothers Act Up

On special day, mothers act up

Boulder group marches on behalf of world's kids

Javier Manzano © News

Dario McCormick, 4, stands with his mother Michaela for a moment of silence in remembrance of the suffering of people around the world before a parade organized by Mothers Acting Up began Sunday in Boulder. With them, from left, are Nancy Doty, Sam Hay and Patricia Shannon.

By Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News

May 14, 2007

BOULDER - Margrith Muhlheim told her family to skip the flowers and candy for Mother's Day.

Instead, she wanted to march with her daughter and granddaughter in Boulder for better neighborhoods and access to quality education for children, not only in Colorado but across the globe.

Muhlheim, 78, said she wants her 13-year-old granddaughter, Margrith Mooney, to grow up in a safe neighborhood where people.... (for more of the story, go here)

It's ON!!

“Having never organized anything before in my life, I have to say that I hope that I am emblematic of a piece of some mothers/others can take away from this event: I'm doing this, essentially, by myself. And if I can do this, in the name of trying to step in the right direction on behalf of my two little girls, anyone can do it. I believe that these times provide fertile ground for the type of activism that MAU gives us the opportunity to be a part of, and I'm hopeful that I can help be a part of that work.” Helen Maye, (brand new!) Community Organizer and Mother’s Day Reclaimer: Portland, ME

Dear Reclaimers of Mother’s Day,

From the tips of the toes through the shimmy of my hips and on up up up…. I want to dance when I read Helyne’s words of empowerment, above. Yes, and yes, and yes!

To paraphrase Beth, one of the co-founding MAU mavens, never doubt that YOU are the perfect and most right one to speak out (and joyfully so!) on behalf of your children and ALL of the children.

So hold this kernel of knowledge in your hearts, sock it away in your bosom and add a little pep to your step as you heed Julia’s call to take it to the streets this weekend! Your town and her town and my town: we are one large wave of community, a force of mobilized mamas to be reckoned AND LAUGHED with. For we are Joy Warriors engaged in a magnificent apron string revolution to honor the promise of our children’s lives.

This Acting Up, it is serious business, and is most potent and most lasting when done from a place of enjoyment and togetherness. Throw your head back and sing, sing it loud, and with abandon, as in community we sow the seed our song in the fertile ground of hope.

Oh, and take pictures, will you? Write down what you see and feel and observe? And share it all with us later? Because we think not only do you look smashing, but know you are dizzyingly beautiful when you own your Mother Leadership. Really, we do. And that is something to celebrate all year long, and into next.

That the great human family may live in peace….

Paige for the MAU Mavens

Peace is not the absence of war.

Portland, Maine organizer Helyne May speaks to Maine Things Considered on public radio about Mother's Day reclaimation in her community.

MAU Maria Sanchez Morning Show.

Listen to a conversation between Ventura County, CA's Maria Sanchez and Nashville's Paige La Grone Babcock on a segment of Maria's show about Mothers Acting Up.

Mother’s Day: To interfere or not to interfere, that is the question

Mother’s Day: To interfere or not to interfere, that is the question

“Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?”

Julia Ward Howe – famous for writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic – wrote this in her journal in 1870, just after the Civil War. She said this one question “haunted” her and responded by writing a Mother’s Day Proclamation, calling all women to rise up and oppose war on a day she named “Mother’s Day”. Today, as we mourn the deaths of our soldiers, embrace sons & daughters returning home scarred from the Iraq war, and hear reports of Iraqi casualties ranging from 30,000 (Bush Administration) to 650,000 (John Hopkins School of Public Health), it’s time to ask this question again and reclaim the original vision of Mother’s Day.

Howe wrote, “Arise, arise, all women who have hearts!” but somewhere along the way, breakfast in bed eclipsed this fiery call to activism. But all is not lost! After decades of burnt toast and loving messages, mothers have been sufficiently fortified and indeed are fulfilling Julia’s vision of uniting for our global family and are finding individual and collective ways to interfere. Mother’s Day is again becoming a day when we not only honor our mothers, but also their role in affecting social change in our world.

The Mother’s Day Proclamation urges women to “solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace”. Many of us know the grim statistics about our family’s and especially our children’s wellbeing around the world, yet often mothers – due to laws, societal norms or simply because we haven’t seen it as our role to speak out – have remained outside political circles. But in a world in which every other child lives in poverty, global warming poses an irreversible threat to future generations, and almost half of war causalities are children (source: UNICEF), the world needs mothers to interfere.

Let’s reclaim Mother’s Day this year by calling on congressional members and urging them to freeze military spending (the US military budget is already bigger than all other military budgets in the world combined). And begin to use some of those funds to find peaceful solutions to our conflicts, like contributing to building schools worldwide, funding our promised share of the Millennium Development Goals (eight international targets to end extreme poverty), and addressing global warming.

There’s no time to waste mothers – the United States has a new $699 billion* military budget, (renamed “security budget”) awaiting congressional approval, without a penny of that money going towards the three issues that pose the greatest threat to our global family: poverty, environment and the impact of war on children. Children's wellbeing is at the top of every mother's agenda. It's time to bring it to the top of our political agendas.

Recently, the first mother Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was criticized for interfering by traveling to Syria to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad. In response she said, “As a mother, I will exhaust every remedy for Peace.” It’s hopefully a refrain we will hear more and more often, on Mother’s Day and whenever mothers interfere.

________________________________________________________________________
* includes supplemental spending for the “Global War on Terror” (source: Office of Management and Budget)

Juliana Forbes is a mother of two and a cofounder of Mothers Acting Up, a movement of mothers (and others) publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children. www.mothersactingup.org

Jen Caltrider's Progress Now Action blog....

sings the praises of MAU over here.

Progress Now is an organization Mothers Acting Up supports and has partnered with in the making of both the Julia video, seen both below on this blog, and at Jen's blog linked above. MAU and Progress Action teamed yet again for the wonderful Grizzly video you see to the left in the sidebar of this blog. Haven't watched it yet? Check it out.

Local "Mother Power" Author Joins NYC Mother's Day Rally

Local "Mother Power" Author Joins NYC Mother's Day Rally

by Joan R. Simon

(May 9, 2007) Dr. Jackie Plumez, author of Mother Power and career columnist for the Larchmont Gazette, will be joining a group of women leaders on Mother’s Day, May 13th, for the 5th annual Mothers Acting Up (MAU) rally. The festive event will be held from 2:00 to 6:00 pm at the LaGuardia Place Community Garden at Bleeker St. in Greenwich Village.

Read the rest of the article here....

Strafford Mother's Day parade to celebrate world's children

Media Advisory for Mother's Day.

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MOTHER’S DAY - May 13, 2007

CONTACT: beheard@mothersactingup.org

MOBILIZED MAMAS RECLAIM ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF MOTHER’S DAY

WILL UNITE FOR WELLBEING OF ALL CHILDREN

ACTIVITIES TO TAKE PLACE ACROSS THE COUNTRY

WHEN: Mother’s Day: Sunday May 13, 2007

WHERE: Events will take place in public parks and squares across the country in cities including: Flagstaff (AZ); Los Angeles (CA), Temecula (CA); Boulder (CO), Carbondale (CO); Portland (ME); Harbor Springs (MI); Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN); Manhattan (NY), The Bronx (NY); Oklahoma City (OK); Portland (OR); Philadelphia (PA); Charleston (SC); Nashville (TN); Austin (TX); Strafford (VT); Hartland (WI), and Milwaukee (WI) with more cities being added every day.

WHO: Mothers Acting Up (MAU): a national movement of mothers (and others) moving from concern to action on behalf of the world’s children. www.mothersactingup.org

WHAT: MAU’s 2007 Mother’s Day Reclamation Parades and other events (picnics, rallies, cake walks) celebrate Mother Leadership and the gigantic political power of mamas!
All events will include mothers (and others) — both costumed and on stilts — festive families of all kinds and other organizations. All will gather to honor the promise of our children’s lives, as we collectively kick off of a national postcard action aimed at Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to use her Mother Leadership in being an advocate for the Mother of all Agendas: to Protect our Global Family by championing the Millennium Development Goals; to Preserve our Planet by addressing global warming; and the True Cost of War by freezing U.S. military spending.

WHY: In 1870, Julia Ward Howe started Mother’s Day to unite mothers for peace and the wellbeing of ALL children. Her cry to action is still relevant in 2007 - mothers realize that we live in a world that does not prioritize or protect our children's wellbeing. This will not change without mothers (and others) finding the courage and commitment to speak out on behalf of not only their own children, but all the world’s children. MAU will reclaim the original meaning of Mother’s Day in communities nationwide — wresting the holiday from the hold of Hallmark — to passionately and publicly advocate for the world’s children. Everyone from shy visionaries to exuberant shakers & movers are welcome!

###

Mothers Acting Up is a non-partisan mother-led, mother-fed movement of mothers and others publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children. www.mothersactingup.org

In peace.

Reminder: Mothering Chat tomorrow.

MAU Outreach: on Mothering Chat tomorrow.

Mother's Day Reclamation in Southern California.

OrganizerTiffany Bellah is buiding a new MAU community in Temecula, CA and is creating the area's first Mother's Day Reclamation event as outlined below, from the Press Enterprise.

Woman to promote mothers' group at fair

A Temecula woman will be promoting a national organization dedicated to helping women and children at the Antique, Art & Flower Faire on May 13, Mother's Day, in Rainbow.

Tiffany Bellah is a volunteer for Mothers Acting Up a national movement of mothers moving from concern to action on behalf of the world's children.

She will be at the fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

It will be held at Rainbow Oaks Marketplace, at the corner of Highway 395 and Fifth Street in Rainbow, four miles south of Temecula.

The first 50 moms to visit will get a free Mothers Acting Up handbook.

Information: www.mothersactingup.org

--Sean Nealon

Hip hip hooray!

Hip Mama's Susan Presley gets it, and tells you why, right here.

Earth Day.

Embracing the Mother Agenda and the issues of environmental preservation and sustainability, Mothers Acting Up had a booth at Nashville's Earth Day Festival in Centennial Park. Not at all surprising is that the HUGE event was chaired by a very active MAU Maven in her home community: Claudia Schenck, Office Director of the Tennessee Enviromental Council. Claudia and I made it onto the news speaking about why we gathered for Earth Day.

MAU's presence at the event was wildly popular with a hat making craft for the Mini-MAUs, and lots of good info for the MAUmas and pas.

Ms. Booty Homemaker Explains It All To You.: Mothering chat.

Come chat with me. Let's talk MAU Now!!

Ms. Booty Homemaker Explains It All To You.: Mothering chat.

As You Are.

Mother's Day fast approaches, with MAU events taking place in more than twenty cities!! It's a very exciting time for all of us as the anticipation mounts and good times roll....

You can learn more on our spectacularly redesigned and made-over website with RSVP ability for each event and recipes to build your very own MAU communities!

And just today, here we are in As We Are Magazine online.

Local Mamas to participate in final senatorial visit as part of Occupation Project.

MAU will again have a presence at this final scheduled visit to Tennessee Senators Alexander and Corker as part of the Peaceable Assembly and Instruction Project, itself a part of the nationalOccupation Project. If you'd like to visit as a sister participant to represent your faith community or other group and want to bring your child, we welcome you to sit with us, or to holler for tips on how to put a visit together. If you are doing comparative visits in your home state OR would like to, I'd love to hear from you!

You may well have heard or read of members of organizations being arrested in other states as part of the Occupation Project. As that is NOT an option for those of raising small children, our presence is not that of taking over the office of elected officials at any cost, but in arranging scheduled visits to share our thoughts, feelings, and requests. To join with other parents in expressing our concerns around the war, armed with a few basic facts and speaking with spirit from the heart is an empowering experience.

On our last visit earlier this month in Nashville, we had 4 local MAU mamas and a passel of kids-- let me tell you: having the babies and children present is POWERFUL. My own toddler has nursed, played cars with other concerned citizens, and cuddled and talked with me as I have addressed our leaders on these MAU visits. Those of us with small children in tow speak first, and exit early, so's to make our points and have a good showing, without over-testing the limits of our children and without distracting from other folks who've come to speak.

On previous visits our children ran around tables, laughed, cried, snacked, poked each other and in general had a merry old time. Without exception, the children have been warmly welcome and seen as a most positive part of the process and not as a hindrance, so if you'd like to come (OR plan something similar in your own state capitol) but are concerned about a child's presence, please know that this is an OK place for them to be. Additionally, should there be concern, the way we do our visits is NOT a forum for debate or anything other than peaceful witness, testimony and sharing. For our elected officials-- our public *servants*-- to see their constituency in action as families is very important and wonderful thing.

If you do plan to come, and I'm hoping to DOUBLE the number of mothers with children present, bring snacks, water, small toys and arrange to carpool if possible. In Nashville, I encourage mothers to wear aprons (a symbol of taking the work from our home & hearth to the public) and bring cookies, muffins, or cake to share with everyone. The below missive from our friends at the Peaceable Assembly and Instruction Project gives details of our scheduled visit.

If you'd like to join us and have questions about talking points or any other practicalities, please feel free to give me a shout: paige@mothersactingup.org

Dear Friends,
FRIDAY, MAY 4, we'll go for the last of eight scheduled visits to local Congressional offices. On April 10, forty people from twenty-two organizations attended a joint meeting with the State Directors for Senators Alexander and Corker. This time we'd like to have eighty. We've delivered about 460 support statements from Peaceable Assembly signers.
President Bush has promised to veto the current bill, because of partial troop withdrawal deadlines. We'll be asking the Senators to send him a bill mandating disengagement of all U.S. troops from combat in Iraq, and withwdrawal of all U.S. troops within a year. Neither the Senators, nor Congressman Cooper, have voted the way we asked them to, but most of us who participated in the earlier visits believe that we made them feel the heat of growing public opposition. Please join us for a mass turnout on Friday.
This is the last of the pre-scheduled visits, but as debate develops in Congress in future months on funding for the War, we may call on you again for ad hoc manifestations of public pressure.
Karl Meyer , Pam Beziat, Christina VanRegenmorter , for Peaceable Assembly project

LAST SCHEDULED LOBBYING VISIT

END THE IRAQ WAR NOW

=================================================================================

May 4 Friday 11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.

SENATORS CORKER and ALEXANDER 3322 West End Avenue – Building Conference Room #109

( we have cancelled the previously announced Alexander meeting for April 27 )

*Parking and assembly at 3322 West End Avenue for Alexander and Corker visits:

The building is set back from West End Avenue , at the corner of West End and Murphy Road . Heading west on West End, turn right onto Acklen Park Drive. Take immediate left onto Park Drive (inner drive).Continue to underground parking entrance of 3322 Building at corner. Free visitor parking for two hours is available near the entrance to the garage, but security desk tries to limit us to using six spaces, so you may help by finding on-the-street parking nearby, leaving these spaces for those with physical disabilities. Around the corner, to the northwest of the building entrances there are lots of open spaces in parking areas in front of several apartment buildings.

If you know in advance, please let us know which visits you will attend.

Organized by Nashville Greenlands/War Resisters League, 2407 Heiman St., Nashville 37208

615-322-9523 peaceableassembly@gmail.com

Endorse our common statement on line at http://www.petitiononline.com/tnpeace/petition.html