WE WILL BE TOO TENDER
May 11, 2003
The Reverend Anne Felton Hines
Most people know Julia Ward Howe as the author of the words to "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which she was asked to write during the Civil War. Perhaps she was flattered to have been asked, or didn't know how to say "no." But at any rate, she later regretted having agreed to it, as she wanted no part of the glorification of war. And that's what prompted her to write the Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870, and to organize three years later the first international women's peace conference. Women attended from eight American and five foreign cities - a noble atonement for the song, indeed.
From that first Mother's Day to now, hundreds of thousands of women - mostly moms - have worked for a world of peace. It has been one way to translate their love for their own children into a love and dedication to all children.
Yesterday we honored one such woman - Carroll Trumbull - by speaking of her dedication to works of peace and justice. And in fact, I know that the best Mother's Day gift I can give to my mother is to preach against war and injustice, as I am doing today. I suspect that if we could ask either Carroll or my mother what they'd truly like for Mother's Day, they'd say "Forget the flowers or the candy or sentimental cards; give us a world without war or fear or injustice."
I remember in the 1960s and '70s thinking that my generation of feminists was the first to organize as women for peace. We'd wear the buttons, "Another Mother for Peace," or "War is not healthy for children and other living things," and feel so proud of ourselves that we were doing something never done before.
But in fact, we were merely following a long tradition of women taking to the streets to demand an end to war and violence. On August 29, 1914 - the same year that President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day a national holiday - 1,500 women from various nations, robed in black, marched down 5th Avenue in New York to protest war. This demonstration was the beginning of the Women's Peace Party.
The following year, the Unitarian social reformer, Jane Addams, organized a Women's Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., which 3,000 women attended. Not long after that, while a world war was underway, 2,000 women from around the world gathered at the Hague in the Netherlands for the Women's Peace Congress, to express opposition to the war, and to consider alternatives. They took the bold and unheard-of step of approaching as many heads of state as possible, meeting with 21 ministers of state, two presidents, one king, and the Pope. And while they weren't able to end the war, reports are that they made quite an impression!
And so it is amusing to recall the story of the young woman marching in the 1972 demonstration in Washington, D.C., protesting the bombing of Hanoi, who thanked an elderly, gray-haired lady for being there. "Your welcome," said the older woman; "but I've been doing this for 25 years!" And she wasn't the first!
The time during which Julia Ward Howe wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation was a difficult time for this country, as was true 40 years later when the Women's Peace Party was formed. Indeed, when our country decided to enter World War I, many of the Unitarian and Universalist peace activists joined in the patriotic fervor, and those who resisted, such as John Haynes Holmes, were basically shunned by the denominations, and denied financial support for their congregations.
I am glad that our Unitarian Universalist Association today has not joined the patriotic fervor surrounding our country's war on Iraq, and that many UU congregations have publicly stood against it. Even those of you who have supported the war have expressed to me concerns about some of the Bush administration's tactics, and have not felt comfortable joining the many pro-war demonstrations because of their nationalistic fervor. I have thought often how hard this war has been on you, as you have had no way to comfortably bear witness to your views.
No matter what side we've come down on with regards to the war on Iraq, much like Julia Ward Howe and women since her, we find ourselves in difficult times these days. As mothers - and indeed, as women and men - we must be concerned for the children of the world, as it has become an increasingly dangerous place. Even in these United States of America, a child's life is not guaranteed to be filled with hope.
Just a few years ago an organization called "KidsPeace" indicated that 47% of our nation's children - almost half - saw a bleak future. Some of the fears they mentioned were war, poverty, violence in the streets and their home, and AIDS. And that was pre-9/11 and the increasing talk of terrorism.
So what are we to do about it? Perhaps we must keep our own vigils for the children caught up in the wars of power and hatred around the world: Light our individual candles for peace, teach our children and grandchildren kindness and non-violence, behave as if every person we meet truly is related to us, and believe enough in the possibility of peace to keep singing our songs. The Rev. Bets Weinecke at the UU church in Goleta, in a recent newsletter column, calls us to join in a world-wide ritual of stopping what we are doing for one minute every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. to pray or meditate for peace.
But I would hope that we also turn our attention to the violence that is closer to home - that which is obvious, such as gang violence, abusive homes, school shootings, etc., and that which is less obvious.
Our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee points out that "today, the new birth of human life is threatened as never before.Even here in the United States, many children will die in their first year of life, or be sacrificed to an unresponsive system that refuses them good nutrition, health care, education or even housing."
According to UUSC's study of Welfare Reform, enacted during President Clinton's administration, more children are now at risk than before the program was initiated. Two-thirds of the recipients of welfare's cash assistance are children, and they are the first to feel the adverse and punitive effects of the discontinuation of that assistance.
While the number of people on welfare has definitely decreased since Clinton's plan went into affect, there has also been an in crease in housing instability and homelessness - and that includes thousands of children. The federal government defines "affordable" rent to be no more than 30% of one's income; in L.A. County, poor people are paying 52% to 73% of their income on housing. Can you imagine paying 73%, or even 52% of your income on housing? How would you pay for food, transportation, your child's preschool or school supplies, and all the other things one has to purchase? It is the children who are most damaged from such poverty - who are most likely to experience increased school suspension, behavior and mental health problems, removal from their home, and increased trips to emergency rooms.
On one recent weekday afternoon, a young woman with two very young children showed up here at the church, looking for help. She had just left our local shelter for victims of domestic violence, because she'd been there for the maximum time allowed. She had no money, and nowhere to go; and any place I phoned seemed to have no help to offer. I finally directed her to a nearby Social Services agency, but they hadn't sounded very hopeful on the phone, either. I never did learn what happened to her and her children, and I felt very useless.
This, to me, is violence.
Over nine million children under the age of 19 in this country have no health insurance; yet 90% of them live with working parents. As Marion Wright Edelman, founder of Children's Defense Fund, has said, "There is no reason why the richest nation on earth ignores the health risks of low-income children in working families."
California is one of the lowest-ranking states when it comes to providing health insurance to children. By 2002, we had slipped to #44 - lower even than Alabama; we had 16.2% of our children uninsured, which translates to 1,578,000 children.
And of course, even when children have insurance - as some do under the State Children's Health Insurance Program - their parents often do not, which puts the whole family at risk. In 2001 the number of Americans without health insurance rose to 41.2 million. The previous year, over 18,000 working-age adults died prematurely for lack of health insurance - either because they missed out on regular medical care, early diagnoses of life-threatening conditions, or aggressive treatment once a diagnosis was made. Studies indicate that even uninsured victims of auto accidents and heart attacks received fewer hospital services, and were therefore more likely to die; how many of them left children behind, I wonder?
According to Jamie Court, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, insuring everyone is indisputably the most cost-effective system, because non-insurance results in lost education, wages, and taxes, and more expensive acute care.
Yet we continue to let politics override the desperate need for universal health care in this country. President Bush is proposing a tax credit to help low-to-moderate income folks pay for health insurance; but according to political analyst Ronald Brownstein, the tax credit would be so much smaller than the cost of health insurance that most of these people still wouldn't be able to afford it.
This, it seems to me, is violence.
And while America will be spending billions of dollars on reconstructing Iraq over the next few years - not to mention how much we've already spent just on the war - and the Pentagon's budget will be in the trillions of dollars, our schools are seeing more and more cutbacks in teachers, supplies, activities, and sheer maintenance.
My brother told me of a meeting he attended recently at John Muir High School in Pasadena - my alma mater and that of my children. The meeting was held in the school auditorium, where a class was also being conducted because they'd run out of classroom space. The Principal of the school apologized to the gathering for the poor lighting in the auditorium; "We haven't been able to afford new lightbulbs," he said.
That, it seems to me, is violence.
So what might Julia Ward Howe proclaim this Mother's Day? What might she be calling mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents and friends - all adults who are capable - to do for the children?
I think she would first remind us that we are not disconnected from other mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents and friends, no matter where they live or what their life experience. I think she'd tell us that the pain of losing one's child is the same, be it from war, or disease, or gang violence, or hunger; and that those of us whose children are healthy and safe never know when that might suddenly and tragically change. We are not separate from the parent in Iraq, or Africa, or South Central L.A., or across the street.
I think Julia might urge us to resist becoming overwhelmed by the hugeness of the needs, reminding us of the words of Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." She would be impressed at what this congregation already offers: A preschool with scholarships for low-income children; a weekly collection of food for the hungry; 25% of our Sunday cash for local charities; a community vigil for peace, to name just a few; and the dedication and activism of many, many individuals who work for justice and peace and the healing of our planet.
And she might issue another Mother's Day Proclamation, calling on all people to resist the violence of a few; to sit down together and listen to one another; to choose to "be too tender" of one another to keep the walls up between us; to talk and talk and talk until we find solutions to our differences, and can walk the path of peace and of justice for all. She would ask that Unitarian Universalists not acquiesce to the policies which create violence of all kinds in people's lives - especially the lives of children.
And she would encourage us to have faith. Se would suggest that we can have faith because of the work people carry out every day in their ordinary lives that are forms of peacemaking: caring for the sick or dying; educating children and youth; serving the poor; being good parents. We can have faith because of the many acts of kindness, courage and justice of which we hear so often - between people we know, as well as between strangers. And we can have faith because of the many changes that we've witnessed in our own lifetimes - changes that have come about because of the work of the Julia Ward Howes, the Jane Addamses, the Gwen Feltons, the Carroll Trumbulls, the Kathy Challises, the Fran Turchins, the Iris Edingers, and many, many more.
I heard a story once about a small child who was visiting his grandmother. In the middle of the night he awoke, and, frightened of the dark, called out, "Grandma!"
"I'm right here," replied his grandmother, "in the bed next to yours."
"I know that, Grandma," said the child. "But is your face turned towards me?"
On this Mothers Day and every day, let us keep our faces turned towards the children, especially those whose lives are constantly at risk. May we carry on the work of those who have gone before us - to create a world where no child lives in fear, where all are fed and loved and grow free, and where all nations live in peace.
© 2003 Anne Felton Hines. All rights reserved.
