By MICHELLE XENOS

A Mother's Day event will take place on the weekend of May 7 through 10 at the gates of the Nevada Test Site. The gathering is to honor women from around the world in their struggle to protect their lands and rights; to celebrate our strength and community; to heal our sacred Mother Earth, and strengthen our commitment to defend her.

The nuclear cycle has put us in a spiral that threatens all the living things on Earth. People are getting very sick in areas around the mining, processing, research, production, and implementation of nuclear weapons and energy. We [mothers] are responsible for the health and wellness of our families and communities. It is our role to speak for our children when they cannot yet speak for themselves.....There are health risks in going near the test site, most significantly if you're downwind (to the northeast). Contaminated water, radioactive tailings, trucks carrying hot materials, particles in the air and falling on their communities, all contribute to the widespread health problems that many face. today.

Articles have referred to the scientific evidence invalidating the Yucca Mountain Project, a proposed high level nuclear waste repository on Sacred Western Shoshone land. There is a proliferation of interest in nuclear weaponry by India, Pakistan, Korea, and other countries. The U.S. has disregarded the disarmament process and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Join us at Honoring the Mother gathering at the Nevada Test Site, May 7-10. If you cannot, join with us in solidarity by creating an action, vigil or ceremony in your own home communities.

ACTION: For more information, contact Healing Global Wounds at 760-852-4175; P.O. Box 420, Tecopa, CA 92389; email hgw@scruznet.com; or www.shundahai.org/HGW.

--Excerpted by Myrtle Osner

By JULIA WARD HOWE

Arise, then, women on this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether your baptism be that of water or tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great decisions
decides by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us
to unlearn all that we have taught them of
charity, mercy, and patience.
We women of one country will be
tender of those of another to allow our sons
to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the 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
often 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 own time the
sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity,
I earnestly ask that a general congress of
women without limit of nationality may 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.

In 1870 Mothers Peace Day was celebrated in cities across the United States as well as Europe, as far away as Constantinopole. Some groups continued the annual events for 40 years.

Mothers Peace Day at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Since 1984 Delta Friends Meeting has celebrated Mothers Peace Day with a witness for peace at the main gate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. You are invited to come on Sunday, May 9, with or without your mother, to join in Quaker worship at 10:30 a.m. followed by a picnic lunch.

ACTION: For more information, contact Indira Clark at 874-9668.