Last updated 5/4/03

Return Mother's Day to its original intention as a day to promote peace in the world

Boston Globe West
April 25, 2002 SHERBORN

Seeking a Mother's Day rebirth

Women emphasize campaign for peace

By Eun Lee Koh
GLOBE STAFF CORRESPONDENT

An evening rain pattered against the sliding glass doors. Women, their shirt-sleeves rolled, huddled in the warmth of a Sherborn living room, nibbling on cheese and crackers, sipping flavored seltzer water and chardonnay. In between snippets of the usual greetings, they brainstormed ways to restore Mother's Day to its roots - all the way back to 1870, when Julia Ward Howe urged women to rise up and oppose all forms of war.

Surely, much has changed since that post-Civil War rallying of women. Gathered this week were psychologists, lawyers, social workers, artists, and homemakers. There were Democrats, Republicans, Independents. Some women shyly admitted that the last time they rallied for peace was during the Vietnam War. Although the details were different, they said, the goal remains the same.

This Mother's Day, no cards or flowers, please, these women insisted. With ongoing violence in the Middle East and other parts of the world, they said, it is more important that their children and husbands, friends, and neighbors donate money they would spend on Mother's Day gifts to international peace organizations.

"I sort of see this as domestic revolt," said Louise Coleman, a Sherborn resident. "It's similar to the way Latina women bang on pots and pans to be heard. This is our way of banging on pots and pans to make noise".

Ridgely Fuller, who started the group said she was disturbed by the plight of mothers and children in the Middle East and in war-torn countries elsewhere. About a month ago, she typed a letter to a number of friends in the community and asked

The women gathered in living rooms and talked over breakfasts and coffee. Just in the past few weeks, the group of 20 has contacted family members and friends, local colleges, their alma maters, and their churches and temples to introduce them to the idea of supporting peace on Mother's Day. They posted information on Internet Message boards, including Oprah Winfrey's. They have set up their own Web site (www.everymothersday.org) with a list of organizations to which money can be donated.

Fuller laughs when she mentioned to the group that she had been invited to "Jam for Justice" sessions at Boston University. She is a social worker and activism is in her blood, but she said she is otherwise an ordinary suburban mother.

Tuesday night, as residents scurried into Dover/Sherborn Middle School for the annual Town Meeting, the women stood outside, passing out cards about their cause. They hoped that residents would take a gander at the information during the late-night voting sessions. In the days leading up to Mother's Day on May 12, they will be at local fairs and other public venues, urging people to join their cause. They have no way of knowing how many people will participate, they said, but they hope they can start a small movement nationwide.

"Ridgely's letter reached me at a time when I was in a discouraged frame of mind," said Peg Robinson, a member of the group. "There was little I could do personally about the Middle East, but I feel energized now. It's very exciting to be involved in something so wholly unselfish."