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by Women |
Mothers Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe
(May 27, 1819–October 17, 1910)
Arise, then,
women of this day!
Arise,
all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of
tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided
by irrelevant agencies,
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.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender
of those of another country
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
plough 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 humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress
of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at
someplace 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. |
 The moment a woman comes home
to herself,
the moment she knows that
she has become a person
of influence,
an artist of her life, a sculptor of her universe,
a person with rights and responsibilities
who is respected and
recognized,
the resurrection of the world begins.
—Sister Joan Chittister, OSB (1936 - )
Benedictine nun and Chair, Global Peace Initiative of Women |
“When
you consider that God could have commanded anything he wanted--anything!--the
Ten [Commandments] have got to rank as one of the great missed
moral opportunities of all time. How different history would
have been had he clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny,
taking over other people's countries, slavery, exploitation
of workers, cruelty to children, wife-beating, stoning, treating
women--or anyone--as chattel or inferior beings.”
--
Katha Pollitt (1949-), "Stacked Decalogue,"
The Nation,
September 22, 2003 |
 We
need to honor women in all their complexity.
It's time that we acknowledge
the wisdom women have acquired
by managing the chaos of daily life.
Women
are realists, the glue that holds society together.
They bring a reverence
to life that's instinctual, not
just intellectual.
—Teresa Heinz Kerry
|
 There is a collective force rising up on
the earth today,
an energy of the reborn feminine...
This is a time of
monumental shift, from the male dominance
of human consciousness back to
a balanced relationship
between masculine and feminine.
—Marianne Williamson (from A Woman's Worth)
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So
keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds,
but don't you
forget to have fun doin' it.
Lord, let your laughter ring forth.
Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats,
rejoice in all the
oddities that freedom can produce.
And when you get through
kickin' ass
and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight,
be
sure to tell those who come after
how much fun it was."
Molly Ivins (1944-2007)
Quote from "The Fun's in the Fight"
column for Mother Jones, 1993)
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I
have gained and sustained my optimism as a humble student of
our living universe, our living Earth, which clearly shows us
the way out of our adolescent crisis into a mature global future.
The sooner we create our vision of all we desire, set
our intention to implement it together, and put our individual
capacities into collective action, the greater our chances of
success.
—Dr. Elisabet
Sahtouris, Evolution Biologist |
 For what is done or learned by one class
of women becomes,
by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of
all women.
—Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
(The first woman in the U.S. to
become a physician)
|
 The
day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer,
not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation.
Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship,
the ideal
union between the sexes that shall result
in the highest development of
the race.
—Susan B. Anthony, 1820-1906
|
 Our difficulties launch us into new
states of consciousness
where we are inspired to step out of the reality
of our smallest thoughts and step into
the limitless freedom of our biggest
dreams.
—Debbie Ford
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 Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach
them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try
to follow where they lead."
—Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
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 Help us to be ever faithful
gardeners of the spirit,
who know that without darkness nothing comes
to birth,
and without light nothing flowers.
— May
Sarton (1912-1995)
 A woman in harmony with her spirit
is like a river flowing.
She goes where she will without pretense
and arrives at her destination
prepared
to be herself and only herself.
—Maya Angelou
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 To know how to choose a path with heart
is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling.
Logic can tell you superficially where
a path might lead to, but it cannot
judge whether your heart will be in it.
—Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD
Author |
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We say the time of waiting
is over.
We say the silence has been broken.
We say there can be no forgetting now.
We say
LISTEN
We are the bones
of your grandmother's grandmothers.
We have returned now.
We say you cannot forget us now
We say we are with you
And you are us.
—Patricia Reis from
The Ancient Ones
|
Why
is it when we talk to God we are said to be praying,
And when God talks to us we're said to be schizophrenic?
—Lily
Tomlin
Actor, Comedian |
 It is essential to collectively
struggle to recover our status as Daughters of the Earth. In that is
our strength, and the security, not in the predator, but in the security
of our Mother, for our future generations. In that we can insure our
security as the Mothers of our Nations.
—Winona
LaDuke
(Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate-2000 Election)
|
A
book came out recently written by scientists and environmentalists
that made me so angry. It said the only thing we have to worry about
is big industry. Each individual who tries to make his or her own environment
better is useless. I find this criminal, because then you have a billion
people all saying, "It doesn't matter what
I do because I'm just one person." But if you turn that around and
a billion people say, "What I do does make a difference," then
it will make a difference.
—Jane
Goodall, Primatologist
|
 We've got a generation now who were born
with semiequality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this
isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attaché cases and our
three-piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of
women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't
realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before
they join in fighting the battle.
—Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) |
 Maybe the things we're working
on today
won't bring about changes for years.
But, it's just as important
that we do them.
— Virginia Ramirez,
Co-Chair, Communities Organized
for Public Service (COPS)
|
 Women, please let your own sun,
your concentrated energy,
your own submerged authentic vital power
shine out from you.
We are no longer the moon,Today we are truly the sun,
We will build shining golden cathedrals
at the top of crystal mountains,
East of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Women, when you paint your own portrait,
do not forget to put the golden dome at
the top of your head.
— Raicho Hiratsuka (1887-1971)
(From Women's Manifesto 1911 translated by Mayumi Oda)
|
 You
have a calling which exists
only for
you and which
only you can fulfill.
— Dr.
Naomi Stephan, Composer
|
 If
we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must
recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities. We must weave a social
fabric in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place. Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret
Mead, anthropoligist (1901 to 1978) |
 There are the holding actions,
the changing actions,
and the vision of the future —
what we want
to see happen for the Earth.
All are essential.
—Joanna
Macy
|
 To seek approval is to have no resting
place, no sanctuary.
Like all judgment, approval encourages a constant
striving.
It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true value.
Approval cannot be trusted. It can be withdrawn
at any time no matter
what our track record has been.
It is as nourishing of real growth as
cotton candy.
Yet many of us spend our lives pursuing it.
—Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, Author
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The
thing women must do to rise to power
is to redefine their femininity.
Once, power was considered a masculine attribute.
In fact, power has
no sex.
~ Katharine Graham (1917-2001)
President of the Washington Post
|
 The
women of today are the thoughts of their
mothers and grandmothers, embodied,
and made alive.
They are active, capable, determined and bound to win.
They have one thousand generations back of them ...
Millions of women,
dead and gone
are speaking through us today.
— Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826 - 1898)
from National Citizen and Ballot
Box- 1889
— a newspaper she founded and edited.
 I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed,
goes to the next as blossom
and that which comes to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
— Dawna Markova, Author of Open Mind
 What women have to stand on squarely
[is] not their
ability to see the world
in the way men see it,
but the importance
and validity
of their seeing it in some other way.
— Mary Austin
(1868-1934)
Young
Woman Citizen (1918)
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 As a woman, I have no country.
As a woman, I want no country.
As a woman, the whole world is my country.”
—Virginia Woolf
(1882-1941)
Three Guineas
|
 There are two ways
of spreading
light:
to be the candle
or the mirror
that reflects it.
— Edith
Wharton
(1862 - 1937)
I am daughter, sister, mother in thousands of generations of women,
women whose skills created peaceful and bountiful civilizations,
women who preserved remnants of our knowledge
when the civilizations passed.
I am a woman. In me lives the knowledge and experience of all
beings. I can use that knowledge and experience to create a loving,
spontaneous world.
I am a woman, a part of and the whole of the first circle, the circle
that transcends space and time, the circle of women joined.
I am woman, a human being of extraordinary strength,
wisdom and grace.
And this is true.
— Ann Valliant
and The Womancraft Guide Manual Collection
 What are the words you do not yet have?
What do you need to
say?
...for it is not difference which immobilizes us,
but silence.
And
there are so many silences to be broken.
— Audre Lorde
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 Never apologize,
never retreat,
never explain.
Get the thing done
and let them howl.
~Nellie McClug (1873-1951) Canadian suffragist
and writer.
(She was one of the people most influential and active
in obtaining the vote for women in canada in 1918
 And the day came
when the risk it took
to remain tight inside the bud
was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom.
— Anais
Nin (1903-1977)
American Author
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Because man and woman
are
the complement of one another,
we need woman's thought in
national affairs
to make
a safe and stable government.
~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)
President National American Woman
Suffrage Association
|
 If it is true that men
are better than
women
because they are stronger,
why aren't our sumo wrestlers
in the
government?
~ Kishida Toshiko (1863-1901)
|
 When
I come to the edge
of all the light I know,
and am about to step off
into the darkness of the unknown.
Faith is knowing
one of two things will happen:
either there will be something solid to stand on
or I will be taught how to fly.
—Barbara J. Winter, author
 The world you desire can be won.
It exists,
it is real,
it is possible,
it is yours.
—Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Russian-born
American Author
Challenges make you discover
things about
yourself that you
never really knew.
They're what make the instrument
stretch
— what make you go beyond the norm.
— Cicely Tyson, actor
|
Do not follow where the path
may lead.
Go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail.
— Muriel Strode
 I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism
is;
I only know that people call me a feminist
whenever I express sentiments
that differentiate me
from a doormat.
—Rebecca West (1892-1983)
The Clarion, 1913,
England
|
 The test for whether or not
you can
hold a job should not be
the arrangement of your
chromosomes.
~ Bella
Abzug (1920-1998)
Attorney and Congresswoman
|
Men have singled out women
of outstanding merit
and put them on a pedestal
to avoid recognizing
the capabilities of
all women.
— Huda
Shaarawi (1879-1947),
Egyptian writer and
women's rights organizer,
1924
|
 When
she stopped conforming
to the conventional picture of femininity
she finally began to enjoy
being a woman.
~ Betty Friedan
Author |
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A Pledge of Allegiance to the
Family of Earth
I pledge allegiance to the Earth,
and to the flora, fauna
and human life that it supports,one planet, indivisible,
with safe air, water and soil,
economic justice, equal rights
and peace for all.
— Women's Environment and Development
Organization of the Women's Foreign Policy Council
 The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to
choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom
was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude
by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light
of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes
to the past it must pay to the future.
— Abigail
Scott Duniway (1834-1915)
suffrage organizer in the Pacific Northwest
|
 You gain strength, courage, and confidence
by every experience in which
you really stop to look fear in the face.
You must do the thing
which you think you
cannot do.
— Eleanor
Roosevelt
(1884-1962) |
 Worry does not empty
tomorrow
of its sorrow;
it empties today
of its strength.
— Corrie
Ten Boom (1892-1983)
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Freedom is actually a bigger
game than power.
Power is about what you can control.
Freedom is about what you can unleash.
— Harriet Rubin, Author
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We must not, 
Whatever women do