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Group gathers for Mother’s Day rally for peace

Overland Park, KS - Susan Pavlakis’ arms ached “just a little” Sunday from holding up her peace sign — floor molding duct-taped into a Hula-hoop, swathed with plastic daisies from a dollar store.

Around Christmas, this same peace sign was decorated with holly and ivy for a protest against then Vice President Dick Cheney, but Pavlakis, of Overland Park, wanted a gentler approach for Mother’s Day.

Wearing her flower hat and her flowing skirt decorated in a flower print, she wanted people driving by to see first and foremost a mom — a smiling, flowery mom.

“I wanted to promote pro-peace, not anti-war,” she said, stopping only briefly to wave at a car honking support.

About 250 demonstrating moms (and a few dads, too) stood outside the entrance to the Oak Park Mall for an hour.
 

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Mother's Day rally urges peace

Courthouse gathering features music, speeches

BINGHAMTON - Linking the causes of peace and the women's movement with Mother's Day, a group of war veterans joined musicians and performers at a rally in Binghamton on Saturday afternoon.

About 40 people of all ages gathered in front of the Broome County Courthouse, which became a brief nexus for songs and speeches by local performers.

Colleen Kattau, a folk singer and songwriter from Ithaca, sang several antiwar ballads. Patricia Donohue, a Binghamton actress and singer, recited the 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe.

Advocates credit Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, for laying the groundwork for the modern observance of Mother's Day. Her Civil War-era speech calls on men to cease waging war. It calls on womanhood "to promote the alliance of the different nationalities/The amicable settlement of international questions/The great and general interests of peace."