FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 3, 2005

Contact: Natalie Wormeli, (530) 756-1900

Mother’s Day Call for a General Congress of Women for Peace

It is with our Mothers’ pride and fierce determination to end all war, that we will convene a “Congress of Women without limit of nationality” on May 8th, Mother’s Day: ALL WE WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY IS OUR TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ NOW. We will also begin the call to Governor Schwarzenegger & our State Legislators to bring our California National Guard home from Iraq by Labor Day, 2005.

WHEN: Sunday May 8th, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

WHERE: At the Vietnam War Memorial on the capitol grounds in Sacramento

WHAT: A General Congress of Women without limit to nationality

WHY: To reclaim the origins of Mother's Day and to begin calling our National Guard home from Iraq by Labor

We unite with Mothers, Daughters, & Grandmothers from CodePink, Gold Star Families for Peace, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Grandmothers for Peace, and many others to embrace the timely & inspiring message written by the original mother’s day founder, Julia Ward Howe in 1870: "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."

Furthermore, the war in Iraq has put members of our California National Guard in unnecessary danger due to inadequate training and equipment; and long, difficult tours of duty. We believe the costs of the call-up of the California National Guard for deployment in Iraq have been significant, as reckoned in lost lives, combat injuries, psychic trauma, disruption of family life, financial hardship, interruption of careers, and damage to the fabric of civic life in many California communities.

This will be our call too, for a day, Mother’s Day, when women come together to "promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace."