For this Mother’s Day, in addition to honoring my own Mom for over 90 years of loving motherhood, I want to celebrate the work of another model of moral engagement—Frida Berrigan. Frida is a long-term peace activist (and yes, she is related to the famous Philip and Daniel Berrigans, who are themselves long-term anti-war activists). She is a columnist for Waging Nonviolence and serves on the National Committee of the War Resisters League.
For Mother’s Day 2015, Frida has written a poignant and captivating essay “Echoes of the original Mother’s Day Proclamation at home and abroad“, which celebrates women who struggle valiantly for peace and justice in 28 active war zones around the world (including the US).
Her examples include:
Madame Kamouss from the Central Republic of Africa
Froilyn Mendoza from the Philippines, and
Shereen, a Syrian refugee who lives with her daughters in a refugee camp in Kawergosk, Iraqi Kurdistan.
Her list also includes the mothers of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Sean Bell, whose sons were killed in the U.S. by police officers in the last few years; all of these mothers are pushing for non-violent protests against injustice.
Frida is also the author of “It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood,” which includes considerations of how to rear children non-violently—without spanking, hitting, and similar time-worn-out methods, which many mothers of today are gradually replacing with love, kindness, empathy and other non-violent approaches to parenting.