In honor of Mother’s Day, May 13, 2018

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Day to Night. Author: Kathie Malley-Morrison

Poems by my grandmother, Ernestine Cobern Beyer, that my beloved Mom, Barbara Beyer Malley, and I both love:

The Measure

The strong warm hand, the broad and steady shoulder,

The face you love grown dearer, kinder, older,

The comrade-glance, the peace, the burden-sharing,

The well-loved voice, the touch, the tender caring . . .

O, you who have this, guard it well and treasure it,

For only when you’ve lost it can you measure it!

 

Stars

The stars maintain eternal espionage

Above the earth, light centuries away.

To them our globe seems but a brief mirage

Created in experimental play.

In cosmic calm, indifferent, they beam

On good and evil, tears and wars and scars;

Earth–are you but a transitory dream

Envisioned by the cool and timeless stars?

 

Note from KMM: Let’s all do what we can to ensure that life on earth is not transitory.  Protect Mother Earth. Fight climate change. Conserve. Recycle. Follow the lead of California and go solar.

And for more poetry and prose from my grandmother, my mother, and me, find The Path.

It’s at: https://www.amazon.com/Path-Tears-Laughter-Through-Generations/dp/1986129969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525836609&sr=1-1&keywords=barbara+malley+the+path

 

Look what’s happening right in MA

Anti-nuclear Protest, Boston, MA, USA. 1977. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Derzsi Elekes Andor.

By  Cole Harrison, Massachusetts Peace Action

Note from Kathie MM: Massachusetts Peace Action is very active on behalf of peace and social justice. Here are some of their upcoming activities.

Palestine to Detroit-Flint Photo Exhibit

PARALLELS EXIST BETWEEN THE REGIONS of Palestine and two Michigan cities regarding water rights, namely access, testing, purity, pricing, sanitation, distribution, and disposal….Find out more »

March 25 @ 12:15 pm – April 30 @ 12:15 pm

Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park  Cambridge,  Google Map

 

 

The World Is Over-Armed and Peace Is Under-Funded

April 14 @ 10:00 am – 1:30 pm

Walpole Common, 5 West st  Walpole, MA United States + Google Map

Walpole Tax Day Rally for Peace and Economic Justice:  the   will hold a Tax Day Rally at the Gazebo on the Walpole Common. Find out more »

Tax Day Rally

April 14 @ 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Cambridge Common, Garden Street and Appian Way  Cambridge, MA 02138 + Google Map

Time to stand up for our values and priorities! President Trump’s tax bill is ensuring billions of dollars in profits to large corporations– and peanuts to working people…. Find out more »

Rethinking the Nuclear Weapons Issue

April 15 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

First Church in Cambridge – Harter Room, 11 Garden Street  Cambridge, MA 02138 + Google Map

Come and hear a stimulating talk on a life-and-death issue. Dr. Elaine Scarry will present a basic review of the current US policy on nuclear issues.… Find out more »

Discussion of the Poor People’s Campaign

April 15 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Watertown Free Public Library, 123 Main St  Watertown, MA 02472 + Google Map

What is the Poor People’s Campaign? Why is there A National Call for Moral Revival? Find out more »

Shout Heard Round the World

April 16 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Lexington Common National Historic Site, 1875 Massachusetts Avenue  Lexington, MA United States + Google Map

SHOUT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD Or just a whisper at Hanscom Field as drums and fifes sound patriotic tunes elsewhere this coming Patriots Day?  …Find out more »

Recognizing Ourselves in Today’s Migrants and Refugees: The Need to Take Action Against Racism and Xenophobia

April 22 @ 1:00 pm

Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park  Cambridge, + Google Map

A Talk with Oscar A. Chacón, Executive Director, Alianza Americas….Find out more »

Rally for Palestine!–Education Under Occupation

April 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Boston Common – Park St, Tremont & Park Streets  Boston, MA 02108 United States + Google Map

As students living in the United States on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, we raise our voices and our fists in solidarity with our student counterparts in Palestine….Find out more »

Walk for Water 5K in Support of Palestinian Refugees

April 28 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

450 Kendall St, Cambridge, MA

In times of crisis, a healthy environment provides a sense of stability. 1for3 is a Boston-based non-profit organization working to promote health, education, and the environment for Palestinian refugees….Find out more »

Combatants for Peace

April 28 @ 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Belmont/Watertown United Methodist Church, 421 Common St  Belmont, MA 02478 + Google Map

In 2006, Israeli and Palestinian former combatants laid down their weapons and established Combatants for Peace….. Combatants for Peace were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, 2017. Two Combatants… Find out more »

Workshop on Nuclear Ban Treaty Compliance

May 6 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

14 Sterling St, Newton, MA

Good news!  There’s a new Nobel Peace Prize-winning Nuclear Ban Treaty, already agreed by 122 countries, that makes these WMDs illegal.  Come learn how YOU can compel divestment, legislation, and enforcement here in the US. For more information: Call Joan Ecklein: 617 244-8054  Find out more »

Peace Partners 2018: 22nd Annual Mother’s Day Walk

May 13 @ 8:00 am

Town Field Park, 1520 Dorchester Avenue  Dorchester, MA 02122 United States + Google Map

22ND ANNUAL MOTHER’S DAY WALK FOR PEACE DIGNITY AND COMPASSION FOR ALL MAPA/WILPF registrants: Follow this registration link and find “Peace Partners 2018” in the Teams field. Contact Claire Gosselin at claireg53@gmail.com for questions.   Donation Page: https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/lbdpeace/campaign.jsp?campaign=33&fundraiser=26525&  The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace is a celebration of our potential to create more peaceful communities. Find out more »

Visit our website to learn more about joining the organization.

Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter

The Path: Tears and Laughter through the Generations

By Kathie Malley-Morrison

The Path: Tears and Laughter Through the Generations By Barbara Malley and Kathie Malley-Morrison 2018

I have exciting news!  My mom and I have written a three-generation memoir, The aPath: Tears and Laughter through the Generations, which has just been published by Amazon. Here is what the announcement on Amazon.com has to say about it:

     The Path is a journey through the creative careers of three women writers from one family. Widowed at age 44 in the middle of the Great Depression, with three kids to raise, Ernestine Cobern Beyer’s goal of enhancing her meager income by selling her poems led to her career as one of the most popular children’s poets of the 20th century. Her daughter Barbara caught the writing bug and created rollicking stories of family foibles, personal misadventures, and boating and flying mishaps— which have entertained thousands of readers of her magazine articles, memoir (Take My Ex-Husband, Please—But Not Too Far) and her blog, Tears and Laughter at 90.blogspot.com.

Granddaughter Kathie has written largely on more serious issueswar and peacebut has also published stories on her blog, engagingpeace.com

Their memoir is amply illustrated with photos, sketches, and paintings to add color to their poetry and prose.

About the Authors

     Barbara Malley excels at making lemonade out of lemons. Is the horse on the loose and the goat in the lilacs? Is her younger son the greatest debater since Abraham Lincoln? Her rollicking tales invite laughter. Her heartaches—the loss of a daughter in an auto accident and the loss of a son to ALS—provoke sadness and empathy in any reader’s heart.  

     After decades of publishing scholarly books and articles for academic audiences, Barbara’s daughter Kathie Malley-Morrison is writing for a more general community, a community that cares about friends and family, a community that favors nonviolence over violence, a community that enjoys a good laugh but also a good cry. She reaches some of these people through her blog, engagingpeace.com, but hopes to reach more through this three-generational memoir, written with her mom in honor of all the family and friends who embrace her now and have gone before.

Lewis Randa: Inspiring a socialist alternative

 

Stone memorial to civilians killed in war. Courtesy of the Peace Abbey.

by Kathie MM

In a chart in a recent post entitled 100 Living Peace and Justice Leaders, the characteristics attributed to peace and justice leaders and models included:

nonviolence,

inspiration,

tolerating struggle,

empathy & compassion,

integrity,

courage,

and a purpose-driven life.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, 2018, I want to honor one man who exemplifies all those characteristics: Lewis Randa, founder of the Life Experience School  and the Peace Abbey

Here are brief examples of each of those characteristics in Lewis’s life:

Nonviolence: Lewis explains, “Martin Luther King said, ‘If you haven’t found something worth dying for you’re not fit to live.’ Nonviolence is something I’d be willing to die for. I don’t torture myself over whether I’ve done a good job or bad job.” (verdict:superb job)

 Inspiration: From the founding of The Life Experience School for special needs children and young adults in 1972 (his alternative service as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War) to his current nonviolent resistance to any governmental move to use nuclear weapons against North Korea, Lewis has inspired multitudes.

Tolerating struggle: The nonviolent civil resistance in which Lewis has engaged his entire life has consistently demanded tolerating struggle; add to that his engagement in the stone walk— the project involving hauling a one-ton granite stone memorializing civilians 500 miles in the US, many miles in Ireland, and then later, under the able leadership of Dot Walsh, substantial distances in Japan and Korea.

Empathy & compassion: Because of  empathy and compassion for all living creatures,  Lewis is a vegetarian—as is the rest of his family — and a proponent of animal rights   (You just have to read Emily the cow’s story!)

Courage: Being a conscientious objector in wartime, promoting conscientious objection to war, advocating for interfaith harmony in a nation that is increasingly intolerant of non-Christian faiths,  and his willingness to speak out for peace and peacemakers to a government embroiled in violence testifies to his courage.

To learn more about a purpose-driven life, just watch this inspiring video,  and add meaning to your own life by joining Lewis’s peace-seeking letter-writing campaign to Chairman Kim Jung-un.