This week: A reflection
Patriots,
J here. I sometimes interject in the weekly muck and mire and planning to reflect. I hope this is a welcome reflection on war, peace, mother's day, and the history and future of activism.
This past Saturday, I followed my intuition down a path I hadn't planned — and it led me from a vintage market at 33 Hawley, to the Mothers' & Others' Day March, into a church, into a circle of women and Raging Grannies, still wet from marching in the rain. On my palm, in ink, was written the name of an eight-year-old girl. A child killed by a war this country wages or funds with our tax dollars. We put her name there so I wouldn't forget whose blood we're talking about when we talk about foreign policy.
May the Earth shapeshift this violence.
May my heart, my voice, my hands be strengthened to end this killing.
May the Earth’s power fill us and our dreams of being free.
And then we sang. Refrain after refrain of Ain't Gonna Study War No More — just like in Park Square– and I felt tears come, the kind that arrive before you have time to decide whether to cry.
I didn't walk into that church knowing who Julia Ward Howe was. I walked out knowing. These women taught me.
In 1870, still haunted by the carnage of the Civil War, Howe wrote what we now call the Mother's Day Proclamation — not a greeting card sentiment, but a furious peace manifesto. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
On the strong foundation of that church a poster leaned: The Women's Congress for Peace Declaration. Written in her spirit, in her tradition. It read:
"This is the time to build a culture of peace. The skills of dialogue and compassionate listening and the ways of nonviolence must become the universal peace-building tools of human interaction. We will no longer be silent in the face of our country's prevailing mind-set of violence."
One hundred and fifty years later. Same room. Same song. Same women — except these women are in their sixties, seventies, eighties. Some in their nineties. They were in the streets before I was born. They sat in, marched, sang out, got back up. They are still getting back up.
I found my people in March of 2025, in the streets. I didn't expect them to be a generation — or two, or three — ahead of me. But there they are, and here I am, and I am not complaining.
Julia knew what war cost, what voting rights cost. So do we. So do you.
Thank you for being with us for 62 weeks. The valley is waking up.
Ain't gonna study war no more.
It was also a weekend for Jeromie Whelan! From dancing Saturday night away at Bright Ideas Brewery with some incredible bands and neighbors, to Sunday for a Mothers' Day canvass in a couple of Westfield wards with Jeromie and his family! Did you get a knock?
Planning:
We're always sharpening our focus. If any of these topics interest you or are in your skill set, please reach out at [email protected] or on Tuesday or Friday! We need you!
- 4th of July events and a recommitment to the Declaration of Independence. Please reach out if you can help!
- Get out the vote/Voter Registration
- Whelan For Congress
- Colby Hoffman for State Representative
- De-ICE Citizen's Bank
In Solidarity,
J
No Kings Westfield