ProgressOhio

...until you consider the origins of Mother's Day.

Julia Ward Howe, who penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic, also authored a mothers' Declaration calling on women to oppose war, and worked to get recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Says Code Pink: "Were she alive today, Julia probably would have told her kids to dispense with the roses and chocolates, and instead join her in an anti-war rally. Yes, Julia Ward Howe was a peacenik."

[Howe] saw some of the worst effects of the [civil] war -- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause….She called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.

Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace, but her effort was carried on by Anna Jarvis, who had organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and then toward reconciliation of Union and Confederate neighbors.

Jarvis’ daughter, of the same name, then took up the campaign for Mother’s Day. After the custom spread to 45 states, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day in 1914.

Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
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."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Maybe Pryce, Schmidt, Tiberi, Chabot, Boehner, Regula, LaTourette, Hobson, and Turner have a thing against moms. But YOU can make this Mother's Day a Mother's Day For Peace.

Help CodePink help Iraqi refugee moms here.

Send a MomsRising Mother's Day card and tell the presidential candidates to fight for family-friendly policies. here.

Oh and don't forget to call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 to give the above members of Congress a piece of your mind about H.R. 1113.

Do you have another suggestion for honoring Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration? Are you a mom working for peace? Leave a comment below.

Read the news story here (as opposed to the splog accounts) from the Cleveland Jewish News.

A few points that elected officials who favor school choice never seem to address in these crowd-drawing, media-ready, splog-perfect occasions that highlight, legitimately, the successes in charter school experimentation:

1. There's a name for it, for what ALL charters need to do and should be, but aren't and are therefore the ire of Ohio taxpayers. But neither the news report nor the splogs indicate that this name was uttered, urged or emphasized by State Rep. Josh Mandel or House Speaker Jon Husted.

Can you spell a-c-c-o-u-n-t-a-b-i-l-i-t-y?

Maybe they did mention it - maybe they didn't. I wasn't there and I couldn't find any other news reports of the rally beside the CJN's and this one in the Plain Dealer. But they should be making sure that they do mention it and that that mention makes it into news reports. Because otherwise, they are being disingenuous as to how Mom and Dad's school choice money is actually being spent, and planned on being spent by the Ohio legislature to which they were elected.

2. The CJN writes this:

Mandel echoed Husted’s sentiments and explained that he believes in school choice because “education is a key component to bringing back the Cleveland area, Northeast Ohio, and Ohio as a state.” 

  He added that during his campaigning days, he heard from parents afraid to send their children to schools such as Glenville. “It rings loud that the decision should be in the hands of Mom and Dad, not a politician or bureaucrat,” he told the cheering crowd.

This week, I’ll be participating in the Food Stamp Challenge. For seven days, I’ll be living on three dollars of food per day, the same amount an average participant in the Food Stamp Program receives. The Challenge is an exercise aimed to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by millions of Americans, who live day to day, working to put food on the table.

Last Friday, my staff and I held a meeting plotting out how I would spend my $21.00. As we looked over food prices, we were struck by how anyone could expect a person to have a balanced, healthy diet on a mere three dollars per day. On a dollar per meal, a person can’t buy fresh fruit and vegetables. A person can’t buy the milk they need. The kids across the country who go to bed hungry on nights when the budget is stretched too thin deal with the reality of poverty every day, and I want them to know they aren’t forgotten.

 There are over one million recipients of Food Stamps in Ohio, nearly 90,000 in the 17th District. I’m participating in this challenge because as Congress crafts this years Farm Bill, we’re going to have to take a hard look at the way the Food Stamp Program is administered. I hope that at the end of the week, I have a deeper understanding of the hardships of these millions of American, and a better idea of how to help them.

(X posted from Plunderbund) Let's cut to the point and get something straight here right out of the gate. The Buckeye Institute is not our friend - if you don't consider yourself a conservative. Put a nice little period after that one and you can go about your day unless you want to hear me pound Jill Zimon for the next couple minutes.

Jill posted a nice little note on her blog making us all aware that The Buckeye Institute has a new blog designed to alert us of any "wasteful spending" at The Statehouse. It's fun! It's exciting! We can make our government better and the flowers will smell rosier and the sun will shine brighter. Jill, dear, what the FUCK don't you get about the Buckeye Institute? First clue:

Right there above the link to your blog...see it? "...promoting free market ideas and limited government". That's code for "Right-wing intelligent design loving miscreants". Is this new to you? Thankfully Jerid hopped on this and outed Carlo and friends. You really want to point people there and have us all hop on this illusion of a bi-partisan trainwreck? You really hat tipped Matt Naugle? Did i really just see that? There is a reason Russell and I used to give you shit about being a closet conservative. Then you let Matt get away with slamming Policy Matters and pretending that Buckeye Institute is "completely unlike Policy Matters, which is a group of liberal smucks and union cronies". Pardon me, but What? The? Fuck?

Do some damned research. You normally do. Find out that while Matt is understandably trying to paint Policy Matters as partisan and Buckeye Institute as "representing the general interest", nothing could be further from the truth. Second clue? They hired his ass to put the blog together! Ding ding ding! I think there is a knob behind your left ear labeled "conservative misinformation bullshit meter". Turn that up to 11.

Business First got it right when they called BI "a conservative think tank in Columbus". Duh. You might also find out that in January Deborah Owens (aka DeborahLOwens or Deborah Owens Fink) was named to the board. Wanna guess who she gave money to? Yup. Wanna guess what else she is involved in? You know, right? You quoted her once and I think even pounded on her a bit. She's also the mouthpiece in Ohio for Seattle's Discovery Institute - a so-called "public policy think tank", but more aptly described as a "belief tank" (like a think tank without the doubt).

Blackwell, Loparo, Fink, Naugle. Yes! Let's get behind that! Make no mistake here: The Buckeye Institute is the enemy. If No one is more concerned about Ohio's future than you, then call bullshit on this instead of empower it. For the love of all that is good and right fight the good fight! 

But hey, it's a rough and tumble world out there in this political landscape. Charlatans everywhere. Be careful, kid. You need something just come see me at the pub. I'll be in the back talking strategy with Vinnie.

The Dispatch covers how some of Ohio's career and techinical programs perform well enough that other districts want to duplicate the efforts. A national expert on the programs says that Ohio is only one of two states that even has stand-alone programs at separate sites.

"A high-school diploma wouldn’t be enough for students in a skilled trade. Now, students need more rigorous academics. They need to go on to postsecondary education. As the economy has evolved, the career and technical schools have been responsive."

More school districts in Ohio also are recognizing the benefits of such programs and hope to create their own academies, officials said.

"We know they are growing, and we’re excited about that because it’s the vision we’re looking toward," said J.C. Benton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education.

Ohio’s career and technical programs are original compared with others throughout the country, Hyslop [asst. dir. at an association for such programs] said. Most states offer career and technical programs within their high schools, but Ohio is one of only two states that has standalone programs at separate sites.

Tolles Career and Technical Academy in Plain City, for example, draws students from seven school districts, including Dublin and Hilliard. Along with the career programs, students learn Spanish geared specifically to their occupation of choice.

Delaware Area Career Center in Delaware, which attracts students from 11 schools, offers higher-level math courses such as statistics and calculus.

"The skill set we need today is no longer manufacturing," said Sheila Scott, high-school career and technical coordinator at Columbus Public Schools. "We need employees that need to know how to read, do math, work effectively in teams and problem solve."

Worth a budget line in Governor Strickland's upcoming proposal?

Columbia University's Teachers College is home to the National Access Network, an excellent resource for information on the education system in the Unitest States. I love the daily updates on education news throughout the country that arrive in my inbox during the week (even if I can't get to each one promptly).

Access will be hosting the 2007 Quality Education Conference, June 7-8 at the Westin Washington, DC City Center Hotel. The title of the conference is, "Building on Success." U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel (D-15, Chairman of Ways and Means - one of the most powerful committees, next to perhaps Appropriations though some might say even more influential) will be the keynote and newly retired New York Court of Appeals Judge George Bundy Smith will be the luncheon speakerkeynote. Here's a brief description:

The 2007 Quality Education Conference will focus on ensuring quality public schools for all children through school funding litigation, grassroots organizing, policy analysis, and excellent communications. The conference will feature workshops on facilities, communications, coalition building, litigation, and much more. Participants will include lawyers, organizers, policy-makers, and educators.

I'm not in college so I couldn't have applied for that blogger scholarship or political bloggership. And if I weren't already going to be somewhere else for a family event on those days, I'd find a way to get to that conference. But someone from the liberal and progressive side of the Ohio blogosphere needs to go and blog and bring back what they can.

Any takers? Here's what was covered last year (with links to detailed reports of sessions and the full agenda). Sounds good to me. Did anyone go or know anyone who went?

Cross-posted at Writes Like She Talks.

Eric queried me a few month ago about techniques for writing letters to the editor and when you use the tools on Progress Ohio to do so, you can click a tab for a few tips.

However, in March's The Writer magazine, there's an entire article called, "Writing op-eds for pay and pleasure." The Plain Dealer's Gloria Millner (editor of the PD's Forum page) is quoted extensively. Ms. Millner has accepted and published a few of my op-eds for the PD (although Brent Larkin actually was the first editor anywhere to accept and publish anything written by me, and it was an op-ed on the duty of the government to warn us, analogized to the mental health professional's duty to warn, in the spring of 2002, when we learned that El Shrubo knew a lot more than we previously had been told he knew re: 9/11).

The article doesn't appear to be available online yet but if people are interested, I'd be happy to start a group to that talks about, looks at and together makes our written communications to everyone else as powerful, succinct and persuasive as possible.

In the meantime, Brian or Dave - Ron Kovach who is the senior editor at The Writer used to write for the Cleveland Press I believe for many years.  Maybe you could ask permission to publish or link or provide access from Progress Ohio to the entire article.  It's worth it.