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From the Red Earth Women’s
Alliance:
Moccasin Makers and War Breakers:
A call to action by the women of the world |
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We have the power to stop the war!
"Before the men can go to war, the women must make their moccasins."
In the tradition of our ancestors, it was customary for the women to make the moccasins worn by the men who were going to war. If the women did not want war, they did not make the moccasins. Our ancestors belonged to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Europeans called them Iroquois.
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We overcame a horrible
legacy of war and violence when Deganawida, the Peace Maker, gave
us our Great Law of Peace. The United States Senate has
acknowledged that our law served as a model for the Constitution
of the United States (U.S. S. Con. Res. 76, 2 Dec. 1987). The U.S.
Constitution was, in turn, a model for the Charter of the United
Nations. Our law is the basis of modern international law.
The Americans copied our
laws and customs, but they did not understand them. Our
ancestors recognized the sovereignty of all men and women by
solving community conflicts through discussion in a People's
Council. In our tradition, three criteria must be kept in mind
through all deliberations:
1) Peace: meaning peace must be kept at
all costs.
2) Righteousness:
meaning decisions must be morally right taking into consideration
the needs of seven generations to
come.
3) Power: meaning the power of the people
must be maintained including the equal sovereignty of all men and
all women.
Conflicts between nations were also resolved through diplomacy and
consensus. War - or the use of violence-was only a last resort.
Even then, the women and children of the opponents were spared.
Throughout, our ancestors always respected the other nations
different customs, laws and ways of life, whether they approved of
them or not.
They would work out agreements on
how to live side by side. Therefore we have stood by and not become
involved in this current conflict. But we see now that it has gone too far. Innocent lives and mother earth is at stake. As women and
caretakers of this earth, we have decided to speak up.
According to the law of our ancestors, the soil of North America is
vested in the women. Serious decisions about warfare had to involve the
other half of the people - the women - the bearers of life, the
nurturers of the
earth. |
From the
Red Earth Women’s
Alliance:
Women’s Circle for Peace
March and Rally, March 8th
Denver, Colorado
This is a momentous time in history... a time when women worldwide are hearing the
Call...The Call to demonstrate a new way of world leadership...Leadership based on partnership,
cooperation, harmony and balance.
If you are hearing that Call we invite you to join us as we Gather the Women:
March 8, 2003, Women Circle for Peace March at 10:00 am,
Rally at Civic Center Park at 11 am.
Please bring your mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties, children, grandchildren, friends, as well as the men and boys in your lives. This march is called by women in support of women around the world. The
speakers and musicians will all be women. But our day together honors all our children, all our relations.
We are asking people to wear pink (as hot a pink as you want) armbands.
“Codepink” is a code used in hospitals when a child is nearing death. The women who have been fasting in Washington, DC outside the White House since Nov. 17 - and who will be breaking fast on March 8 for the women’s rally in DC -- are wearing pink to express deep outrage about the suffering and death of the children in Iraq, as well as our outrage about the impacts of violence on children. |
We are now facing an unnecessary
war. We have a duty to use our power to do good. We have decided to
remind all humanity of this important truth. War cannot happen
without the support of women. We ask the women of the world to come
forward and play their rightful role as the progenitors, the creators of
all men, of all humanity, the caretakers of the earth and of all that
lives upon it.
As women, we know the pain and suffering of childbirth. We feel a deep
loss when our children die. This understanding compels us to act to stop
the destruction of lives. The children must not suffer. Not our
children.
Not the children of anyone we disagree with. We respect the sovereign
and sacred right of each individual to live on this earth.
We ask you, the women of the world, and the men who support us, to come
forward and stop this madness. This decision to go to war will cause the
deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children. It is a
decision that has been made primarily by men without the input of the people of
the nation, without the input of the women. Most of these men have grandmothers,
mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, daughters, nieces, granddaughters, nannies, etc.
We are asking all of these women to put pressure on these men - men like
President George Bush, Colin Powell, Senator Rumsfeld, Prime Minister Tony
Blair, Saddam Hussein, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Ariel Sharon, the Palestinians, the North Koreans and anyone else who is involved in
causing the current threat to destroy the world. Women, bring your men to their
senses. Women, remember your power. Remember your responsibility. Every person has personal power. We must all use our power to do good. We must
stop the war. We must maintain the Peace. We must hold back the moccasins.
Kahn-Tineta Horn, Mohawk mother & grandmother
Kahente Horn-Miller, Mohawk mother
Karonhioko'he, Daughter
Kokowa, Daughter
Grace Lix-xiu Woo, Aunt & Sister
Place your name here and send it orakwa@paulcomm.ca
JOIN YOUR VOICE WITH SISTERS, MOTHERS, AUNTS, GRANDMOTHERS, DAUGHTERS
AND SAY NO TO WAR... NOT NOW...NOT EVER AGAIN.
For more information contact us at Escuela Tlatelolco in
Denver, Colorado at: (303) 964-8993.
For more information on the Red Earth Women's Alliance: http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/rewa.htm
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