On manners and what matters (2003-05-28)
This one's from the Wordspy list today.

An obsession with polite or correct public language is a sign that communication is in decline. It means that the process and exercise of power have replaced debate as a public value. The citizen's job is to be rude -- to pierce the comfort of professional intercourse by boorish expressions of doubt. Politics, philosophy, writing, the arts--none of these, and certainly not science and economics, can serve the common weal if they are swathed in politeness. In everything which affects public affairs, breeding is for fools.

-John Ralston Saul from The Doubter's Companion, 1994

Mother's Day has Radical Roots (2003-05-11)
Growing up, when I asked my mom what she wanted for Mother's Day, she always said world peace. I figured that was just her way to let us know that she didn't expect lavish gifts from our $5 allowance. Little did I know that one woman's call for peace was the reason behind the first Mother's Day. Here's an excerpt from Juliet Ward Howe's Mother's Day proclamation.

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall 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, 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 bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

It's too bad the swarmy Hallmark images of breakfast in bed have taken the oomph out of that first Mother's Day rallying cry. For this Mother's Day, forget the flowers. I want radical moms to unite in a call for justice. I want peace.