Sisu

The tanks rolled into Finland in 1959 and Molotov promised to give Finland to Stalin on his birthday. The game plan went awry and the tables turned.

The Molotov cocktail was bon and changed the equation of the conflict. Stalin was pissed off and immovable and invaded again in 1944. They managed to negotiate to make peace and Finland had to give up some additional territory.

We learn that people will not assimilate by coercion.

Gerald Norgarrd
Duluth, Minnesota

Mother’s Day for Peace

War kills. Mostly it kills innocent people – women, children, the elderly and other non-combatants. War destroys. War destroys nations, economies, and the environment.

War does not resolve conflicts. It exacerbates social and political problems. War is a choice and it is always a bad choice,

War is failure. Wars result from the failure of national leaders to find peaceful solutions to conflicts.
The war in Ukraine is a senseless tragedy. This war could have been prevented. If the politicians been willing to compromise, the diplomats more aggressive in seeking solutions, or the merchants of death been less greedy the death and destruction could have been avoided.

More alarming, the war in Ukraine needlessly threatens the whole world and literally life on this planet.

It is a bigger war than Russian invading Ukraine. It is a proxy war between two nuclear armed superpowers which could easily escalate into a broader conflict. Ukrainians are only the pawns in a geopolitical power struggle.

Mother’s Day has its roots in the struggles for peace and justice. It rose out of the abolition movement and the reaction to the destruction of the Civil War. Two women, Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe, were abolitionists and peace activists. Our current Mother’s Day holiday came about because Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, wanted to honor the charitable works of her mother.

In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. This message is still relevant and needed today.

Today Grandmothers for Peace and many other women’s groups continue the same struggle for sanity and a more peaceful world.

Code Pink: Women for Peace is a modern day answer to Julia Ward Howe’s call for women to unite to work for peace. They are taking action to oppose the latest atrocity, the war in Ukraine. They have an online petition calling for a negotiated settlement in Ukraine.

Negotiate for peace in Ukraine!

“The U.S., which played a major role in exacerbating the conflict that led up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, must now play a major role in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to achieve a ceasefire. Add your name to the following letter to President Biden and Congress asking for the U.S. to support and commit to necessary compromises such as recognizing Ukraine as a neutral country and not expanding NATO any further eastward.”

Code Pink Sign the petition at codepink.org/ukrainetalks.

Today “all women who have hearts” must come together “to bewail and commemorate the dead [and] take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.“

The Northland Chapter of Grandmothers for Peace urges all women and men to make this Mother’s Day a day of peace. Please sign the petition and share it with your friends and family. Join us in Canal Park on May 7 at 2 pm as we gather Mothers and Others for a Negotiated Peace.

Dorothy Wolden
Lake Nebagamon, Wisconson
Penny Cragun
Duluth, Minnesota