Inspired by one of the earliest calls for a Mother’s Day, members of the Socialist Party of Michigan and Kalamazoo for Justice, braving the threat of heavy rain, demonstrated against U.S. drone killings at the Kellogg Air National Guard Base in Battle Creek, which serves at a control center for strikes conducted with the MQ-9 Reaper drone. A dozen demonstrators lined M-96 in front of the base entrance with messages such as “No Killer Drones”, “Stop Remote Control Killing”, and “Imperialism Sucks”. Many honks of support we given by folks on their way to celebrate Mother’s Day.

From Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Mothers’ Day Proclamation:
“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. Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.”