Women,

Do not underestimate the power of your hands.

These hands that have rocked cradles are now being asked to rock the world.

Our hands, dear sisters, have more power than we know.

Hands that have hauled babies and hoisted picket signs.
Hands that have known the pain of hard work and the pinch of handcuffs.
Rough hands, blistered hands, tired hands.
Calloused hands that have labored in fields and lifted in factories.

Hands that have painted poems and pounded dough.
Hands that have wiped away tears and waved off despair.
Hands raised in prayer to ward off the gods of war.
Today, my sisters, these are the angry hands of a mother saying . . .

Khallas, Enough, No Mas!

You men with the soft white hands will not touch our children.
You men who clutch your money and your war plans and your business deals with one hand while reaching for our children with the other, do not know the power of a mother’s angry hands.
You with the smooth clean hands who build bombs and wave bibles, should fear the strength of a mother’s angry hands.

A mother’s resisting hands.
A mother’s holy hands.

Hands that will beat your missiles into plowshares.
Hands that will tear down your war machine.
Hands that will pull our children back from the abyss.
Hands that will refuse to back down.

Hands given over to love.

Dear sisters, we have power in these hands of ours that is greater than we know.
Let us reach for the hands of our sisters around the world.

Let us join hands with the women of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel.
Let us unite our hands with our sisters in Africa, Asia, and Europe and create a circle of love and peace and justice and hope.
A circle wide enough to embrace this generation of children and the generations to come.

Together let us raise our angry and loving hands and say to the merchants of death:

Khallas! Enough! No Mas!

11 Mothers on 11 Mile Peace Gathering, Royal Oak, MI, 9/11/2005