BRC COLLABORATES WITH WAND TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S PEACE DAY
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Julia Ward Howe was the first to suggest a "Mother’s Day for Peace" based on her belief that women working together have the power to change the world. The group gathered at the BRC in May of 2000 was reminded of this important meaning of Mother’s Day by Sayre Sheldon, president emerita of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND). Sheldon is well-known as an activist and author of Her War Story, but on this occasion she focused her attention on those who had come to the BRC for the WAND Education Fund’s celebration honoring long-time national activist Millie Jeffrey and former congresswoman Elizabeth Furse.
WAND Leadership Award: Millie Jeffrey
Speaking of her friend and colleague Millie Jeffrey, former WAND board member Anne Zill praised Jeffrey’s spirit. "This is a woman with a certain amount of mischief in her," she said. Zill lauded the labor leader’s efforts in the union movement, the peace movement, and the feminist movement. "Millie Jeffrey is the embodiment of a woman leader who knows that all things are interrelated."
National Women’s Political Caucus vice president Dolores Mitchell also spoke of Jeffrey’s impact on society. "She has been a driving force for years and still is," Mitchell said.
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Further remarks came from WAND board member and presenter Eleanor LeCain who went on to present the WAND Leadership Award to Millie Jeffrey "in recognition of her outstanding contributions to increasing public awareness of major human issues in the nuclear age." A rare and important labor reference work will be purchased and housed at Wayne State’s Walter Reuther Library in Jeffrey’s honor; her papers are already housed at the Walter Reuther Library.
"WAND is at the apex of organizations for its brilliant deployment of its resources and for devising new options, fresh ideas, and innovative strategies to reach its goals. WAND is magic," Ms. Jeffrey said as she received her award. She noted that once again we’re beginning to see activists mobilize with tremendous impact by bringing attention to vital issues and changing the conditions of many people. She emphasized the importance of protesting and highlighting issues like debt forgiveness for Third World countries and encouraged those present to continue to work to raise the level of consciousness about what constitutes a living wage.
Elizabeth Furse: Helen Caldicott Leadership Award
Former WAND president Beverly Droz introduced Furse by speaking of the courage, passion, and conviction with which the activist for human rights, peace, justice, and environmental responsibility won her seat in Congress in 1992. She reminded listeners that the former congresswoman from Oregon founded the Oregon Peace Institute in 1986 and has made the effects of military spending on state budgets one of her key concerns.
State Senator Pamela Resor praised Elizabeth Furse for her efforts to convert defense-oriented businesses, for her efforts on environmental issues, and her concern for mentoring young people, for which Shira Auerhahn, co-founder of the Students’ Action for New Directions (STAND), also expressed gratitude. "You are a woman in politics we can look up to," Auerhahn said.
Furse was then presented with the Helen Caldicott Leadership Award. To mark the occasion, a gift will be presented to the Portland State University Foundation for the Columbia River Conservation Collection. Furse is currently serving as director of the Columbia River Conservation Project and director of Tribal Programs at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.
"I think there is only one issue, really, and it connects all the others: sensible budget priorities," Congresswoman Furse said in her acceptance remarks. "After all, it’s our money," she added. She suggested that we wrongly continue to live with the myth that, somehow, if we don’t want to spend money on the military we are unpatriotic.
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