Happy Mother’s Day 2011

I’ve cleaned out the office (though I still need to fetch the signs), I’ve spent most of yesterday sleeping.  Yesterday, I also canvassed again for the first time since the election.  I will have to develop new strategies but reaching out to constituents will remain an important part of what I do.  But today, I just want to wish all mothers out there a joyous day with their children.  It is children who drive me.  It is children whose eyes and smiles invariably make me think that I must work harder.  And it is my protective mothering instinct that motivates my energies.  So this day is very special, for all of us Greens.

I’ve also been called on to recognize Mother Earth today, and for the first time, I’m asking you to give this some thought.  I have avoided such appeals in the past, worried about mixed metaphors and weakening the message about a strong scientific basis for my concerns with appeals to the emotional connectedness we have to our planet.

But there it is.  Whether we are Greens because we read the science and tremble at what it is warning us of, or whether we weep when we look on destruction regardless of what science may tell us, what binds us is concern, nurture and caring.  And that’s what this day is all about.  Let’s celebrate the tremendous hurdles that mothers have overcome for their children and pledge to work together in that spirit.

Happy mothers day!