All this anti-war activism (that never gets reported, of course, except in places like the Village Voice) reminds me of my grandmother, Anna Zuckerman, who devoted her life to peace activism. When I was a child, during the Vietnam war, she had a framed poster on her wall that said: War is unhealthy for children and other living things. I still have an unused patch of that slogan. So decided to buy a copy of that poster and put it up somewhere, probably at school. Here’s some interesting information:

1. CBS censored this poster! From a list of “13 Outrageous Moments of U.S. TV Censorship“:

THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR (1968)

CBS censored the display of a Mother’s Day card that read, in part, “War is not healthy for children and other living things… We who have given life must be dedicated to preserving it. Please talk peace.” CBS gave as its reason-besides the excuse that it didn’t permit “political positions”-the explanation that the Los Angeles mothers’ group that distributed the card hadn’t been cleared by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

2. Mother’s Day started as peace activism.

A press release from the Million Mom March of San Antonio (a .pdf file) talks about the history of mother’s day as peace activism. It also talked about the organization Another Mother For Peace, which went defunct in 1985. The poster is the organization’s logo.

3. Joanne Woodward is a long time peace activist.

Who knew?
Probably my grandmother
And a lot of other people
On her website there is a bboard discussion of protesting the war and resurrecting AMFP. The bboard has posts by the son of the woman who designed the logo/poster.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.