"I would fight God Almighty Himself if He didn't play square with me." - Mary H. Jones (Mother Jones)
Mother Jones Leading a Children's March Against Exploitation-historical photo
-from http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/mother.jones.jpg
Who was Mother Jones? Just the archetypal, compassionate, truth-embracing, earth-shaking, absolutely fearless, universal "Ma" who rallied American workers and their families to fight for their rights in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones for one online history. Another good site is: http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=majones
Here is a quote from this latter weblink article entitled "Freedom Hero Mary Harris Jones" by Susannah Abbey:
"For the next 50 years, Jones travelled around the country, speaking and organizing, and helping wherever she could. An honest and fearless leader, she was also impossible to intimidate. Many times she faced down a threatening remark or even the muzzle of a rifle with imperturbable wit. Her purpose was clear and she was never loath to state it: to free the men, women and children of the working class from what she called "industrial slavery," to save them from early sickness and untimely death, to save them from the misery of never having the leisure time to read a book or just sit and think, of never having the freedom to choose the course of their own lives."
Mother Jones Helping Destitute Miners' Children
-Photo from http://appserv.pace.edu/emplibrary/Mother%20Jones%20optimized.JPG
Another of her famous quotes is: "Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living!" You may have noticed this quote before in Mother Jones Magazine, the hard-hitting investigative journal named after her.
History is now auditioning for a new generation of Mother Joneses to rally the people, not just in America, but around the world. The stakes are even greater, not just for the working class, but for the whole planet and all sentient beings on it. You can sign up to audition anywhere where the living are oppressed by the arrogant, the crooked and the cruel. Just start raising Hell as loudly, yet as smartly and as colorfully as you can and the universe will let you know if you've been cast.
