On May 7, Code Pink held a nationwide counter-recruitment effort. Dubbed Mother’s Day Call, the protest was based on the 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation of Julia Ward Howe, a 19th-century reformer best known for writing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In New York City, a dozen activists lined 125th St. in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center. Decked out in pink hats, scarves and jackets, they wore bibs with a photo of a soldier or a civilian killed in the Iraq war, and handed out fliers suggesting career alternatives to the military.
