Des Downunder On Sundays

By Des Rutherford, Adelaide, Australia- Missing the Bus

Reports of a Mayday bus tour, intended to browbeat us with the idea of marriage being only for one man and one woman, have been recently released.

There is also a report that anti-gay groups have plans to attract funds to support legislative goals of passing anti-gay marriage amendments and abortion rights, amongst others.

This is dedicated to all those Mum's who love their kids unconditionally.

My thoughts on this first Sunday in May are for all those women who won't have a happy day because they have no one to wish them a “Happy Mothers' Day.”

They may not have been physically able to conceive, or by circumstance are unable to adopt a child. Then there are those women who chose not to have children; a choice that is rightfully theirs to make, but the reality is the same, they cannot hear their child wishing them a “Happy Mothers' Day.”

Then there are those mothers who have lost their children to disease, an accident of fate, or attack of violence. Memories are all that remain to them.

Then there are those who have lost a child to that horror of recent times, bullying that resulted in suicide.

My heart goes out to all those mums who, through no fault of their own, no longer have a living child. It must be extremely painful.

Every loving mother must live with a certain trepidation, a fear that their child might end up in such despair that they take their own life. I know mine did, but she cleverly told me that killing anyone isn't worth it, especially yourself. That seemed to not only prohibit any thought of suicide in my mind, but also revealed to me that saying “yes, to living,” is an effort that must be made by each of us. I guess I owe my mum my life, twice over, and even though she has long since died, I still take flowers as I promised I would, to her and to my grandmother's grave, every first Sunday in May.

It causes me considerable pain when I see and hear of mothers who foresake their children because their kids are free-spirited. “I'm gay,” has become a death sentence for the relationship between some children and their mothers. These women would rather keep their children in bondage to so-called traditional values of church, beliefs, and cultures of ignorance, than set them free as every parent should, to live and love in the real world.

These mothers and their supporters would rather drive a bus all over the country, with signs about the (restrictive) concept of fabricated traditional values, than witness the miracle of a childless couple, or even a single person, forsake their own freedom to devote themselves, with all the love they can muster, to parenting a child's welfare.

Thankfully the child knows the difference and has no problem in acknowledging its adopting mother figure with a heartfelt, Happy Mothers' Day.

Most mums are women who care passionately for their children. They see and hear the cries of those kids who have been abandoned. So too, do many people who are in loving same gender relationships. At least one of them will have the mothering instinct to support a child unconditionally, through all the heartache, turmoil and love that is child raising.

Child rearing is an instinct in most of us, and when we see parents denying their children's rights because of some facile traditions, or because of whom the child loves, then we need to call upon all mums; all who would never desert their children, who would support their kids no matter who they turn out to be, who love them unconditionally, always, and need to ask these wonderful mothers to protect us all from buses of the bigoted.

These are the mothers who ought to be out there; the mums our children need. Send in the real mums; the mums who love their kids regardless of whatever warped traditional values they have been coerced into believing.

Happy Mothers' Day, and please, don't be bullied into catching that bus; if you do, you'll miss out on the stop for true human love.