The greatest gift a father can receive

Happy Father's Day! What is the greatest gift a father can receive? Mothers! Both their own mom and the mother of their children! Then there is mother Earth. MomsRising, for me, is about taking care of all mothers, not just our own, but all moms in all countries, and our planet as well.

And when I say "taking care," I'm not just talking about being loving, compassionate, supportive – these are givens, the bedrock of relationships. When I talk about "taking care" of mothers, I'm talking about LAW!

Why law? Think about what "the law" is: "the law" is simply our agreement about how we will live together. The situation today is that the vast majority of people in all countries (especially mothers) are ready to agree about how we can live together, and to put this agreement into writing so that it can be enforced in the courts of all countries, thereby protecting mothers and their children everywhere.

What a great gift for fathers! A social order whereby there is confidence that our mothers and children are certain to have healthcare as good as that of the people who represent us -- as well as education and fundamental rights such as family leave, core elements of the pursuit of happiness and a strong society.

MomsRising is different than many organizations because much of the work is about building law to build community. My contribution to this blog is to ask that we at MomsRising and FamiliesRising broaden our vision internationally to include all mothers, including our planet, and to seek the creation of law through international human rights documents.

I'm not talking about some new fuzzy declaration of rights documents – we have enough declarations. I'm talking about regional documents such as the European Convention on Human Rights that is enforceable in the courts of 46 countries -- the kind of law lawyers like me can stand up in court, waive in front of a judge, and ask her to issue an order to enforce. Al Gore recently made a statement that ought to be our benchmark for the 21st century: "it's important to change light bulbs, but it's more important to change the law."

MomsRising does this, it changes the law, and that's what I want for Father's Day. Thank you MomsRising and FamiliesRising. I look forward to our changing the law for years to come.