The Art, War and Peace Museum in Jensen Beach was the setting Saturday for the "Mother's Stand for Peace." It was an inspiring event, and there were more than mothers demonstrating on the wide steps of the museum. Children carried colorful boards that spelled "I love you," and men and teenagers wore peace tattoos and artistic sandwich boards promoting peace and "No More War."

Most of the 80 demonstrators were moms who were motivated to demonstrate on the day before Mother's Day by Julia Ward Howe's 1870 Proclamation for Peace. Howe wrote it after the Civil War, encouraging women to work for peace so their children would not go to war.

"We are all responsible for peace" was the message from the artist Huong, a refugee of the Vietnam War and the museum's founder.

The Rev. Amanda Howard of the Unity Church of Martin County opened and closed the four-hour demonstration with prayer and leading the singing of The Peace Song ("Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me"). Horns tooted and people waved to the demonstrators on the corner of Jensen Beach Boulevard and Indian River Drive. Inside the museum, there was a steady stream of visitors to view Huong's war and peace murals while others lined up to have the vivacious artist autograph her posters.

Volunteers Norma Reubert and Sandi Wucina of Palm City headed the Stand for Peace committee, which included docents, musicians, artists and demonstrators who took the outdoor shifts.

"I've always remembered a poem I once read," Wicina said. " 'The bullet that goes through the soldier first goes through the mother's heart.'

"We're not going to stop now," she said. "We will have a peace camp here this summer."

For information on the Art, War & Peace Museum at 2000 Jensen Beach Blvd., call 225-3200 or e-mail artwarpeace@hotmail.com.