by ~Gregg Rowe~
Do you know Rose Nader?
Hero like Rosa Parks
Activist in her own
right – confronts Bush – becomes
nation’s civic renown!
Do you know Rose Nader?
I dare you -- shake her hand
To see if she’ll let go
In nineteen fifty-five
politics meet their foe
Do you know Rose Nader?
Mother of Ralph – sugar
is replaced with honey --
“Give me the price of air,
songs of birds -- in money!”
Do you know Rose Nader?
Builds community halls--
Tourist in her town:
Her politics earn her
The right to wear her crown
Author notes
Anyone who confronts George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush is a hero in my books...anyone who confronts the grandfather and father of the President Bushes is a true hero with me!
"Rose Nader, activist, mom of crusader
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/13698014.htm?source=rss&channel
Rose Nader, who jousted with politicians and complacency as a small-town activist and was the mother of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, died Jan. 20 at her home in Winsted, Conn. She had congestive heart failure. She was 99.
Mrs. Nader developed a certain civic renown in 1955 when she confronted Sen. Prescott Bush, R-Conn., the father and grandfather of presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, respectively.
Bush's visit to Winsted followed a catastrophic flood, and he was approached by Mrs. Nader at a public gathering. When he offered his hand in an obligatory fashion, Mrs. Nader latched on and refused to free him until he promised to help a dry-dam proposal move forward. This was fulfilled.
Later, she advocated building a new community center for children, forming a speakers club that would bring worldly lecturers to the town, and expanding and preserving a local hospital.
At home, she could be implacable, particularly about food. She emphasized homemade items over packaged goods whose contents she found bewildering. She prohibited hot dogs and later beef in general because of the presence of a growth-stimulating hormone linked to cancer.
She sweetened food with honey, not sugar, and pushed her children to eat chickpeas instead of candy bars. When news of this was publicized during Ralph Nader's rise to prominence, the Wall Street Journal editorial page likened his mother to a Puritan.
That characterization was laughed at by her children, even as they promoted the story involving her distrustful relationship with chocolate.
Mrs. Nader later said: ``When the children convinced me that chocolate-frosted birthday cakes were what all the other children wanted, I frosted the cake, but after the candles were blown out and before they cut into the cake, I removed the frosting. Some people might say I was severe, but it became a family joke.''
She later wrote a cookbook.
Rose Bouziane was born in Zahle, Lebanon, on Feb. 7, 1906, to a sheep broker and a teacher. She taught high school French and Arabic before her marriage in 1925 to businessman Nathra Nader.
After immigrating to the United States, they settled in Connecticut, where his Main Street bakery-restaurant-general store in Winsted, in the northwestern corner of the state, became a redoubt for residents bemoaning action -- or inaction -- at Town Hall.
Writing in the New York Times in 1982, Mrs. Nader denounced the use of ``credibility phrases,'' such as ``frankly,'' ``to tell you the truth'' and ``in all honesty'' that sometimes preceded a political statement or sales pitch. She wrote that they gave her ``the pervasive feeling that distrust is so widespread that people need to use such language to be believed.''
In another editorial, she embraced mass mailings from issue groups that are commonly dismissed as ``junk mail.'' She wrote that they often come from people ``who care about their times.''
Her husband died in 1991. A son, Shafeek Nader, died in 1986.
Besides Ralph Nader of Washington, survivors include two daughters, Claire Nader of Washington and Winsted, and Laura Nader of Berkeley; a sister; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Ralph Nader once said his mother ``took us out in the yard one day and asked us if we knew the price of eggs, of apples, of bananas. Then she asked us to put a price on clean air, the sunshine, the song of birds -- and we were stunned.''
Rose Nader, 99, dies in Winsted
KARSTEN STRAUSS, Register Citizen Staff 01/24/2006
WINSTED - Winsted resident and civic advocate Rose Bouziane Nader passed awayat her home Friday, Jan. 20, just 18 days shy of her 100th birthday.
www.registercitizen.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15987160&BRD=1652&PAG=461&dept_id
WINSTED - Winsted resident and civic advocate Rose Bouziane Nader passed awayat her home Friday, Jan. 20, just 18 days shy of her 100th birthday.
Rose, who died of congestive heart failure, was the mother of former U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
She leaves behind two daughters, Dr. Claire Nader and Laura Nader, as well as a son, Ralph, who is renowned for civic activism and his multiple presidential bids.
Another son, Shafeek, was the principal founder of Northwestern Connecticut Community Co-llege and died in 1986, the family said.
Born in Zahle, Leb-anon, on Feb. 7, 1906, she married Nathra Nader in 1925 and immigrated to the U.S. shortly after, settling in Danbury and then Winsted. She had been a member of Peace Action, Co-Op America, and president of the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest.
Rose was known for pushing for the expansion and preservation of the Winsted Mem-orial Hospital and for vehemently urging then-Sen. Prescott Bush to build a dry dam following the Flood of 1955, the family said.
She contributed to articles published in The New York Times, as well as the U.S. Postal Service Magazine.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam remembers Rose from time he spent in Winsted growing up and going to school with Ralph Nader. Halberstam’s mother, who taught in the Torrington school system, became friends with Rose.
"In the mid ’60s, back when Life Magazine was really powerful, they put Ralph on the cover for his auto safety stuff and my mother was very excited by it and she called Mrs. Nader. Mrs. Nader was a very, very modest lady, a wonderful lady. My mother called up very excited, and Rose Nader said, ‘Well, yes, I must go out and get a copy.’ My mother would have been buying out the newsstand," Halberstam said.
Journalist and former talk show host Phil Donahue also has fond memories of Rose. Donahue first met Ralph Nader in the mid 1960s when the young activist was a guest on Donahue’s call-in radio show in Dayton, Ohio, after Nader had published a book attacking General Motors, "Unsafe at Any Speed." Donahue, who said he was immediately taken by Ralph Nader’s commitment and tenacity, became a family friend and was a guest at Rose’s home in later years.
Nader appeared on The Phil Donahue Show more than any other guest and Rose appeared on the program, as well, to promote her book, "It Happened in the Kitchen." The book was a collection of food recipes, as well as philosophies on child rearing.
"She appeared to me to be forever upbeat," Donahue said. "She acted as though every day was a gift given to her and she opened it with glee and gratitude. She was as fine an expression of the human spirit as I have ever met, and I say this from my heart. This woman was so totally positive and happy and welcoming --she was the 20th century. She was, I think, a magnificent example of wife, mother, citizen."
Author, publisher and family friend Richard Grossman said that Rose had a combination of humor and wisdom.
"She was a remarkable woman and conjures up all the cliches about the great American dream as a immigrant person who came here in 1925 and spent her lifetime giving back to the country that accepted her," he said.
"One day, when I was about nine years old, she asked me if I loved my country," Ralph Nader said. "I replied that I did, whereupon she said, ‘Well, I hope when you grow up, you’ll work hard to make your country more lovable.’"
"She was not a person of many words, but her content contained much memorable wisdom," her daughter, Claire, said. "On child rearing formulas, Mom observed that ‘there is no recipe.’ On supporting each other, it was ‘operation cooperation.’"
Public Citizens’ Health Research Group director Dr. Sidney Wolf met Rose through his work with Ralph Nader.
"I got to know her over the years and realized what a powerful person she was and how predictably she had four children, all of whom were well-taught by her and carried forward her ideals," he said.
In addition to her children, Rose leaves behind a sister, Angele Bouziane Mokhiber; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1991. Memorial contributions may be made to The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest, P.O. Box 500, Winsted, Conn., 06098.
Karsten Strauss can be reached by e-mail at winsted@registercitizen.com.
©The Register Citizen 2006
Nader's mom 'was everywhere' Matriarch left her mark on Winsted and her family
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
BY BRYAN SUNDIE
Copyright © 2006 Republican-American
www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=1989
WINSTED -- Rose Bouziane Nader was a tourist in her own town.
The mother of activist and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader died Friday, three weeks before her 100th birthday. Friends and family say she led an accomplished life, absorbing everything her town -- and country -- offered her.
"She was everywhere," her son said Monday, explaining how his mother explored Winsted's streets. Encouraging her four children, and others, to do the same, she could have written a book on the practice, he said.
"People live in a town, even like Winsted, and they don't visit factories. They don't go to court. They don't visit the firehouse," he said. "She thought you should start as a tourist in your hometown."
It's clear she imparted her values on her son, who first planted his stake on the national stage as a consumer advocate. Ralph Nader, who is 72, was in Winsted on Monday, at the Hillside Avenue house where his mother lived for seven decades.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam lived at Highland Lake as a child and was friends with Ralph Nader during elementary school. He knew Rose Nader and her husband, Nathra, who moved to Winsted to run a business.
"I think they had this really profound sense of citizenship," said Halberstam, 71.
Nathra, who died in 1991, and Rose Nader were Lebanese immigrants. They married in 1925. He worked in several states before landing in Danbury, where he owned a grocery store.
They came to Winsted after Nathra heard about space for a restaurant.
Rose Nader worked in the Highland Arms Restaurant on occasion, usually if it was busy. Her husband loved talking about politics and justice. She did, too, but also had a real knack for child-rearing, family members said.
She explained health care to her children at the most opportune time -- when they were sick. She did not read to them, instead drawing from her memory of history and literature. And she famously gave her children chick peas instead of candy.
Rose Nader told her children -- son Shafeek, who died in 1986, and daughters Laura and Claire -- that it was their duty to improve their country. Shafeek, for example, was instrumental in founding Northwestern Connecticut Community College.
So it's no wonder her reaction was subdued when Life magazine featured Ralph on its cover in the 1960s. Upon seeing the issue, Halberstam recalled his mother excitedly calling his friend's. Rose Nader's response?
"She said, 'yes, isn't that nice. I must go buy a copy'," he said. "If it was my family, there wouldn't have been a copy left."
Rose Nader was an advocate for many causes, locally and globally, but did much of her work behind the scenes.
"She wasn't a yeller, but you should have seen her work the phones," her son said.
To Write A Monchielle (Monchielle)
by Starhiker
allpoetry.com/Column/1616570
If you decide to write a Monchielle of your own, I would be honored if you put "Monchielle" in the title of your poem, and add the following to the Author's Comment:
Many of you may not be familiar with a Monchielle, it is a form that Starhiker created... A Monchielle is as such; first line repeats in each stanza, four stanzas in total, consisting of five lines, each of six syllables, and lines three and five rhyme. The pattern is "Abcdc Aefgf Ahiji Aklml"...
An Example of a Monchielle
Sticks and Stones (Monchielle)
by Starhiker
allpoetry.com/Poem/1694407
Monchielle
A Collection by Starhiker
allpoetry.com/list/23837
Contest: Write in a new form: Monchielle
by abstract dreamer
melody.allpoetry.com/Contest/1776228*
Written January 29th, 2006
In a list
A contest entry
- hit me with your best shot by Jamais Oublier.
301 points, ended February 25, 2006, 30 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
-
No I did not know her either, and so was not personel with me, but you had a very nice poem up there with alot of meaning it was well done and had a great form with it as well nice work.
and good luck in the contest
Judge
Lucian Valcor -
Dear Gregg,
No, I didn't 'know' Rose Nader but your exhaustive Author's comment has done much to correct that.
I don't know the Monchielle form either but assume, from the inventor's comment, that you have hit the spot technically.
I hope your health is steadily improving and appreciate the notes that you leave on my Author's Page from time to time.
With best wishes and regards, Buddy,
Hugh. -
Hi Gregg! Now, this was a great Monchielle! I loved the poem! Great rhymes, great flow, and absolutely a worthy person to write a tribute to! I'm honored that you chose my form to write it!
Too bad you didn't write this for the contest, and took the first one out. 
Well, you have my applause, Gregg, you truely deserve it for this wonderful tribute!! If you write more Monchielles, please let me know, ok? 
Jim
Adding your comment:
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