Mother's Day: Originally a Day for Peace

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Sun May 13, 2007 at 01:18:00 AM EST
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"Mother's Day was originally designated as a day to inspire people to work for peace. It was conceived after wars at home and abroad by American abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe." RediscoverMothersDay.org.

Besides initiating the tradition of Mother's Day, Howe is best known as the author of the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". As a pacifist during the Civil War, she witnessed the devastating effects of the conflict through her work with widows and orphans. In 1870 she wrote the "Mother's Day Proclamation," a call to women to oppose war and to convene to promote peace and be the architects of their family's -- and their own -- political futures. She presented it at international peace conferences in London and Paris , where she lamented the atrocities of not only the American Civil War, but also the Franco-Prussian War.
Howe envisioned the first "Mother's Day" as a time for women to gather, grieve and determine a peaceful solution to war.

Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" reads:

Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means / Whereby the great human family can live in peace, / Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, / But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask / That a general congress of women without limit of nationality / May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient / And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, / To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, / The amicable settlement of international questions, / The great and general interests of peace.

"President Woodrow Wilson declared an official national Mother's Day in 1914, approving the Congressional resolution to celebrate the day every year on the second Sunday in May."

If women ran the government, there would be no wars of aggression. Women, for obvious reasons, have no need to prove how big their "equipment" can be.

My oldest grandson is 3-1/2. A year ago, I feared he would end up being drafted to fight the War in Iraq as it entered its 20th year. Now we see "a light at the end of the tunnel," Henry Kissinger's famous words as the War in Vietnam dragged on.

Today, as Bush's poll numbers equal Nixon's at the time of resignation, the President should quit lying to himself and the people and tell us what we already know: This war is no longer winnable because your gang botched it from the beginning.

You, Mr. President, have no credibility left. As a nation, we have little credibility left, thanks to you. We have squandered almost all our goodwill, and over what?

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

And how many soldiers will die on Mother's Day? How many mothers will lose their sons and daughters in Iraq that day?

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Mother's Day: Originally a Day for Peace | 1 comment (1 topical)

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What an interesting (none / 0) (#1)
by HK on Sun May 13, 2007 at 08:07:30 AM EST

and informative post. Given the history of Mother's Day in the US, it is a good day to take time to reflect on the issues such as the situation in Iraq. I am not an in-your-face feminist and respect male views, values and perspectives, but I do think the world would be a better place if there were more females with active and high-ranking roles in governments as it would give more balanced leadership and maybe have a positive impact on decision making. Sadly, it seems that many of the women who choose to take on such roles see the need to behave in a masculine way, as if to compensate in some way in a rather apologetic manner for their gender.

Mother's Day (or Mothering Sunday as it is known) in the UK has different roots, dating back to religious practices in the 16th Century. We celebrated back in March. I prefer the US history better.

It strikes me, on a lighter note, that if the key focus on Mother's Day is peace, how ironic it is that those who have children are less likely to get any today :0)

Still, Happy Mother's Day to you all across the pond.