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Put down your brunch forks for a minute... |
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Written by Trish Elliott
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Saturday, 07 May 2011 |
 In 1870, poet and activist Julia Ward Howe penned a Mother’s Day proclamation calling on women to “promote the alliance of the different nationalities; The amicable settlement of international questions; The great and general interests of peace.”
She didn’t ask for chocolates and flowers. She asked women to join
together and take action for peace and justice – in their lives, in
their communities and around the globe.
So go out and do something active on Mother’s Day!
To be inspired by Julia’s proclamation, click ‘read more’ below.
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.
"We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
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 then 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 some place 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.
Taking up the Mother's Day call, Anna M. Jarvis campaigned state by
state to establish an annual official Mother’s Day to promote peace, and
by 1910 Mother’s Day existed throughout most of the U.S. and Canada.
But
Jarvis grew upset by the rapid commercialization of the day. Taking aim
at the flower industry, she asked what the “charlatans, bandits,
pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites” who profited from
Mother’s Day had done lately for world peace.
She ended up being arrested for, ironically, "disturbing the peace" at
an American War Mothers’ event, where flowers were being sold instead of given.
Now that's what I call a mother of a
day!
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 07 May 2011 )
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