[Iowa-dx] The Real History of Mothers Day for Peace

[Libris Fidelis]

>From :  ProDemocracy Advocacy <prodemocracyadvocacy@hotmail.com>
Sent :  Monday, April 30, 2007 11:41 AM
To :  LibrisFidelis@hotmail.com
CC :  IowaGreenRon@hotmail.com
Subject :  The Real History of Mothers Day

>From :  Iowa-Peace-List@googlegroups.com
Reply-To :  Iowa-Peace-List-owner@googlegroups.com
Sent :  Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:30 AM
To :  "Google Iowa Peace List E-mail" <Iowa-Peace-List@googlegroups.com>,
  "National CW E-mail List" <National-CW-E-mail-List@googlegroups.com>
CC :  "Frank Cordaro" <frank.cordaro@gmail.com>
Subject :  The Real History of Mothers Day and Democracy Now link to
"Washington Goes Pink: Peace Group CODEPINK Makes Its Presence Known
  on Capitol Hill"

A pre Mothers Day message.
Two related items - one historical and the other current - both an 
inspiration!
Blessed Mothers Day
F Cordaro

Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Washington Goes Pink: Peace Group CODEPINK  www.codepinkalert.org
Makes Its Presence Known on Capitol Hill

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/26/1355248

-------------------------------------------

Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

(Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to 
the
carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the
original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870, followed by a bit of history
or should I say "herstory")

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

"Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant
agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with 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 our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often 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 their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but
of God.

"In the name of womanhood and of 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.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870 "
**********************************************************
also.... :

Mother's Day for Peace – Honor Mother with Rallies in the Streets
by Ruth Rosen.
..
The holiday began in activism; it needs rescuing from commercialism
and platitudes.

Every year, people snipe at the shallow commercialism of Mother's
Day. But to ignore your mother on this holy holiday is unthinkable.
And if you are a mother, you'll be devastated if your ingrates fail to
honor you at least one day of the year.

Mother's Day wasn't always like this. The women who conceived
Mother's Day would be bewildered by the ubiquitous ads that
hound us to find that "perfect gift for Mom."  They would expect
women to be marching in the streets, not eating with their families
in restaurants.  This is because Mother's Day began as a holiday that
commemorated women's public activism, not as a celebration of a
mother's devotion to her family.

The story begins in 1858 when a community activist named Anna
Reeves Jarvis organized Mothers' Works Days in West Virginia.  Her
immediate goal was to improve sanitation in Appalachian
communities.  During the Civil War, Jarvis pried women from their
families to care for  the wounded on both sides. Afterward she
convened meetings to persuale men to lay aside their hostilities.

In 1872, Juulia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the
Republic", proposed an annual Mother's Day for Peace.  Committed
to abolishing war, Howe wrote: "Our husbands shall not come to us
reeking with carnage... 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".

For the next 30 years, <United States of>... Americans celebrated
Mothers' Day for Peace on June 2.

Many middle-class women in the 19th century believed that they
bore a special  esponsibility as actual or potential mothers to care
for the casualties of society and to turn America into a more civilized
nation.  They played a leading role  in the abolitionist movement to
end slavery.  In the following decades, they launched successful
campaigns against lynching and consumer fraud and battled for
improved working conditions for women and protection for children,
public health services and social welfare assistance to the poor. To
the activists, the connection between motherhood and the fight
for social and economic justice seemed self-evident.

In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be
Mother's Day.  By then, the growing consumer culture had
successfully redefined women as consumers for their families.
Politicians and businessmen eagerly embraced the idea of celebrating
the private sacrifices made by individual mothers.  As the Florists'
Review, the industry's trade journal, bluntly put it, "This was a
holiday that could be exploited."

The new advertising industry quickly taught <United States of>...
Americans how to honor their mothers - by buying flowers.
Outraged by florists who were selling carnations for the exorbitant
price of $1 apiece, Anna Jarvis' daughter undertook a campaigning
against those who "would undermine Mother's Day with their
greed." But she fought a losing battle.  Within a few years, the
Florists' Review triumphantly announced that it was "Miss Jarvis
who was completely squelched."

Since then, Mother's Day has ballooned into a billion-dollar industry.

<United States of>... Americans may revere the idea of
motherhood and love their own mothers, but not all mothers.
Poor, unemployed mothers may enjoy flowers, but they also need
child care, job training, health care, a higher minimum wage and
paid parental leave.  Working mothers may enjoy breakfast in bed,
but they also need the kind of governmental assistance provided
by every other industrialized society.

With a little imagination, we could restore Mother's Day as a holiday
that celebrates women's political engagement in society.  During
the 1980's, some peace groups gathered at nuclear test sites on
Mother's Day to protest the arms race.  Today, our greatest threat
is not from missiles but from our indifference toward human welfare
and the health of our planet.  Imagine, if you can, an annual Million
Mother March in the nation's capital.  Imagine a Mother's Day filled
with voices demanding social and economic justice and a
sustainable future, rather than speeches studded with syrupy
platitudes.

Some will think it insulting to alter our current way of celebrating
Mother's Day.  But public activism does not preclude private
expressions of love and gratitude. (Nor does it prevent people from
expressing their appreciation all year round.)

Nineteenth century women dared to dream of a day that honored
women's civil activism.  We can do no less. We should honor their
vision with civic activism.

Ruth Rosen is a professor of history at UC Davis.

_________________________________________________________________
Mortgage rates near historic lows. Refinance $200,000 loan for as low as 
$771/month* 
https://www2.nextag.com/goto.jsp?product=100000035&url=%2fst.jsp&tm=y&search=mortgage_text_links_88_h27f8&disc=y&vers=689&s=4056&p=5117