(NAME-MCE) Mother's Day

[Sandra BERNABEI]

Thank you so much for this wonderful history.  I sent it off to  
everyone I know.
Happy Mother's Day!
LET'S GET BACK TO WORK!

Sandy Bernabei
www.antiracistalliance.com

On May 10, 2008, at 7:52 PM, MCCANN3 at aol.com wrote:

>
>
> Thought I would pass along a little history about Mother's Day. Mark
>
>
>
>
> 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 "her  story"):
>
>
> 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
>
> *************************************************************
>
>
> Mother's Day  for Peace - by Ruth Rosen.
> Honor Mother  with Rallies in the Streets. 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 persuade men to lay aside their  
> hostilities.
>
> In  1872, Julia 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, Americans celebrated Mothers' Day for Peace  
> on June
> 2.
>
> Many middle-class women in the 19th century believed that they bore  a
> special responsibility 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 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
> campaign 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.
>
> 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.
> Reprinted with  permission
>
>
>
>
>
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