(NAME-MCE) Mother's Day

[bchakraborty at NJCU.edu]

Thank you for sharing this information about Mother's Day!
 
 Basanti Chakraborty



---- Original Message ----
From: Sandra BERNABEI <ssbernabei at aol.com>
To: NAME-MCE - National Association for Multicultural Education Email Discussion Group <name-mce at nameorg.org>
Sent: 5/11/2008 8:49:43 AM
Subject: Re: (NAME-MCE) Mother's Day



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
>
>
>
>
>
> **************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on
> family
> favorites at AOL Food.
> (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
> _______________________________________________
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