Thus begins the Mother's Day proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe. It was a response to the horrors of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War and the first call for a "Mother's Day".
Anna Jarvis is credited with the establishment of the modern Mother's Day.
On May 12, 1907, two years after her mother's death, Anna held a memorial to her mother and thereafter embarked upon a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday. She succeeded in making this nationally recognized in 1914. The International Mother's Day Shrine was established in Grafton to commemorate her accomplishment.
It didn't quite work out the way Anna envisioned it.
She incorporated herself as the Mother's Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become. Both died in poverty.
A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment. Anna Jarvis.
More after the Fleur-de-Kos
This should be read in every pulpit and celebration this Sunday.
Mother's Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will 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, the 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 often forsaken the plough 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 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.
-- Julia Ward Howe, 1870
![](http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2102/170pxjuliawardhowe.jpg)
Mothers know, as this poem by Robert Service illustrates. It was put to music by Magpie (Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino)
Michael
Words by Robert Service (1921), music © 2005 Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino
There’s something in your face, Michael
I’ve seen it all the day
There’s somethin’ square that wasn’t there
When first you went away, when first you went away
It’s just the army life, mother,
The drill, the left and right,
That puts the stiffening in your spine
And locks your jaw up tight, and locks your jaw up tight
There’s somethin’ in your eyes, Michael,
And how they stare and stare
You’re lookin’ at me now, boy,
As if I wasn’t there, as if I wasn’t there
It’s just the things I’ve seen, mother,
The sights that come and come
A bit of broken, bloody pulp
That used to be a chum, that used to be a chum
There’s somethin’ in your heart, Michael,
That makes you wake at night
And often when I hear you moan
I tremble in my fright, I tremble in my fright
It’s just a man I killed, mother,
A mother’s son like me
It seems he’s always haunting me
He’ll never let me be, he’ll never let me be
But maybe he was bad, Michael,
Maybe it was right
To kill the enemy you hate
In fair and honest fight, in fair and honest fight
I did not hate at all, mother,
He never did me harm
I think he was a lad like me
Who worked upon a farm, I’m sure he worked upon a farm
And what’s it all about, Michael?
Why’d you have to go?
A quiet, peaceful lad like you
When we were happy so, when we were happy so
It’s them up above, mother,
It’s them that sits and rules
We’ve got to fight the wars they make
It’s us as are the fools, it’s us as are the fools
And when will it end, Michael,
And what’s the use, I say,
Of fightin’ if whoever wins
It’s us that’s got to pay? It’s us that’s got to pay
Oh it will be the end, mother,
When lads like him and me
That sweat to feed the ones above
Decide that we’ll be free, decide that we’ll be free
And when will that day come, Michael?
And when will fightin’ cease?
And simple folks may till their soil
And live in love and peace? And live and love in peace?
It’s comin’ soon and soon, mother,
It’s nearer every day
When only those who work and sweat
Will have a word to say
When all who earn their honest bread
In ev’ry land and soil
Will claim the fellowship of all,
The comradeship of toil
When we the workers all demand,
“What are we fighting for?”
Then, then we’ll end that stupid crime,
That devil’s madness, war.
Woman's organization like Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Women in Black, and yes, even Code Pink, have continued the struggle that Julia Ward Howe so clearly enunciated in 1870.
Love your Mother by working for peace.