Take Back Mother's Day

Mother's Day did not begin as an exercise in commercialism, but rather, as an exercise in activism. It began by women marching in the streets, not marching into restaurants. While I'm all for honoring mothers on a special day, let's honor the visionary women who stood up and said "war is not the answer." Let us honor them by writing to Congress and the President, organizing and participating in events that will help bring an end to this current carnage in Iraq.

Mother's Day was originally created to not only end war, but to also encourage mothers to participate in the community, serving in hospitals and social welfare projects. In other words, they saw the power of the collective voice to bring about change, to raise awareness about social and economic justice. Can you imagine if mothers, instead of going to Sunday Brunch, went instead to Sunday Protest? During the 1980s, Mother's day gatherings at nuclear sites protested the arms race. Can you imagine that same effort today to help address our impact on the environment? How about a Mother's Day filled with declarations for a sustainable society, a sustainable planet, a sustainable future - because the future belongs to the sons and daughters of those mothers.

Let's restore Mother's Day as a day that honors women's civil activism, that honors women's political participation in society, that recognizes their insights into creating a culture of peace, into healing the planet. Let's begin by taking Julia Ward Howe's Proclamation and sending it to those who represent and lead us, to remind them that today, just as in 1870, war is not the answer.

Isn't it ironic we use the word "arms" to represent both the loving embrace of a mother's hug, and the weapons we use to kill their sons and daughters? Only the first can restore peace and sanity to this planet.

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

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