My annual protest of the smarmization of mothers and the trivialization women's concerns includes sharing the moral outrage of Julia Ward Howe's 1870
Original Mothers Day Proclamation:
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
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.
A prominent poet, pacifist, abolitionist and social activist, Julia Ward Howe penned this passionate call in revulsion to the wasteful carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War.
An early feminist, Julia believed that women had a sacred obligation to shape their children, their families and their societies public arenas, not cloistered at home. She saw all women as teachers of virtues like "charity, mercy and patience." Most popularly remembered for writing the stirring Battle Hymn of the Republic, she would certainly be out of patience -- and probably out protesting -- today.
The sword (or gun or taser) of murder is not the balance of justice.
We’ve yet to have the “general congress of women” she called for -- although the need has never been greater. Most everyone has had it with great questions about our lives being decided by irrelevant agencies. We're living with endlessly proliferating wars, even though blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
No bouquets, thanks. Instead, how about if the "great human family" learns to live in peace, okay?
Ideological wars against knowledge, science, common sense, human decency and Mother Earth herself prevent the alliance of the different nationalities and the amicable settlement of international questions,
We all have the same Mother: Earth. She's the one whose lessons we need to learn, whose wellbeing should be in our hearts, whose care should be on our minds. Every day. Not just Mothers Day. Right, Julia?