I'm taking a break from my American Axle diaries today to bring you a different kind of labor story, a Mother's Day labor story.  I'm also hoping that the strike will be ending soon and I'm hoping that I'll get to post that info in the next 24 hours.  I've got my fingers crossed on this one.

Now, for Mother's Day and giving flowers.

Come on and join me after the flip:

I am among the most fortunate people on the face of the earth.

Many people claim to have had good luck come their way. Some truly have. There are some who have won lotteries, some who have gained fame and world-renown, some whose words influence countless millions. There are some who, being in the right place at the right time, narrowly escaped some fate that could have ended their lives. Others have been very fortunate in their choice of friends, careers, or even roommates, finding connections that later redouble to their benefit.

My good fortune did not come in these packages. I did nothing to deserve it, made no move to bring it about, and had, in fact, absolutely nothing at all to do with its existence. It was there from the earliest instants of my life, though for many, many years I did not truly recognize it as the amazing boon that it was. My good fortune has been that I have known a saint. Not, perhaps, a canonizable saint––I have no knowledge of any miracles she has brought about––but a saint nonetheless. This is what I have called her for years: my mother, Saint Marilyn.

I got up this morning, had my coffee, sat down to read some diaries, look for news, and thought about my mom with a smile.  Though she died nine years ago she is always with me.  I keep wishing she and my dad were here to see this historic campaign, and to celebrate the lessons that this process is teaching us all.  After going out for Mother's Day brunch, came home and thought I'd share my thoughts about my mom, what she taught me and how you all are a part of what I've learned.

Both of my parents were teachers and instilled in me early on a love for education, critical thinking,  a joy in reading, respect for history and most importantly a love for people in all their ethnic, racial and religious diversity. They both graduated from West Virginia State University, a traditionally black college.  Though West Virginia is being portrayed as "unfriendly" to African Americans these days, the State of West Virginia produced a whole crop of college educated black folks, from  both WVA State and Bluefield State, starting in the late 1800’s.

On Mother’s Day, what better than to talk about a mother’s love for her children. And here is a mother with tender thoughts about her 2-year-old daughter, and about her own mother, and how it translates into a run for Congress against steep odds.

MORE under the fold, cross-posted on www.miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com with photos and a YouTube video of her speech.

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal, as well as Wild, Wild Left, the Peace Tree, Independent Bloggers Alliance, Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus and Worldwide Sawdust.

The corporate media, blogs and our individual attention spans are understandably consumed by the celebrity hype of presidential politics these days. Mothers Day however offers an opportunity for all of us to reflect on our society and individual families.

This mother's day I'd like to share a poem that for me is a reminder on what the many wars and conflicts in the World inflict on mothers regardless of where they are in the world, what 'race', what religion and what political persuasion.

This poem celebrates the fact that mothers the world over share in their love for their children, and their sadness for losses of their lives when they are sacrificed in the alters of senseless wars and conflicts.

A MOTHER’S TEARS, WHAT FLAVORS DO THEY COME IN?

What flavors do a mother’s tears come in?
What about her heartbroken grief,
Her sobs and cries of pain and anguish,
The pain for a child lost that sears her soul,
For a child she nursed and cared for - for years.
What flavors do a mother’s tears come in?

A MOTHER’S TEARS, WHAT FLAVORS DO THEY COME IN?

So why haven't you recommended this diary?!?

It's mother's day for chrissake!.

If I were his mother, I'd cry tears of pride everyday.  I'm sure that she is.  So I recommend that you recommend that diary.  Please.  Do it for your mother, and your grandmother, and her mother.

Ok, I have to add more verbiage to this to get it to publish.  So, again, how about recommending this diary?

I promise it'll be good for your soul.

I was going to let Mother's Day pass without comment -- or even much thought -- until I read Frankenoid's dairy on the rec list.

That got me thinking, and now I'm going to ruminate a bit.

I lost my mother on April 2, a little more than a month ago. You may be thinking I was avoiding Mother's Day because it reminds me of what I've lost and the wound is still fresh. But that actually isn't it. Mom was a low-key sort of person, and while we did celebrate Mother's Day (dinner with her favorite foods, curried chicken and carrot cake), it was never a huge deal.

As I sat at the Atlanta International airport this Friday afternoon in transit, I whipped out Sen. Obama's 1995 autobiography Dreams from my Father to finally finish it up. Sitting there beneath the overhead TV monitor, I heard something on Wolf Blitzer's CNN Situation Room about McCain's latest TV Ad starring his 96-year old mother that perked up my ears.
    I felt a twinge of sadness that the woman that Sen. Barack Obama describes so lovingly in the book I was reading could not physically be here to share in this historic moment in her son's life. In fact I recalled a response he gave to Wolf Blitzer during the interview this past Wednesday when asked what his Mom would think of him at this time. He replied:

She'd say, don't let it get to your head, just keep on working hard. But I think she'd be pretty proud. Everything that I am I owe to her. She was the kindest, most generous person I ever met. And her values and her integrity still guide me.

She is somebody who when I am confronted with difficult choices, I have to ask myself, you know, what would she -- what would she expect of me? And I think that's usually a good guidepost.

One of my favorite Seattle radio stations, 96.5 Jack FM, had a great line: "Tell your mom the three little words she has been waiting to hear all these years - I'm moving out..."

Mother's Day has, of course, become a multi-billion dollar holiday, complete with flowers, chocolates, cards, etc. But that was not how it started. Originally, Mother's Day was a profound statement against war.

It was back in the 19th century that Julia Ward Howe started Mother's day, with the goal of stopping warfare. She wrote a powerful Mother's Day Proclamation, which is just as relevant today as it was in her own day.

If only the world had listened to her!

 I don't know how many of you have seen the Mother's Day video with Chelsea and Hillary.  It's a saccharine sweet reminder to white women of a certain age that gender should be their primary reason for choosing a candidate.

http://hillaryclinton.com/...

 This is being publicized as a e-card, and she asks people to sign it with a wish for Hillary.  Since I do have a wish for Hillary today, I just couldn't resist.  Here's how I signed her card:

"Please drop out gracefully.  Don't sabotage Obama just to get the VP slot or to run again in 2012.  Happy Mother's Day.  Thanks."

When she was younger she looked just like the actress Susan Hayward.  She had auburn hair and hazel eyes that flashed when she was angry.  She was the center of attention wherever she went.  She loved to sing and dance and she was good at both.  More than anything, she loved to laugh.  She was a woman who made her own way in the world.  She was a feminist before anyone coined the term, a woman ahead of her time.  She was my mother.  

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton hadn't written that for a Mother's Day card, but it could have been appropriate.  Royalty does not tend to make good parents.  You could ask Prince Charles...or his sons, and they are dysfunctional at a time when they are only pampered mannekins.  Imagine what they would be perpetrating on each other if real power were at stake.  (Prince Philip found impaled on polo mallet.... Prince Charles belatedly discovers that many poisons are organic vegetables.)  

But on this day, we should pay special tribute to some of the worst mothers in royal history:

Here's to moms.

Here's to those moms without enough health care, to moms with enough
health care. Here's to elitist moms and working white and black and in-
between moms. Here's to egghead moms. Here's to non-egghead moms.
Here's to moms that cooks eggs for their kids and moms who don't. Here's
to moms who kind of annoy their kidlets, and here's to moms who don't.

I'm an Obama mama. My mama is an Obama mama. I designed a graphic for my mom, and put it on a T shirt and mug. I know, it's kind of late for Mother's Day, but I'm always behind the clock, it seems.
That's why, even though it's late, I am sharing the design so that YOUR Obama mom can be wished a Happy Mother's Day if you want to copy and paste the graphic at link.

With the new movie Baby Mama out and Newsweek's recent article "The Curious Lives of Surrogates", the cultural gaze is on surrogacy in a semi-positive or at least ambivalent way.  In my experience, most people who know anything about surrogacy have read news stories about custody disputes, usually in poorly thought out situations where haste was the operating principle.  So it's kind of strange to see surrogacy pulled out of Geraldo world and plastered respectably on the cover of Newsweek.

When my husband and I made the decision to pursue surrogacy three years ago,   neither of us knew anyone, in real life, who had had children via surrogacy, or had been born that way.  There are several wonderful online communities where we got most of our information.

Hey there DKos community --

I was catching up on some news last night when I came across an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens."

This seems interesting, I thought, as I read on. Everyone loves their mom.

Friends – I am saddened to say that I thought wrong.  Let me explain.

www.voteTaddeo.com

[yes, I know I am a day early, but I won't be online much tomorrow because I will be spending the day with my mom and grandmother]

A big happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

With Mother's Day coming up, I've been thinking a lot about my mom, and how lucky I have been to have such a wonderful relationship her. I've known so many people who have had really bad relationships with their parents, so I feel extremely blessed that my mother has always been there for me.

I've also been thinking about the wonderful moms I have met here on Daily Kos.