Happy Mother's Day
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Happy Mother's Day to Liz, my wife and the wonderful mother of our twins, and to Judy, my mom and hero. And a Happy Mother's Day to Alice, Carolyn, Heather, Jennifer, Sarah, Tonya, Debra and all the other moms in our family - and in yours.
Mother's Day in the United States, by the way, has roots in a proclamation made by in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, "a feminist, pacifist, poet and mother of six from Boston," reports The Chicago Sun Times.
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 unlearnAll 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 countryTo 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 meansWhereby 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 askThat a general congress of women without limit of nationalityMay be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenientAnd 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.
Decades later President Wilson declared this day a national holiday. As the Sun-Times notes, "In the Mother's Day History section of the 1-800 Flowers Web site, Howe's name is nowhere to be found."
Photos: The flowers come from our yard in Portland.