Mother’s Day Proclamation

Did you know that women who lost their sons started Mother’s Day as a protest to the carnage of the Civil War? Women all over the world are still losing their children to war. Here is the original Mother’s Day Proclamation, written in Boston, 1870 by Julia Ward Howe:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have heart, whether our baptism be that of water or tears! Say firmly: 

‘We will not have our 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.’

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limits of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period considered with its objects to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, and the great and general interests of peace.”

For the love of all mothers’ sons and daughters, let’s take Julia Ward Howe’s eloquent plea to heart. Let’s look around at our own lives, and search out where and how we can make peace. If you are so moved, please comment on how you will contribute to a peaceful world.