mother's day proclamation

[niyad]

(hearts and flowers and candy aside, this is the beginning of honouring mothers in this country --took us a long time, as the honouring of mothers goes back millenia)

Mothers' Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of 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 to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a 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 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 solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his 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 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
http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/mothers-day-proclamation.html

[niyad]

1. . . .

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Thank you for this wonderful proclamation...

I think it's a shame that Mother's Day has become the commercial day that it has.

We seem to do this so much to treasured days, and I wish we didn't.

Of course, it's wonderful to get your mom (or mil or step-mom or whoever) something to honor her, but to have turned this solemn day into the highly commercialized day that we have is a shame.

The spiritual essence has been strangled by the commercial...

Recommended.

[Cal33]

3. Yes, I agree, just as Christmas has been.

[niyad]

5. with the slight different that christmas did not start as a demand for peace rather than war

[Cal33]

6. You are correct again, and I also agree that the demand for peace

rather than war should be revived. To be effective, though, it will have to be vociferous enough
so that even the corporatists will listen -- quite a tall order.

[niyad]

7. a tall order indeed. so far, we haven't found anything to reach the corporatists--they seem immune

to everything we try.

[Cal33]

I think they are immune because they, exactly, are the ones who are

responsible for most of the wars and other calamities that is befalling humankind today -- all
because of their greed and lust for money and power. They don't know when to stop, because
what they have is never enough.

[Cal33]

8. I think they are immune because they, exactly, are the ones who are

responsible for most of the wars and other calamities that is befalling humankind today -- all
because of their greed and lust for money and power. They don't know when to stop, because
what they have is never enough.

[niyad]

4. I completely agree with you. the original meaning of this day (in this country) has been completely

lost. perhaps it is time to revive it.