Mother's Day for Peace
Mother's Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe
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 answered 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 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 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 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.
Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' became a public speaker on behalf of the cause of Pece. She saw the devastation that war brought: death, disease, and maimed bodies; it created orphans and widows: it destroyed homes, cities, and economies.
In 1870, Ward began to work on behalf of Peace and equality, considering them to be the two greatest causes. She called for women around the world to come together and oppose war and commit themselves to work for peaceful resolutions to the comflicts around them. The above declaration was her call to Peace.
While she failed in her attempts to get a formal declaration for a Mother's Day of Peace, she did influence many women, including a young Anna Jarvis, who later started her own crusade to honor mothers with a special day. State after state began to celebrate mothers and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day.
If you are a mother, you wield great power and influence in the lives of your children. Teach them respect. Teach them honor. Teach them Peace. Teach them Love and charity. The path to a Peaceful world starts in the self and in the home.
One of the greatest gifts my own mother gave me was the ability to see things through another's eyes and question my own motivations and involvements in conflict situations to see what part I had played, either directly or indirectly, and how I could attempt to make things right through Peaceful means.
Happy Mother's Day, mom. Thank you for everything. And thanks for the contributions you have made to Peace.
breathe peace today for your mothers and grandmothers-
Rev. Rebecca
