Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

by susan
Mother's Day was no big deal around our house. My mother proclaimed it a contrived Hallmark occasion to sell cards and so she wasn't buying it and we didn't have to either.

But, it seems, my mother had it wrong. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, (yes, she of the Battle Hymn of the Republic) proclaimed the first Mother's day, and called on women every where to stand up against war and the senseless slaughter of our children.

"We will not have 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 taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." More below.

I was set straight on this first by Betty Tisel, chair of the board of MOMbo inc., a radio resource for moms, and encouraged to attend MOMbo's celebration of Mother's Day -- in the spirit of Julia Ward Howe, not Hallmark -- at the Lake Harriet band shell on Sunday, 2 p.m. rain or shine. According to Tisel, the gathering will feature a motherlode of talent, including Thomasina Petrus and Leslye Orr reading the Mother's Day Proclamation for Peace. There will be music, prose, poetry and Heart of the Beast puppets, emceed by MOMbo radio host, Nanci Olesen. More info on this cool way to spend Mum's day is at the link above.

Then Queen Noor of Jordan chimed in, with a plea for peace of her own, citing, of course, Julia Ward Howe.

So, I get the message, and give you below, the original Mother's Day Proclamation for Peace. You won't find it printed behind the embossed roses of a Hallmark card.

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Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have 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 taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to 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 not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often 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 & 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 Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may 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.