Happy Mother’s Day!
During the recent conference on non-violence hosted by our foundation (The World Ethical Foundations Consortium), four words stood out to me like no others: “Where are the mothers?”
After extensive discussions into the nature of violence and injustices in the world, my friend Agapi Stassinopulous said, “Surely mothers do not tolerate these things?”
Mothers, you have the most difficult and essential, yet least revered role in the world. You hold the future of humanity in your wombs, your hands and your hearts. You have the essential ingredients – love, empathy, compassion, intuition, pragmatism, and dedication – to move us towards a safer, more unified humanity. Speak up and stand proud when you say “I am a mother” You are not simply a mother, you are the ward of humanity’s future – we depend on you!
The poem below was sent to me through a Fork Films mailing. Fork Films is my friend Abby Disney’s company who produced the movie “Pray the Devil back to Hell.” Please watch it, it’s remarkable. It will help you recognize the value and potential you have and hold as mothers and as women.
Enjoy your special day today but remember, once you are a mother, every day is Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe, a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, was one of the first women to attempt to institute a national celebration for mothers and women’s actions towards peace.
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 our 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
