What Mother's Day Is Really About

Thanks to a hint from Corrente, I did a bit of googling and found this:

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."

Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe

It was a reaction to the death and injury brought on by the Civil War. Something to think about in between celebrations of bin Laden's death, I think.

Of course, it has become a day to remember the wonderful people who brought us into this world:


Image credit: I Has A Hot Dog

Maybe we could remember Julia Howe's lament and apply a little of that kindness and generosity to the rest of it.

Happy Mother's Day.