To all the Mothers

[true_notes]

Happy Mothers Day!

[katinmn]

1. Thank you!

That's sweet. And welcome to DU!

I'm a mom of one.

Every year I tell her about the day she was born.
I left for the hospital when the Twins were in overtime innings during the final game of the World Series in 1997.

A couple days later, when we took her home from the hospital, I was so nervous buckling her into her carseat and then heading onto the freeway.

On the drive home a few snowflakes fell. They were the beginning of one of the worst snowstorms in our state's history. My parents, who had arrived in town after driving five hours, couldn't make it the three miles to our house for two days because of all the snow.

Now that she's older, I tell her a few more details of that day. How she tried to come out butt first, and how a pediatric heart specialist was standing by because she had an irregular heartbeat. Turned out to be an unnecessary precaution.

Now we're going to spend some time out in the garden planting some flowers I bought yesterday. My daughter likes digging in the dirt, too.

[true_notes]

2. My Mother is an Angel

She always had second hand things so my sister and I could have the best. I have nothing but the utmost appreciation for my, and all mothers out there. I do miss her sometimes, being overseas and all, but hey that's life.

[katinmn]

4. Well, I bet your mom knows you're thinking about her.

You sound like a grateful son.

[true_notes]

6. She'd better

With the flowers I sent her :)

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thank you!

:blush:

[otohara]

5. Thanks

:yourock:

[whistle]

7. Yes, happy mother's day to all DU mother's and the mother's...

...of DUers!

[kimpossible]

8. Show your mom the original Mother's Day message - Peace!

I was surprised to learn that Mother's Day really wasn't created by the greeting card industry, but was started as a women's movement for peace in 1870. See this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3613359&mesg_id=3613359

I worked parts of the WorkingForChange and CodePink articles, along with the text of the original pledge, into an email to forward to friends and family. Wouldn't it be great to turn this into one of those (usually annoying) invasively spreading, inbox-clogging, conversation-starting chain emails that everyone gets eventually?

Feel free to copy and send the message below to your list.

###########################################

Forward this to all of the mothers you know, and those who love them, in honor of the strength of the maternal spirit that links mothers around the world.

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As we pause to celebrate this Mother's Day, very few of us recall the original spirit of the holiday. This year -- as more and more mothers, in America and around the world, mourn their fallen sons and daughters, lost to the insanity of organized violence --
the importance that Julia Ward Howe gave to the act of honoring mothers in the late 1800's is strikingly relevant today.

Mother's Day is not a Hallmark holiday. It is a call to peace by women who lost their sons in the Civil War.

While best known for writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic and her stance against slavery, Julia Ward Howe was horrified by the carnage and suffering during the Civil War and the economic devastation that followed. She was also heart-broken by the outbreak of war between France and Germany in 1870, with its ominous display of German military might and imperial designs.

It's worth remembering that the Civil War, a political division that lasted longer and was considered more intractable than today's Palestine/Israel conflict or indefinite "War on Terror," was not unanimously lauded at the time. And that women thought they could do
something to prevent such bloodshed in the future.

Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother's Day Proclamation, penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
"We will not have great 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 of those of another country
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 does 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 and commemorate the dead.
Let them then 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 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.


(with credit to Julia Ward Howe, Geov Parrish of WorkingForChange.com, and Medea Benjamin of CodePink.org)
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[katinmn]

9. That's why we did this for Peace, Mom and apple pie:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3613139

[Arugula Latte]

10. Thanks.

I've had a great one!