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.

__


This is how a poem by Julia Ward Howe written in 1870 begins. Having seen first hand the terrible consequences of the American Civil War, her desire was to institute a “Mother’s Day for Peace.” It would certainly be an improvement over the sentimental and innocuous holiday the we now celebrate. Perhaps it is still not too late to redefine the meaning of Mother’s Day.

Click here for the complete poem.