05/10/2026
Before it was brunch and flowers, it was political, and a call for peace. The roots of Mother’s Day live in the words of Julia Ward Howe. May we remember them today, and Happy Mother’s Day. To the moms, the wish they were moms, those missing or grieving their moms, the moms grieving their child, the almost moms, and all the fur moms.
An excerpt from the OG Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870 - worth a read today.
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 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 is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first 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.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
