In honor of mothers
May 12, 2021
Elaine Phaneuf and children
Elaine Phaneuf
My original intention was to write about the various celebrations of mothers, and various collaborations of mothers throughout history in time for the May 5, Mother’s Day edition of our Advertiser. Life does not always go as planned, so my Mother’s Day column is one week late.
I recently learned about the pacifist Julia Ward Howe and her 1870 “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World”, later to be known as her “Mother’s Day Proclamation”. This proclamation was born both as a reaction to the horror of the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian and Howe’s conviction that - while still denied the right to vote - women are morally obligated to shape our society at a political level. In 1872, Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” to be held every year on June 2. Howe was unsuccessful.
While never a mother herself, Anna Jarvis was the force behind our modern Mother’s Day, established 36 years later. Jarvis was inspired by her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, a social activist and community organizer in West Virginia during the American Civil War. Ann Jarvis was a strong, brave, determined and compassionate woman. She urged the members of her ‘Mother’s Day Work Clubs’ to declare neutrality and to provide aid to both Confederate and Union soldiers.
Anna Jarvis, the daughter of a social activist, became a social activist herself with the end goal of establishing a national holiday to honor all mothers for the sacrifices they make for their children and for our society. At the time, there were no national holidays in honor of women, any group of women, or any one woman. The accounts of history often state that Anna Jarvis established our official Mother’s Day. That is not exactly true. On May 9th, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation calling for the display of our American flag on the second Sunday of every May as “...a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country…” Anna Jarvis did not establish Mother’s Day. She fought for it, campaigned for it, petitioned for it. No woman has ever had the authority to sign a presidential proclamation. Perhaps we are getting closer to a day when that could happen.
On this Mother’s Day of 2021, I was inspired to write a sort of poem. I hope it can be an inspiration to honor mothers throughout the year by collaborating to make the world a more nurturing place. On our next Mother’s Day of 2022, we can pause and take measure. I hope we will find ourselves pleased with our success.
Our children deserve
a more compassionate world.
We all deserve
a more compassionate world.
May we all be more willing
to nurture and make sacrifices
for our fellow human beings as those mothers we honor today.
May we all be more willing
to honor the sacrifices
our mothers made by honoring the children they raised
- each other.
May we all be more willing
to understand
the overwhelming pain
a mother feels at the
loss of her child,
whether to illness,
whether to combat,
whether in her arms,
or on the street.
If Mother’s Day is to
honor the sacrifices
made by mothers,
the best way we can
honor mothers
is by honoring each other.
My original intention was to write about the various celebrations of mothers, and various collaborations of mothers throughout history in time for the May 5, Mother’s Day edition of our Advertiser. Life does not always go as planned, so my Mother’s Day column is one week late.
I recently learned about the pacifist Julia Ward Howe and her 1870 “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World”, later to be known as her “Mother’s Day Proclamation”. This proclamation was born both as a reaction to the horror of the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian and Howe’s conviction that - while still denied the right to vote - women are morally obligated to shape our society at a political level. In 1872, Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” to be held every year on June 2. Howe was unsuccessful.
While never a mother herself, Anna Jarvis was the force behind our modern Mother’s Day, established 36 years later. Jarvis was inspired by her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, a social activist and community organizer in West Virginia during the American Civil War. Ann Jarvis was a strong, brave, determined and compassionate woman. She urged the members of her ‘Mother’s Day Work Clubs’ to declare neutrality and to provide aid to both Confederate and Union soldiers.
Anna Jarvis, the daughter of a social activist, became a social activist herself with the end goal of establishing a national holiday to honor all mothers for the sacrifices they make for their children and for our society. At the time, there were no national holidays in honor of women, any group of women, or any one woman. The accounts of history often state that Anna Jarvis established our official Mother’s Day. That is not exactly true. On May 9th, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation calling for the display of our American flag on the second Sunday of every May as “...a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country…” Anna Jarvis did not establish Mother’s Day. She fought for it, campaigned for it, petitioned for it. No woman has ever had the authority to sign a presidential proclamation. Perhaps we are getting closer to a day when that could happen.
On this Mother’s Day of 2021, I was inspired to write a sort of poem. I hope it can be an inspiration to honor mothers throughout the year by collaborating to make the world a more nurturing place. On our next Mother’s Day of 2022, we can pause and take measure. I hope we will find ourselves pleased with our success.
Our children deserve
a more compassionate world.
We all deserve
a more compassionate world.
May we all be more willing
to nurture and make sacrifices
for our fellow human beings as those mothers we honor today.
May we all be more willing
to honor the sacrifices
our mothers made by honoring the children they raised
- each other.
May we all be more willing
to understand
the overwhelming pain
a mother feels at the
loss of her child,
whether to illness,
whether to combat,
whether in her arms,
or on the street.
If Mother’s Day is to
honor the sacrifices
made by mothers,
the best way we can
honor mothers
is by honoring each other.