This statement for Mother’s Day, 2025, by Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer, of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), is from their Facebook post. Their posts come out on Mondays and are part of a series called, “ASK WELFARE RIGHTS!”
DETROIT, MI —Worship services worldwide celebrated the day we honor the ladies in our lives on the holiday we call, “Mother’s Day.”
Always, the essence of this celebration is wrapped up in the purchases we make highlighted by flowers, candy, and assorted gifts made to honor women, but the history might get lost in the pageantry of these current practices.
Julia Ward Howe, [a 19th century abolitionist] who was commenting on the after effects of the Civil War was one of the first to issue a statement about what Mothers really wanted. And that was peace. She saw what war meant and how families were torn apart in ways that she felt, should not be, so she wrote part of this passage below to have readers focus on what Mother’s Day should NOT be about: Arise, then, women of this day!
“Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided 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.’”
Seems like a statement that has no place in the world today as we wake up each morning surrounded by wars in several countries that have no place in civil society. Ms. Julia wrote about peace and that we should find ways to get along with and honor the men and women in all countries in a collective effort to NOT have men or women bloodied on too many fields of battle.
On yesterday, Mother’s Day of 2025, celebrations were held that lifted MOMS, GRAND-MOMS, AUNTIES, SISTERS, and all the women who have stepped forward to care for others to honor their strength and their love toward us all as we work to share the GOOD NEWS about the peace we are all working toward. Ladies…’ from our lips, to God’s ears’…
