Happy Mother’s Day
Later in week I will post on the themes of Motherhood and Fertility in Romance Novels, but since I want to get back to reading C.L. Wilson’s Lord of the Fading Lands, today I’ll be brief.
Here in the United States Mother’s Day was started by social activist Julia Ward Howe as an attempt to unite mothers for peace. In 1870 she wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation. How little has changed in the last 138 years. Will we ever be free of violence?
The Romance Community includes women of all ages brought together through books that champion love, hope, and compassion. Could a community that is united behind the transformative power of love do anything to stand for peace? If more people read romance novels the world would be a better place. In the past year the Romance internet community (AKA Romancelandia) has raised money for protecting the Black Footed Ferret and for refugees in Myanmar, and has waged one letter writing campaign to protect the rights of women and sexual minorities and one to protect the freedom of speech on Amazon. Bloggers, by engaging in the rapid free exchange of information, can definitely make the world a better place. Knowledge is power.
Mother’s Day Proclamation 1870:
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.”
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 plough 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 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 someplace 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.
Tags: Mother's Day, Mother's Day Proclamation
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May 13, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Oh, what a great post. Good for you!
May 13, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Oh, what a great post. Good for you!