Julia Ward Howe and the Anti-war Origins of Mother’s Day – 2005-05-06 23:54:06

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Mother’s Day and Peace

Julia Ward Howe’s accomplishments did not end with the writing of her famous poem, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As Julia became more famous, she was asked to speak publicly more often. Her husband became less adamant that she remain a private person, and while he never actively supported her further efforts, his resistance eased.

She saw some of the worst effects of the war — not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause. Distressed by her experience of the realities of war, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality in its many forms) and seeing war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War, she called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms.

She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.

She failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who had attempted starting in 1858 to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.

Anna Jarvis’ daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mother’s work, and the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a memorial day for women.

The first such Mother’s Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna Jarvis had taught Sunday School. And from there the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912, and in 1914 the President, Woodrow Wilson, declared the first national Mother’s Day.

MOTHER’S DAY OF ACTION!
Children are affected most by air emissions from open burning of military wastes – take a few minutes to make a difference!

Tomorrow (MAY 6) is a national call-in day to stop proposals by the US military to open burn hundreds of contaminated buildings. If approved by EPA, the burns will result in the uncontrolled release of PCBs, dioxins, and other toxins to the environment – placing children at increased risk for serious health effects. On behalf of children’s environmental health, please join us in participating in this national call-in day:

May 6, Friday. ALL DAY – Nationwide!

Call the EPA in DC and ask them to OPPOSE exemptions allowing the military to burn PCBs at Badger Army Ammunition Plant and other US military bases.

Phone EPA at 202-564-4711

To learn more about our campaign, visit http://www.cswab.org/actionalert.html.