Today is called Mother’s Day because it originated through the efforts of two women: Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis. Howe, who is more widely known for writing The Battle Hymn of the Republic was so horrified by the slaughter and suffering of the American Civil War and the 1870 Franco-Prussian War that she wrote a proclamation in protest.

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall 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 taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another 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 not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow 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 & 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 Caesars but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place 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.

Howe started a Mother’s movement for Peace, holding peace conferences in the US and Britain each year, in 1872 issuing her own proclamation that each year, June 2nd was to be commemorated as “Mothers’ Day for Peace.”

A day of peace activism, since Howe felt that mothers suffered as much as the soldiers because of the cruelty of war. After her death in 1910 the observance of the Mothers’ Day for Peace fell from the view of national remembrance.

Anna Jarvis had been inspired by her mother’s prayer for commemoration of all the effort and service given by mothers around the world to care for their families. In 1908 she started a national movement to honor mothers. She urged a church assembly to initiate a special day of thanks for mothers, and the church actually did that, marking the second Sunday in May for the purpose. Other churches heard of the practice, signed on to the proposal, and by 1909, 45 states, Canada. Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii had issued proclamations marking the day.

In 1914 a US Congressman and Senator introduced a joint resolution to create Mother’s Day as an official holiday.

But it is more than a day to celebrate motherhood, and certainly more than a day to take Mom out to a nice restaurant dinner, or cook a meal for her. This is the day I remember the soothing hand and the calming voice when reality had been unkind to an eight year old, or when a 16 year old stayed home because no one asked her to the prom, or any of the thousands of other unpleasantries and vicissitudes of life conspire against us.

I really think h. sapiens is quite unique, because just about very other animal on this planet cuts the cord at some point, and sends the young out into the world, alone, to learn how to survive. Nature is described as a cruel heartless creature, dooming the animals to survival of the fittest, a life of fang and claw. It is only mankind that seems to form the emotional attachment between mother and child.

A mother’s love can exist no matter what you have done. Whether it be a broken window or a broken law, she will still love you. Even if she stands before a judge and says, “Yeah, he’s a rotten bastard and he needs some time in jail,” her heart is probably breaking, because to that heart that rotten bastard is her baby.

So, to all the mothers of the world, I hope today is everything it should be, and more. Whether it’s burnt eggs in bed, lunch at McDonald’s or supper at Peter Luger’s steakhouse, or Castagnola’s at Fisherman’s Wharf, this is the day we finally remember to say “thank you” and “we love you.”

My gratitude to Real History Lisa. A woman always seems to make things easier for us, doesn't she?.