The origin of Mother’s Day is rooted in an anti-war ethic, where sons are not taken from their mothers to wage war on behalf of governments

I can’t really imagine how the countless number of immigrant mothers are dealing with the violence done to their families by ICE. There is the issue of family separation, plus the trauma and the fact that separated families have less money coming in to support themselves.

Then there is the mother of Da’Quain Johnson, who had her son taken from her by the GRPD and the so-called legal system, which would not prosecute the cops that killed her son.   In March there was a rally to demand justice for Da’Quain, where his mom spoke, along with several other mothers who have had their sons taken from them by the state carceral system, by cops.

Today people all across the country will celebrate Mother’s Day, but how many people know how this holiday started? Like so many American holidays, Mother’s day has been commercialized and sanitized. Mother’s Day began in America in 1870 when Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation. Written in response to the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, her proclamation called on women to use their position as mothers to influence society in fighting for an end to all wars. She called for women to stand up against the unjust violence of war through their roles as wife and mother, to protest the futility of their sons killing other mothers’ sons.

Julia Ward Howe’s declaration rings true today, not just as an anti-war cry, but as a statement against all state violence.

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.

Imagine if the ideas and ideals of Julia Ward Howe were alive and well today. Imagine if we celebrated mothers while demanding an end to state violence, whether it is war, ICE separating families, the carceral state tearing families apart or cops killing the children of so many mothers.

Mothers deserve better, they deserve our solidarity, our care, and they deserve justice. Arise, then, mothers of this day!