THIS SUNDAY IS MOTHER'S DAY. WHAT WOULD BE BETTER FOR MOM THAN A BOX OF CANDIES?

Yesterday I was sitting in the Jacksonville airport on my way home from a bloggers' conference. I had a long night ahead of me with a layover in Atlanta and an arrival time in L.A. long after my traditional bedtime-- which is normally dictated by when John Stewart brings out his superfluous guest. The Jacksonville Airport WiFi-- which they use as a major advertising point-- was broken and I was sitting and reading when two women, a mother and daughter, sat down next to me and commenced arguing. The mother insisted the plane was headed to a town they had never heard of called Denverco, although she thought Denverco might be how you say Atlanta in Spanish. I realized I wasn't going to get any reading done so I put down the book and interjected myself into the conversation.

"It's Denver, Colorado," I explained, "and the plane goes there after Atlanta." The daughter, without so much as an "excuse me," immediately got on her cell phone to tell her friends what a dolt the mother was. The mother then told me she was distraught because she and her daughter were down in Jacksonville visiting her 21 year old son who was about to head off for Iraq. He's in the Army and had recently returned from Afghanistan. He was less than eager to go to Iraq and felt the war was a terrible mistake. She told me that congressional Democrats needed to fight Bush harder, much harder. I was surprised someone who thought Denver, Co was "Denverco" or "Atlanta" in Spanish understood something that subtle. But she did. A mother would.

Next Sunday is Mother's Day, a holiday started in the U.S. after the Civil War (1870) by an abolitionist and social activist (and writer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic") Julia Ward Howe. Howe also wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
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.

Candy companies and flower companies, among many other companies, have tried-- successfully-- to turn Mother's Day in a very different direction. It's even the #1 eating out day of the year in the U.S. But our pals at BraveNewFilms have just released a short film (3 minutes) about the real meaning of Mother's Day starring Felicity Huffman, Vanessa Williams, Gloria Steinem, Alfre Woodward and Christine Lahti. It's a beautiful call for women to unite for peace in the name of children everywhere.
The film gives viewers a chance to honor the original meaning of Mother's Day after watching the video at mothersdayforpeace.com, by purchasing an e-card for their mothers. All proceeds from e-cards will benefit No More Victims, a non-profit organization which brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Contributions made through the site will go to help bring Salee, a ten-year-old girl who lost both of her legs in the Iraq war, to Greenville, South Carolina where she will receive surgical treatment and prosthetics.

Please take a look at this film and then get your friends to watch it too: