May 12, 2007

The milk of human kindness

Robert Greenwald, director of Iraq for Sale, has put together a promo to help victims of war in honor of the meaning behind Mother's Day:



from The Mother's Day for Peace...

In 1914 the US declared our first national Mother's Day, as a day to show the flag in honor of mothers whose sons had died in war.

'Did you know that originally, way back in 1870, Mother's Day was envisioned as a time for women to come together and unite for peace? When we discovered this, it became clear that the time was perfect to put together a piece highlighting Julia Ward Howe's original and inspirational Mother's Day proclamation, which declared, "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."

Julia Ward Howe was a poet, writer and activist who fought vigilantly for peace, the abolition of slavery, and women's rights. In 1860, she penned the Battle Hymn of The Republic ["where the grapes of wrath are stored"] to inspire Union soldiers fighting in the war, but the horrors of the war later moved her to campaign tirelessly for peace. She served as president of the American branch of the Women's International Peace Association, and in 1870 she wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation.'

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