Mother's Day Proclamation



Ruth Shippee (my mother) at the helm of the Fair Dinkum, cruising on the Erie Canal
(also in the picture: Bruce Manuel and Robert Shippee)

 Until we as a nation cease to thrive on and promote war all over the world, until we cease our empire-building,  we will continue to destroy the earth through fossil fuel extraction until there is nothing left.  Julia Ward Howe wrote a proclamation for Mother's Day in 1870.  She implored all women to seek peace and justice.

Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation" was based on her experiences as a wife and mother throughout her suppressive marriage and the atrocities she witnessed while living through the Civil War. It was her belief that women should have more social responsibility beyond tending to her husband, and she used her gift of prose to spread the message:


Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

"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.

"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."

In honor of Ruth Betty Shippee, born September 3, 1923
Dedicated to peace and justice all her life and
Still going strong!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
♥♥♥♥♥♥
Mother of six