It’s mother’s day. Why the fuck isn’t someone bringing me a vodka tonic and lillies in bed with a nice side of some fried salty meat product? The Kid did go to the store all by himself and bring me donuts, but he forgot the half and half for coffee so I am mostly caffine free today. Blahhhhh.
But is this what mother’s day is really supposed to about? One day a year where we offer sappy, craptastic platitudes ala Hallmark so that we can forget everything they do the rest of the year. Just thinking about it makes me need a vodka tonic more than ever.
How about we go back the original idea of mother’s day. “What is that?” you may be thinking. Originally started by Julia Ward Howe as part of the Women’s Peace Crusade, the idea was that mother’s would no longer tolerate the death of their children in war or the death of the children on the other side of the battle.
In her own words:
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether
your baptism be that of water or of fears!
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 been able to teach them of charity,
mercy, and patience.
“We 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 devasted 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 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 and commemorate the dead.
Let them then
solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human
family can live in peace,
And each bearing after her own time the sacred
impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
I will arise, just as soon as the Kid makes coffee. Really, I’m gonna get to it.
Red Queen:
Nice post on Pandagon on the child thread, I followed the link over here and noticed you have impeccable taste in art and music. I’m the zmbs who posted on the thread. (Refers to the industry I write about).
Thanks (though I didn’t know I had posted anything about my tastes in art)
Now I have to know what zmbs stands for.
If you click on your name on the contributor list, it takes you to your blogger profile, which lists good music like The Decembrists, They Might be Giants and Monty Python movies.
Thinking of a quick handle while posting a comment is hard. I had posted at Pandagon before as Paul, but there was an earlier poster by that name on that thread, so I changed it to the lame handle “zmbs.” For a living, I write about the CMBS (commercial mortgage-backed securities) market. If you want more details, you could try me at paul@hspnews.com.