How Congress can Help Mothers Every Day

Though there is dissent about its origin, the first celebration of Mother’s Day was a war protest, one envisioned as a day of peace by Julia Ward Howe—a fascinating woman—whose proclamation in 1870 urged women to come together first to “bewail and commemorate the dead” and then to “solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.” Far from being a celebration of motherhood, it was a powerful call to action. (Then, in 1908, Anna Jarvis, a West Virginian, designated a day to honor her mother; it became an official U.S. holiday in 1914.) Nearly…

© Human Rights Watch - jeudi 24 mai 2018