Julia's Voice

Contact: Sara Sautter                                                      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: (913) 908-4392

Email: slsautter@gmail.com

Mother’s Day Holiday 140 Years Old This Year

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9. There are lots of things you could get for your mother––flowers, candy, dinner. But how about a more peaceful world? What mother wouldn’t want that?

After all, Mother’s Day was created 140 years ago as a way for women to speak out against war.

A Kansas group, Julia’s Voice, is working to restore that original purpose to Mother’s Day. This May 9 it will hold its third annual Mother’s Day Stand for Peace. Bring your mother, or your brother, spouse, or friend, and come stand with us on 95^th Street, between Nieman and Quivira at 3 p.m. on the 9^th. Show the world that mothers (and those who support them) are serious about making the world a safer place.

Mother’s Day was created by Julia Ward Howe in 1860 as a way for mothers, then without a vote or a voice, to speak out against war and violence. Howe was a suffragette, poet and author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” After living through the Civil War she had enough of war and the effects of war.  She created Mother’s Day as a way for women to speak out against the impending Franco Prussian war. 

Using her celebrity from her famous poetry and the Battle Hymn, she issued a proclamation calling women to action in 1860. “Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly…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."

Sara Sautter, an Overland Park religious educator and co-founder of Julia’s Voice, said, “We think that people here in Kansas and Missouri want to speak up for peace and against war. We want Julia Ward Howe’s voice to be heard once again. Let’s return this special holiday for mothers to its original intent -- a day to work for peace and against war.”

This third annual Stand for Peace on Mother’s Day will include Julia Ward Howe re-enactors, live music and a public recitation of Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation. Bring your own peace signs or we’ll have some for you.

Check out the Julia’s Voice website at www.juliasvoice.org for more information.

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