Put me down for a no vote on the Mother's Day resolution as well...

[JackRiddler]

Finally, I can side with the Republicans on something. I support their "NO" vote on Mother's Day.

The distraction here is not that the Republicans asked for a logged vote, but that Congress should spend even a quarter-second considering such self-aggrandizing nonsense resolutions in the first place. Coming up next on C-SPAN, the House considers the Brush Your Teeth America Resolution of 2008.

And need I remind anyone that this is happening while Congress searches for a way to re-enable the Rape of Iraq?

Granted, Mother's Day was begun in the 19th century by the Ladies' Temperance League of Earnest Christian Do-Gooders, or some such. But it came to prominence solely as a capitalist promotional event for Hallmark cards, florists, candies, etc. That is the only reason it is known to us today.

It's not the role of these mercenary outfits to emotionally manipulate my mother, or to interfere in my relationship with her, or to make her expect that my love and devotion should be measured on this day as opposed to any other that she or I may choose. It's none of their business and very fucked up, in fact. And it's sad that so many of you will think this is no big deal, the interference of commerce in our relationships with relatives, the accordant brainwashing of the children (love for mom = card and gifts, long as they cost money).

[boobooday]

1. The original Mother's Day was an anti-war event

Created by women who no longer wanted their children to die in war. You can see why Hallmark had to take over.

[JackRiddler]

2. Why thank you! It's true...

Just did the "research" (google 4 seconds and see what you find) and discovered the following:

http://www.chiff.com/a/mothers-day-origins.htm

Howe was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. Her family was well respected and wealthy. She was a published poet and abolitionist. She and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, co-published the anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth. She was active in the peace movement and the women's suffrage movement. In 1870 she penned the Mother's Day Proclamation. In 1872 the Mothers' Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June was held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official holiday. The Mothers' Peace Day was the beginning of the Mothers' Day holiday in the United States now celebrated in May.

The modern commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains, in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the United States...


Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered 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 bosum of a 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 our 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 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.

Which makes this Hallmark perversion all the more disgusting. But even grosser is that the Congress, while hammering out an extension of an aggressive war, finds time for a worse-than-meaningless "Mother's Day" resolution without a hint of its origins as a peace action.

[boobooday]

3. Yeah, isn't that nice?

I remember coming across that a couple of years ago. Wouldn't it be nice to hear it read on Mother's Day?

Or imagine someone reading it into the Congressional Record during their waste of time discussion of mother and apple pie.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Just because some people allow their beliefs to be perverted...

...doesn't mean everyone else has too.

Siding with republicans on any issue is a sure sign of failing mental capacity; you should get yourself checked.

As far as the resolution goes, meh. No big deal. They do it all the time, it's nothing to get worked up about.

If it was a law, Dubya would probably add a signing statement to it.

[JackRiddler]

5. Speaking of failing mental capacity...

1) Inability to detect irony is often a sign.

2) Please identify the logical fallacy in the following sentence, and pledge never to repeat it: "They do it all the time, it's nothing to get worked up about."

[ColbertWatcher]

8. I accept your apology.

[blondeatlast]

6. Your poorly informed false outrage is noted, thank you. nt

[JackRiddler]

7. So why don't you explain what's so important about the Mother's Day vote please?

thank you.

[JackRiddler]

9. kick for mom