As men have often forsaken the plow and 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.

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.

~ Julia Ward Howe, Mothers’ Day Proclamation 1870

If there was ever a year to respond to the clarion call of Julia Ward Howe in her Mother’s Day Proclamation (1870), it is surely this year. Genocide, the death of so many women and children continues in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.  Countless other wars rage around the globe, destroying life along with life-supporting necessities and systems—healthcare, agriculture, education and government.  Modern-day war that targets civilians and civilian infrastructures leaves mothers without children and children without mothers.  Those who survive are facing the insurmountable task of restoration, reconstructing; of rebuilding everything from cultural institutions to social relations to university campuses and entire towns and villages.  And, they must find a way to care for those who cannot  care for themselves, a way to parent orphaned children.

Mother’s Day is not just about honoring mothers, but also about honoring  the work of courageous, activist women—mothers and non-mothers alike— and of all women (and allies) who have organized and tried to sustain “a movement” since the early 1800’s, who have struggled for peace and justice; against inequality, violence, racism and war;  for the right to vote.

The mainstream culture/media calendar chooses to “honor and celebrate” the invisible, the overshadowed and ignored, by fragmenting us one from the other, dedicating a month each year to African Americans in February and Women in March. Mother Earth gets one day in April and Mothers one day in May. Mother’s Day 2026 seeks to reconnect and reignite our commitment to work across boundaries to put an end to war and to violence of all kinds.