WHAT MOM WANTS, MOM SHOULD GET
By J.C.Cordova, D.Min., LCSW
In the United States, the second Sunday of May of each year is reserved to honor our
mothers, officially beginning upon proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
Mother's Day is always full of glee, celebrating the lives of our mothers with us and
honoring and paying homage to the memories of mothers no longer with us.
Actually, Mother's Day is much more than a day of celebrating mom's life the way
present day celebrations go. In America, Mother's Day was first conceived in 1870 by
Julia Ward Howe, author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Howe was prompted by the
death of so many men in the raging American Civil War threatening to destroy life in the
United State. Miss Howe called on all the American mothers to publicly protest the
senseless massive killing of their husbands and sons battling each other for factional
supremacy over state secession. Mother's Day was moms calling for the end of
hostilities and a restoration of harmony among brothers.
To this day, mothers are calling for the stopping of the carnage going on in the streets
of our cities, where people kill each other not only for political reasons but over personal
minor and major conflicts. Everyday the news media reports more atrocities than the day
before only to be opaqued by worse reports the following day.
As a chaplain for thirty years in the Harris County jail system, I have heard in person and
through the phone lines the daily cry of mothers and wives seeking help for their sons,
daughters and husbands incarcerated on violent charges. Mothers also hurt when their
law enforcement children die in the line of duty enforcing the laws of the land. And they
suffer and mourn inconsolably over the death of their soldier sons and daughters
fighting in war to defend long upheld values.
The best gift mothers can receive, which they do want, not just in mother's Day but
throughout the year, is the secession of aggression of people against people, whose
wives and mothers they are. Yes, honoring mom in her appointed day is essential. Yet,
as moms of days gone by, mom wants more. She expects for us her children to give top
priority to working hard toward restoring harmony to a world in conflict with itself.