Comments on: Alice Walker blesses the P.E.A.C.E Scoot

By: Lawrence Krubner

Lawrence Krubner — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:33:32 +0000

Alix, that sounds awesome. What a fantastic event. Wonderful that she opened by defining peace. It as if the whole event had been set up to coincide with your arrival in Atlanta.

By: Amy (She-Buddy)

Amy (She-Buddy) — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:59:47 +0000

What an incredible exchange you had with Ms. Walker. Thank you so much for sharing it. Your description of the encounter, and your perspectives on peace brought tears to my eyes. Keep on makin’ it happen, girl!

By: mbf

mbf — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:23:58 +0000

…and I thought Hallmark invented Mother’s Day…

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:57:24 +0000

Did you know that Mother’s Day started as an anti-war protest? It didn’t really catch on too well, but the idea did.

I wrote a bit about it a couple of months ago when I visited the WV where the modern-day mother’s day started:

And not only that, it was (supposedly) the place where the first Mother’s Day was celebrated.

While it’s true that Anna Jarvis founded Mother’s Day in Grafton, WV, the first attempt at an American Mother’s Day was by Julia Ward Howe after the Civil War as a call for peace and disarmament. It didn’t really take since there was a political bent to it. However, Jarvis’s “just celebrate mom” (a good idea, to be sure) worked. And in 1907, we got Mother’s Day. Though, nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, Jarvis protested against what it had become: commercialized by American consumerism. Big shock.

They should have went with the original idea.