...not so we would celebrate Motherhood with cards and flowers or a Sunday brunch, but to protest warmaking, and to remind American women of the importance of Peacekeeping.

And today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi began her blogpost, "As a Mother," by invoking Ward, with her proclamation:

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.
- Julia Ward Howe, Mother's Day Proclamation, 1870

These words are from Julia Ward Howe, who called for a day in 1870 that carried a meaning different from the cards, flowers and chocolates we've come to associate with Mother's Day today (not that I mind the chocolates). After witnessing the devastating effects of the Civil War, Howe began what she called Mother's Day for Peace-a call to women across the globe to come together and bring an end to war.

This Mother's Day, Julia Ward Howe's call is particularly relevant, not just for mothers, but for all women, all men, all daughters, and all sons. We are in the midst of a war that has taken far too many of our most precious resources - our children. It is a war the American people have lost faith in and are ready to end. It is a failed policy, and we are ready for a new direction.

There are numerous reasons to end this war - the cost of lives and limbs, the cost in dollars, the cost to our reputation in the world, the cost to our military and National Guard - but it is as a mother, that I am most committed to ending this war, because war hits mothers in an especially painful and personal way. We cannot help but think of our fellow mothers as their young sons and daughters are sent off to war in Iraq - praying for their child's safety, anxiously awaiting a call, an e-mail, a letter - anything. The relief as their children return, or the utter devastation when their children never come home. We think too of the Iraqi mothers, who have lost their children, and whose children are growing up surrounded by warfare and destruction.

To read the rest of Speaker Pelosi's remarks, and the comments of her readers at The Huffington Post, just click here...