HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

To all of the Mother's, Will-Be Mother's and Want-To-Be Mother's in the world, Issues wishes you a wonderful day!

Now For A Little History Lesson
All About Mother's Day in America

History portrays the founders and foundation of Mother's Day in distinctly different measures. Some say it was Julia Ward Howe (author of the words to Battle Hymn of the Republic) who first suggested the idea of Mother's Day back in 1872.

Others insist it was Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia who first brought the idea to the public. Personally, I prefer crediting Ms. Jarvis with bringing about the official observance of Mother's Day. Her campaign began as a remembrance of her mother, who died in 1905. Ms. Jarvis' mother, Mrs. Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, lived in Webster, West Virginia. During the 1850's she worked to organize several "Mothers Day Work Clubs" (later known as "Mothers Friendship Clubs") throughout the state, to assist in providing medicine for the poor, nursing care for the sick, and arranging medical care for those ill with tuberculosis. In 1868, Mrs. Jarvis worked to establish "Mother's Friendship Days" to bring together families that had been divided by the conflict of the Civil War.

Two years after her mother died, Anna Jarvis convinced the congregation her mother had belonged to in Grafton, West Virginia. to hold a ceremony in honor her her mother, Ann Jarvis.

After the ceremony, Anna began a massive campaign to create a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day as a holiday. One year later found nearly every state in America celebrating the holiday. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made an official proclamation commemorating Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May each year. History tells us that Anna Jarvis' accomplishment soon turned her into a bitter woman, enraged by the commercialization that overtook the holiday. In 1923, Jarvis filed a lawsuit to stop Mother's Day festival. Later she would be arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers' convention because women were selling white carnations, the symbol she had dedicated to mothers Jarvis has been quoted as saying: "This is not what I intended. I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!"

Issues wants all of our readers to keep Anna Jarvis' sentiment in mind this Mother's Day, celebrate the life of your mother, your grandmother, your neighbor's mother! Make the day one of peace and understanding, of family and all that mother's throughout the ages have stood for. Forego the commercialism, just let MOM know how special she is.

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You'll get the scoop on Sunday May 19, 2002. But go ahead Take a Peak!