Video: Felicity Huffman, Vanessa Williams, Alfre Woodard Teach Us The True Story of Mothers Day

By Robert Greenwald, Brave New Foundation. Posted May 7, 2007.

Mother's Day is this Sunday. Chocolate or flowers? What kind of flowers? Maybe a plant...

In the past, these have been the most profound questions for many of us around Mother's Day. And now, thanks to some wonderful friends, our eyes have been opened. The original Mother's Day was not conceived to sell us stuff we don't need, it was a day started by mothers to bring warfare to an end!

Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870 calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. She had just witnessed the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War.

In honor and respect for the real Mother's Day we bring you a 21st century video reading of the proclamation with Vanessa Williams, Felicity Huffman, Christine Lahti, Alfre Woodward, Fatma Saleh, Ashraf Salimian, and Gloria Steinem, on behalf of an organization called No More Victims.

No More Victims is a non-profit organization which brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Like Salee, a ten-year-old Iraqi girl. Last November, she lost her brother and both her legs just outside her home in Hasswa. Donations to No More Victims would help go Salee to Shriner's Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina to receive six months of surgery and prosthetics services.

Robert Greenwald

See more stories tagged with: iraq, peace, brave new foundation

Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," as well as many other films. He is a board member of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet's parent organization.

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