Mother’s Day Founder Anna Marie Jarvis Battled its Commercialization

  

 

Mother's Day founder Anna Jarvis, right, and her own mother and inspiration, left.

Note--Our annual Mother's Day post is back yet again.

The celebration of Mother’s Day as we know it now is generally credited to Anna Marie Jarvis in memory of her mother, who died on May 9, 1905.  The first commemorative service was held at the Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia where Jarvis’s mother had been a Sunday school teacher on May 12, 1907. 

The following year on May 10 the church, at Jarvis’s urging, expanded the service to include honoring all mothers and Jarvis’s friend, Philadelphia merchant prince John Wanamaker, conducted a public observance in the auditorium of his store. 

Jarvis tirelessly dedicated herself to spreading the observance.  She wrote articles and pamphlets, lobbied city councils, state legislatures, and Congress for proclamations establishing an official observance. West Virginia was the first to act, in 1910, followed by several other states over the next years. 

Jarvis’s efforts paid off on May 8, 1914 when Congress established the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and requesting the President issue a proclamation. Woodrow Wilson wasted no time, issuing his proclamation the next day, May 9, the official birthday of the Federal observance.  

  

By 1914 when Woodrow Wilson issued the first official national Mother's Day Proclamation, greeting card companies were already busy peddling sentimental cards like this one.

Wilson’s proclamation directed Americans to show the flag in honor of mothers who had lost sons in war.  That part of the declaration is an indication that Wilson was probably aware of the earlier efforts of Julia Ward Howe to establish a Mother’s Day observance to protest war. 

Ward’s moving Mother’s Day Proclamation was written in 1870 in reaction to the carnage of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War and called for women across the globe to unite to end war.  Although that noble effort never produced either the movement or the observation that Howe had hoped for, the effort was well known.  When Howe died only four years earlier in 1910 full of honors as the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the most famous American woman of letters, her obituaries revived interest in her effort, particularly among pacifists.  

 

The memory Howe’s Proclamation has been revived by the peace and feminist movements and by her Unitarian Universalist faith community and has been re-connected to Jarvis’s celebration.

By the mid-1920’s Jarvis and her sister became embittered at the commercialization of the holiday they worked so hard to create.  The sisters spent the rest of their lives and all of their inheritance battling that trend.  They trademarked the names Mother’s Day and Second Sunday in May to try to keep merchants from using them.  But there were too many fires to put out and not enough lawyers in the world to stamp out flagrant infringement.  At least once she was arrested for protesting.

Card companies, florists, candy companies, restaurants, and merchants still hype Mother's Day, the third most important gift-giving day of the year behind only Christmas and Valentine's Day.

Merchants, and especially the greeting card manufacturers that Jarvis particularly loathed, actually organized and launched a counterattack portraying her as demented and obsessed.  They even questioned her patriotism.   Since newspapers profited handsomely from Mother’s Day advertising, they were more than happy to abet the smear campaign.

 Anna Jarvis's gravestone.

Jarvis and her sister spent their last dime in the fight and were reduced to abject poverty.  Anna never married or had children of her own.  Mother’s Day was her child and she fought fiercely to the end to defend its honor.

She died in obscurity in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1948 at the age of 84.

Ironically, many of the same merchants and business interests that had once vilified her later found it useful to enshrine her in legend, taking great care that her distaste for what the observance had become was carefully omitted from their new version of the founding myth—along with any mention of Julia Ward Howe’s earlier effort.

The Pill, the Sexual Revolution, the MAGA Backlash

                                                                       A Canadian bottle of Searle's Enovid contraception tablets a/k/a The Pill. 

Note--Last week a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked access to Mifepristone by mail making it accessible through local pharmacies.  That essentially would have prevented women in states with abortion bans and many women in rural and underserved served areas across the county with local pharmacies from obtaining reproductive care at critical times.  The Supreme Court stayed that rulling on Monday until it can hear arguments on the appeal.  The reprieve may be temporary.  The Conservative majority may well uphold the ruling.  It is the most consequential attack on abortion since the Court overturned Roe v, Wade.  We take a look back at the introduction of another medication that kicked off the Sexual Revolution and the second-wave Feminist movement.

It’s hard to believe that only sixty-six years ago today in 1960 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved marketing G. D. Searle Pharmaceutical Corporation’s Enovid as an oral contraceptive.  That makes May 9 sort of the birthday of The Pill. 

Of course, its story goes back earlier.  Pioneering birth control advocate Margaret Sanger long sought a safe and reliable form of contraception that women themselves could use and control unlike condoms.  In 1953 she brought her long-time associate and supporter Katharine McCormick together with noted hormonal biology researcher Dr. Gregory Pincus who had been trying to develop a contraceptive since 1951.  McCormick, a wealthy widow, agreed to finance Pincus’s research and pay for trials of a breakthrough drug.  

Dr. Gregory Pincus--the Father or maybe step father of The Pill.

Pincus had tried to convince Searle to support his research, but the company was afraid of becoming involved in such a controversial project.  A Searle researcher, Frank Colton, however accidentally discovered a formula that had a contraceptive effect.  Pincus was allowed to use it in his research and conduct trial tests.  Two million dollars of McCormick’s money financed the tests. 

In 1957 Searle agreed to market the drug when the FDA approved it for use in treating hormonal imbalances in gynecological cases.  Doctors recognized that it also was an effective and safe contraceptive and began to prescribe it for that purpose even without official FDA approval for that use.  Searle marketed the drug but kept a low profile.  

The Pill was the fulfillment of Margaret Sanger's long cherished dream of reliable contraception that women could use and control themselves.  She swung the full strength of Planned Parenthood behind a campaign to get it legalized for all women in all states.

Sanger and her organization, Planned Parenthood, actively campaigned for FDA approval.  That approval finally came on this date in 1960.  

Timid and reluctant Searle quickly realized that they had a license to print money as women stormed their doctors’ offices to demand the Pill. 

Although the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960, contraceptives were not available to married women in all states until Supreme Court ruled in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 and were not available to unmarried women in all states until the Eisenstadt v. Baird case in 1972.

The Pill is widely viewed as having far reaching cultural and behavioral consequences.  Just as conservatives had feared, one of the first notable affects was to liberate women sexually.  With the Pill they could and did become sexually active in the way that only men could be before.  The Sexual Revolution   of the ‘60s and early ‘70s would not have been possible without the Pill and the widespread availability of effective antibiotics for the treatment of venereal disease.

The Pill liberated women from the slavery of compulsory motherhood.  Women were able to be sexual beings, delay marriage and/or motherhood and enter the workforce in unprecedented numbers as self-supporting human beings.  

I doubt that this is a real ad--most likely a paste-up job either as satire or as part of an anti-Pill campaign.  But it does accurately suggest the sense of sexual liberation and empowerment /The Pill brought to millions of young women.

Most women did eventually elect to become mothers, but it was more on their own terms, at significantly older ages, and they tended to have small families with one or two children instead of the big, multi-children families that had earlier been standard.  The children that were born were both wanted and planned for.  The Pill both changed and enhanced the experience of motherhood.  

 

The rise of AIDS and a near pandemic of other sexually transmitted diseases took the wind out of the sails of the Sexual Revolution.

Although the Sexual Revolution was slowed by the stark realities of the AIDS  epidemic in the 1980’s, women still relied on the Pill—now available in a variety of compositions and dosages—to regulate family planning.  It became second nature and taken for granted. 

While big cultural battles were fought over abortion, however, a combination of quiet but persistent agitation by the religious right, soaring costs, and the increasing lack of insurance meant that contraception was harder for many women to find and afford.  Encouraged by the capture of several state governments by ultra conservatives who began to succeed in limiting abortion by making it as difficult and expensive as possible to obtain, religious right operatives turned to similar strategies to make it harder for women to obtain contraceptives.

Unplanned pregnancies, particularly among the young and uninsured, are once again on the rise.  Women are slowly becoming aware that gains thought secure decades ago must be fought for again.     

Religious Right zealots and right-wing activists have targeted The Pill and Planned parenthood with alarming success.

It may be hard for the American Taliban to force the genie of independent women back into the bottle.  But they are trying mighty hard.  Perhaps it’s time for women and their allies to smash the bottle itself.

                                     

Walking the Walk and Compassion for Campers Update for May 8 2026

 May Day in McHenry.

Look for new opportunities for action, education, community, and solidarity in and around McHenry County here every week.  

 Walking the Walk  

Woodstock Pride Fest--June 13-14 Annual family-friendly events celebrating the LGBTQIA+ Community. Multiple special events.  Pride Parade and the Festival on the Square 11 am to 4 pm.

Ride/Walk to Leave a Light On--On and around Woodstock Square, Friday, June 19 7 pm.  Benefiting Break Crystal Lake Teen Center, Compassion for Campers, Community Connection for Youth, IMC--employment, education, health, and housing services, Jail Breakers, Lemonade & Advocate, Live4Lali, and Woodstock Pride.

The McHenry County Juneteenth Festival will be held on Saturday, June 20, from 3 to 5:30 pm on Woodstock Square Woodstock.

Compassion for Campers 

Friday, May 1 turned out to be the last C4C distribution at Community Resource Days at Willow Crystal Lake.  New leadership at Willow's home church announced a suspension of services at least until the Fall on May 24.  Our own resources are exhausted and we could not afford another on May 14.  

More disappointing news--Sue Rekenthaler reported: " McHenry County denied our request because our compassion seemed to just be making our homeless friends more comfortable! That was the point exactly! Give someone shelter from the rain, a warm sleeping bag, a stove to heat up a can of soup. County funds were low, so I guess don't help the most vulnerable in our community. Am I angry? Somewhat. Am I surprised? No. In a republican county like this-not surprised. Am I defeated? No way. Our Compassion for Campers program will explore over sources. For now, I am very sad and disappointed. The video of the committee's comments can be seen online on the meeting portal."  Sue is grateful for an outpouring of support and offers to help as the news spread

C4C hopes to continue our service to the unhoused.  Sue, Chaplain Dave Becker of Tree of Life UU Congregation, and existing and potential church partners are considering options going forward.  Meanwhile, your continued support is critical. Until we find a new venue, we will not be able to accept material donations due to lack of storage space.  The best thing you can do is offer your critically needed financial support to get us through this emergency.  Money donations are always welcome at     https://tinyurl.com/3bz96axe.   Look for updates here.  Email compassionforcampers@treeoflifeuu.org .

Tree of Life UU Congregation Finds New Home in Ridgefield

The historic Ridgefield/Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church is welcoming Tree of Life UU Congregation to share its facilities, TOLUUC will worship in the modern addition on the right at the same time the host holds their service in the sanctuary of the old church. 

Two of the oldest congregations in McHenry County will share space and fellowship starting this Sunday, May 10 at 10 am at 8505 Church Street in Ridgefield.  The Ridgefield/Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church (RCLPC) was organized in 1839 and has occupied their classic New England-style meeting house since 1872.  The First Congregational Church of Woodstock was organized in 1866 and built a church near the Square.  A new brick building on the same site opened in 1906.  Through various name changes the congregation evolved and moved to McHenry in 2013 and became the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation (TOLUUC).

When TOLUUC decided they needed to sell the McHenry property, the Congregation began a search for potential partners with which to share worship space.  RCLPC was clearly the best match and was eager to move forward.  The building in McHenry on Bull Valley Road will be continuing its role as a religious gathering place as Sikh group, Gurdwara Kukh Nivaran Sahib bought the building and anticipate holding their first service in August 2026. 

At the last service in the McHenry building on April 26 members made a symbolic recessional behind the Chalice, pulpit banners, and other Congregational symbols.

The Congregation will also be joining the McHenry County Jewish Congregation (MCJC) who's former synagogue was located less than a mile away in Ridgefield and who shared TOLUUC's worship space for a year.  

A banner at Ridgefield/Crystal Lake Presbyterian proclaims the new partnership.

This is not a merger or consolidation.  TOLUUC service will be held in the Fellowship Hall while the RCLPC congregation will have their worship service upstairs in their sanctuary. We plan to gather after service to enjoy a combined fellowship hour with coffee and treats.  While Tree of Life, RCLPC and MCJC will all offer their own worship services, programs, identities, and governance we are looking forward to supporting each other around projects and causes we share in common. 

Flower Communion in McHenry.

Tree of Life's first service in the new facility this Sunday will celebrate the multi-congregational shared church building with Rev. Matthew Johnson, Congregational Life Consultant from UUA MidAmerica Region.  Chaplain Dave Becker will officiate with an observance of Flower Communion, originated over 100 years ago in Czechoslovakia and cherished by UU congregations around the world, celebrating the beauty of our uniqueness and diversity, interconnectedness, life, and community.  Members and friends are invited to bring a flower or two from their yard, garden, local florist, nearby field or store to share with all in the multigenerational ceremony.  It will also commemorate Mother's Day.

After the service everyone is invited for a social hour shared by our new friends from Ridgefield/ Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church.

The service will be shared on Zoom.  Join from Zoom Workplace app - Zoom or from your bowser. 

  

The Nazi Surrender Ended Fighting in Europe but Not the World War

A French post card depicting the German surrender at Reims from a painting by Lucien Jonas for the Musee de l' Armee in Paris.

On May 7, 1945 representatives of the German High Command signed articles of unconditional surrender to the Allies at a French school house in Reims used as the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). 

It was apparent for weeks that the German position was hopeless.  Pressed on all sides, the Soviets were about to take Berlin when Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker leaving Grand Admiral Karl Donitz as his successor as President of the Reich.  Dönitz realized his only duty was ending the war as quickly as possible on the best possible terms for Germany.  He immediately began back-channel negotiations. 

Meanwhile, German armies began surrendering regionally.  German forces in Italy lay down arms on May 1.  Berlin surrendered on May 2 and two separate armies north of Berlin capitulated. 

On May 4 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of all German forces in Holland, Northern Germany, Denmark and all naval forces in the area.  General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedberg, acting on orders from Dönitz initially offered surrender to Western allies alone leaving the option for his troops to turn around to face the Russians.  Montgomery coldly refused leaving the Germans no other choice by surrender. 

The same day troops in Bavaria, the state whose mountains were once considered as a fallback position for a drawn-out campaign of guerilla resistance, surrendered.  From the Channel Islands—held by Germany even after the Normandy Invasion—to Prague one after another German forces capitulated. 

Dönitz was informed that any surrender had to be conducted by a representative of the German High Command.  This was because the Allies did not want a repeat of the Armistice of the First World War which was signed by the government, not the military leading to the charge that the Army had been “stabbed in the back,” a key propaganda point when Germany re-armed. 

On May 6 Dönitz dispatched Colonel General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the German General Staff to Reims with orders to offer surrender to Western forces only—exactly the same terms turned down my Montgomery two days earlier.  Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower harshly excoriated Jodl and bluntly demanded unconditional surrender to all allies or face continued prosecution of the war.  Informed of the terms, Dönitz wired his consent.  

Celebrating after the German surrender at Reims were General Ivan Susloparov, General Walter Bedell Smith, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder.

At 2:41 local time Jodl signed the Instrument of Surrender.  Eisenhower pointedly and as an intended snub did not personally accept or sign for the Allies assigning his Chief of Staff, the brusque General Walter Bedell Smith, to be principal signer for the Allies.  Also signing was General Ivan Susloparov, Soviet liaison to SHAEF.  Susloparov signed before he could get full authorization from his government so it was understood that a second surrender would be signed with the Soviets on the Eastern front.  French Major General François Sevez signed as the official witness. 

The surrender of all hostile forces was set for May 8, 11:01 pm Central European Time.  Shortly after midnight on May 8 the second surrender signing was conducted at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin.  Marshal Georgy Zhukov, of the Soviet High Command was the principal Allied signatory and was joined by British Air Chief Marshal Arthur William Tedder, as Deputy Supreme Commander SHAEF. American Lt. General Carl Spaz, Commander of United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe; and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny of the First French Army were witnesses.  Signing for the Germans were Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff of the Luftwaffe; and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces also signing on behalf of the Army.  The signing was completed fifteen minutes after midnight. 

By the terms signed in Rheims, fighting had already ceased just over an hour earlier.

When the news of the surrender broke there were joyous street celebrations like this one in London.

News of the end of the war in Europe broke on May 8, with spontaneous celebrations erupting across Europe and North America.  Street celebrations in Britain and France were especially jubilant.

President Harry Truman announced the end of the war in a somber broadcast with the words that “Flags of Freedom fly all over Europe today,” while reminding listeners that the war against Japan continued.  The knowledge that a long bloody war against Japan might still stretch ahead with American troops taking most of the casualties in a final assault against the home islands somewhat restrained celebrations in this country.

This knowledge also haunted many allied troops in Europe, who knew that they might be shipped to the Pacific.  Indeed, some Air Force and Naval units were almost immediately re-directed and some of the crack U.S. Airborne, Infantry, and Armored divisions which had been in the thick of fighting for months were slated for re-assignment, as were many individual G.I.s whose units would be dissolved.  

Isolated German units continued to surrender for about a week.

Not all fighting ended on May 8. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner of the Army Group Centre fought on in Austria and Czechoslovakia, but the Soviets turned all of their considerable might against him and by May 15 ceased all offensive operations with mop up in Czechoslovakia completed. 

The last battle in the war took place on May 15 in Slovenia and the last shots were fired on the Dutch island of Texel where Ukrainian prisoners of war had rebelled against the German occupiers on April 5 and kept up a guerilla campaign against them.  The German garrison had simply been forgotten in the shuffle and was afraid if they surrendered to the Ukrainians they would be executed en masse.

A final bit of business was dissolving the German Government under Dönitz.  The Allies had concentrated so hard on getting the armed forces to lay down their arms that they had neglected to demand that civil authority be transferred to them.  Worse, they had neglected to outline how a military occupation would work.  On May 28 a rather junior British officer was dispatched to the town of Flensburg to read to Dönitz Eisenhower’s edict dissolving the government and arresting all of its members.

In the meantime, local commanders took charge where they were.  On June 9 the Allies officially signed a Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers taking over civil authority at all levels in occupied Germany. 

Details of the shape of the occupation—and of the post war world—were agreed to at the Potsdam Conference by Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced after this agreement was reached at the Conference by Clement Attlee when Churchill stunningly suffered an election loss) and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. The agreement divided Germany, and its capital of Berlin in zones of Allied control. 

On December 13, 1946 President Truman finally declared that hostilities between the United States and Germany had ceased. 

Yet the war was not technically over.  Even after the establishment of the German Federal Republic (West Germany) as a U.S. ally and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949, the U.S. felt it needed the fiction of an official state of war to maintain authority for stationing troops in Germany. 

Congress adopted a resolution declaring a formal end to hostilities in 1951.  Official occupation continued until 1955 when the West German government was given full sovereignty.  

The less dramatic and nearly forgotten final official end to World War II with the signing of Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany in 1990.  Seen Left to right:  Roland Dumas (France), Eduard Shevardnadze (USSR), James Baker (USA), Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FRG), Lothar de Maizière (GDR) and Douglas Hurd (United Kingdom). 

In September 1990, more than 45 years after the surrender the Four Powers—the U.S., Britain, France, and the U.S.S.R—finally signed a Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany with both German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic which allowed the two German states to unite, which they did on October 3, 1990.  The war was finally, officially over.