Commentary: Another look at Mother’s Day: By D.R. Miller

• Millions of post cards and flowers will be delivered.
  
• Many will be celebrating on this day, and some will not.
• More will be lost to violence before this day ends.
• Some are still looking to reconnect, while others simply want to disconnect.
• Many still wish she was here.

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Many records have shown that in 1908 Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish “Mother Love” and later US President Woodrow Wilson recognized it in 1914. Other records show it dated back to the 1600 in England, and it was celebrated during Lent. Today, other countries celebrate it at different times.
Regardless, she has become the centre for that day. In many industrialized and developed regions, Mother’s Day has grown to a multibillion business from gifts, jewelry, and flowers. The commercialization and profitability often ignore the intangibles, and at times the missing links. However, society has evolved, so now a child can have two moms, and the gratitude it brings remains intact.

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On this day, if I had asked you to send a list of why this person is so special, I believe I could write a book, and start an entire blog. Regardless if you are linked by an umbilical cord or (adoption), agreement or tragic a circumstance, her essential role has shaped many of us today in becoming creative productive social being.

The love she will receive this day should remind us about empathy, understanding, and responsibility followed by a plan or an action. It more than making a new year’s pledge to lose weight, finishing a book, cleaning a closet, and finding a new job or what is next on your to do list. Although many resolutions are broken and life goes on, her resolution has to remain active.

AP-Photo

Credit U.N.

Despite an evolution from what I call “from the kitchen to the work place”, gender disparities remain a problem. She is also paid less than her male counterparts for the same work performed. In several poor and developing countries they still struggle to find a balance with health care, business leaders, police officers, faith-based groups and even support to raise awareness.
However, to appreciate the legacies she passes on, one has to look back for when you missed it.

From peace to wars times, economic downturns, to a bullish economy, navigating barbaric ideologies, to the picket line, mothers have played a role in the society many enjoy today. The hot meal few enjoy when it could have been a cold one, but you never knew until you realized how she survived almost on one wing now that preparation is your responsibility.

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Last month was Victim Awareness Month.Memorable days like today, sometimes the conversation has to be uncomfortable even when the timing is not right. Often it is much easier to tell someone when he or she lost a loved one than talking about one’s own idiosyncrasies to her. To protect her family, she suppressed her own feeling. Whatever language she speaks or location, Mother’s Day is universal.

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Our society has to draw more attention to the atrocities against women, and the devastating consequences. Today it is great that bullying, sexual, and domestic violence have much needed awareness, thanks to few rich and famous people who had to deal with it in front of the camera.

Even when she hurts, especially in underserved populations, as many reports show that they are less likely to report an abuse and these victims of crime are underserved. These are just a few headlines several mothers would have liked to discuss on Mother’s Day for the ones still on the street searching for a home.

With today’s technology, their stories can be found instantaneously. Over the past several weeks, mothers have died escaping violence while looking for a better life. It is more troubling that many will not even grow up to become a mother from the abuse and other violence they face.

Despite the danger many moms face, they still believes that an educated child will control his or her destiny. Ignoring the fear of having a child being killed, raped or kidnapped, she risks their lives for a better education although she is uneducated. The number of primary school aged girls not in school has increased in several developing countries. It is about 18 million worldwide, according to the World Bank.

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Taking away their intellectual curiosity can only add to the criminal justice system that has been on a rise for over 30 years, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). What will be the state of our mothers? These women with substance abuse, mental illness, and histories of sexual and physical abuse.

“The centrality of education, especially for women, is essential to a better global economy,” many scholars argue. Sadly, their partners murder over 38 percent of women each year and tremendous a cost in billions to women and children, according to the United Nation.
On this day, as she welcomes your rose and the meal you have decided to buy or prepare, let us thank her for protecting us. Far too often, while we celebrate her accomplishments, tragedy ranges on as another family searches for an answer caused by tragedy.

Collateral Damage Syria: Women and Girls Fleeing Violence: Credit -Women.org)

What if this Mother’s Day one becomes an advocate to find ways to work with an elected official to address the plight of women globally? Soon these roses will fade and, since this is not a eulogy; it is a celebration, please let her dance like the one she never had done before.
My gift on her special day is simply to unwrap the other side.

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