President, Not Hallmark, Invents Mother's Day

Good morning, it’s May 9. It is the anniversary of a presidential proclamation – this one issued in 1914 by Woodrow Wilson - calling on Americans to display the U.S. flag on the second Sunday in May “as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

Let’s just get this out of the way: Mother’s Day was not started by the greeting card companies. It was started by a woman named Anna Jarvis, partly in homage to her own mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, who in the border state of West Virginia organized mothers clubs devoted to the care and feeding of wounded Civil War soldiers — both Confederate and Union.

After her death in 1905, her daughter Anna threw herself into the cause of making Mother’s Day a national holiday. In this she was successful, partly because U.S. president were quick to embrace the cause. And why not? Most modern U.S. chief executives have been exceedingly close to their mothers, strong women going hand-in-hand with strong men.

“Mothers are cornerstones of our families and our communities,” our current president said in last year’s proclamation. “On Mother’s Day, we honor the remarkable women who strive and sacrifice every day to ensure their children have every opportunity to pursue their dreams.”

Barack Obama knows what he was talking about: he was essentially raised without a father. For similar reasons, the holiday seems to have always meant a lot to Bill Clinton.

In a commencement address delivered 19 years ago at Gallaudet College in Washington, a school for deaf students, President Clinton wrapped up his speech by invoking an emotion presidents are often chary of touching. He talked of love.

“Finally, let me just say today a personal word,” Clinton said. “A few days ago, when we celebrated Mother's Day, it was my first Mother's Day without my mother. And so, I have been thinking about what I should say to all of you, those of you who are lucky enough still to have your parents, and, perhaps, some of you who do not.

“On graduations, it is important for us to remember that none of us ever achieves anything alone,” Clinton continued. “I dare say as difficult as your lives have been, you are here today not only because of your own courage and your own effort, but because someone loved you and believed in you and helped you along the way.

“I hope today that you will thank them and love them and, in so doing, remember that all across this country, perhaps our biggest problem is that there are too many children, most of who can hear just fine, who never hear the kind of love and support that every person needs. And we must commit ourselves to giving that to those children.”