Arlington, VA—Mothers everywhere will be beaming with pride as their grown children return home bringing flowers for Mother’s Day weekend. Though flowers are a nice gesture, doing something with Mom like cooking dinner or taking her out is another way to say ‘I love you’ on Mother’s Day. But going to a local Tesla showroom with your children to fight fascism? Well, maybe.
After all, Mother’s Day is that one special day set aside to celebrate Moms and all they did to help us grew to adulthood; readying us for school, getting the supplies we needed, helping with our homework, preparing nearly 6580 dinners through the last high school year. Then there were the many times we got sick or needed reassurance through a hard time and it was Mom who was the one that was there for us more than anyone else. Then there were the talks and admonitions during difficult times of growing up when we went astray and the hard wisdom Mom gave us which we often did not fully grasp until years later when we appreciated and understood that wisdom.
On Mother’s Day weekend 2025, Mother’s wisdom continued with push back against fascism at the Tesla Takedown in Arlington, Virginia. That too may be another way Mom says ‘I love you’ as this is a dark time when we need assurance and wisdom. And who else knows more about life’s ups and downs and the wisdom to overcome hardship than someone who gave us our first breath?
Our democratic institutions and rights are being whittled away by the authoritarian regime currently trying its best to destroy the institutions and family support systems and Mothers everywhere depend on these to help their families navigate a society growing more difficult and complex with every year. This regime is cutting or attempting to cut Medicare, Social Security, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and many Federal agencies that provide services that help communities remain economically stable, healthy and safe. There are many facing cuts but some of them include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Health and Human Services, Department of Education, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the National Institute for Health. And Mothers both here and abroad need these services to raise children.
But what is the history of Mother’s Day and why is it so important, especially in 2025? Mother’s Day was conceived primarily by three women, mainly. Ann Reeves Jarvis, who was an activist who organized women’s clubs to help with sanitary conditions in Appalachia in the 1860s. She also focused on the high infant mortality rate and worked to create better conditions for families and children. Julia Ward Howe worked towards peace and eradication of war with a Mother’s Day for Peace day after the Civil War. In 1905, Anna Javis wished to memorialize her own mother and all mothers on a special day. She reached out to organizations and influential people, lobbying for a Mother’s Day holiday and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson recognized it by signing a bill into law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
So it was Mothers who also showed up today and stood in for us for Mother’s Day weekend. It’s what Mothers do and have always done.
Some Mothers also brought their children with them to the Tesla Takedown because mothers understand that sustaining a family isn’t just providing daily meals, clothing, or mother’s assurance. Children learn how to survive by an example of how to live and stand up for what is right. Because mothers also teach hard to understand lessons which children may not understand until years later when that wisdom blossoms.
And so the Mothers brought their children to show them how they must stand in for the just society they want and need to survive. They also brought placards and magic markers for their children as if it were a homework assignment to make signs for the passing motorists to honk in support of their messages. One Mom brought her homemade baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, enough for everyone to have as many as they wanted.
This Mothers Day the Mothers instructed their children on what one must do to stand up and fight against a regime entranced with its own power and greed. And the children may not yet fully grasp what they learned today. But who knows, maybe children are far more understanding today than children of decades ago. The children know that something isn’t right by the determined look on their Mothers’ faces.
This regime needs no reintroduction because regimes of this nature are typical, unimaginative and boring. Regimes are also the mark of unhealthy societies, ruled by the misguided and the selfish within those societies. They have historically tried and failed at governance too many times to count. This regime will fail too and when it does, it will because of Mothers standing in. Mothers are the antidote to regimes because they are guided towards family and naturally giving of themselves to raise others.
It was a sunny day and the weather was not too cold and too hot and there was not a cloud anywhere from horizon to horizon. And it was a perfect Mother’s Day for teaching children how to stand up for themselves and for a just society.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms standing in to fight this regime.
