Here’s Julia Ward Howe’s original 1870 proclamation that ushered in Mother’s Day :

Arise then … women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Digital Media Wire posts this interesting article about Coldplay and the music industry’s ongoing struggle with digital music.

The Hitwise graphs provide some good data, and it’s not a surprise that traffic to the Coldplay site spiked as much as it did. After all, free music is going to bring in the fans.

What would really be interesting to know is how much actual commerce was generated as a result of the additional traffic. Did sales of Coldplay music spike on iTunes? Were more addresses added to the email list? Did sales of T-shirts and such in the Coldplay online store spike in conjunction with the Web traffic?

I’d be surprised if the answer wasn’t a resounding “yes” to all three questions. Free music is the MacGuffin in the marketing story; once the crowd is assembled, the commerce will follow.

"It takes a long time to grow young."
—Pablo Picasso

Those real women of Dove? Fake … sorta.

MAY 9 UPDATE: Okay, maybe not .

The winners of the 2008 Webby Awards have been announced. Here’s the official press release and here’s a pretty cool gallery of awards winners — which includes Stephen Colbert, who’ll probably do more to raise the profile and awareness of the Webbys than anyone since their 1997 inception.