There's still time to plan a function for Mother's Day

Every Eagle, surely, is well aware of the role played by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in having a national day of observance declared in 1914 to honour our mothers on the second Sunday in May.

For those who aren't aware, FOE member and entertainer Tony Orlando appears on Fox News' The Huckabee Show Mother's Day weekend. Here is the FOE information with other information sources. I'll try to post the interview on Saturday.

Frank Hering's campaign
 for Mother's Day gave
 the Eagles the political
 skills to fight for
 numerous causes in
later years.

My personal opinion is that the long-term importance of Grand Aerie President Frank Hering's campaign for Mothers Day was that it taught the Eagles how to lobby at the grassroots level - campaigning aerie by aerie in their cities and towns, in their States and Provinces, in support of an issue they felt was important.

The lessons the Eagles learned during that campaign served them well as they later campaigned for the first widows' pensions, then old age pensions at the State level, then the federal US Old Age Security program, which fellow Eagle and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt admitted would not have been possible without the tireless campaigning of the Eagles.

Throughout those campaigns, many of the pioneering legislation for the first government pensions was actually drafted by Eagles before they were adopted State after State.

Our Statutes actually require a Mothers' Day observance. FOE Statute Section 72.4 says, in part, "On the second Sunday in May of each year, each local aerie shall hold services appropriate to Mother's Day."

We miss that occasion far too often.

At minimum we should do what the Eagles did a century ago: sell carnations to our members, who would wear a white carnation if their mothers were deceased, a red one if they were not. You've still got time. Take a look a this video the Grand Aerie produced for Mother's Day.