...the first time. His Mom was a selfish bitch. She abandoned Homer to pursue her own interests. Finally, upon the occasion of her death, she manipulated her dim-witted son into helping here perform one more selfish act.
Up until this episode, I've thought of Mona as kind of a diversion, but nothing serious either way. Now I hate her! The lame montage at the end is just sad & cruel - "here's the few moments of actual contact that Homer and his mom had!"
What kind of Mother's Day episode is this, anyway?
Wow, are you OK? The reason she left in the first place was because she had to escape capture and imprisonment, and she was none too happy about it. Every other time she tried to make contact with him, she soon had to be on the run from the law again. I can believe Homer's reaction when she returned for good tonight, but she wasn't happy about the whole thing either. The "selfish" things aren't, either.
Yeah. Partly because of all the people who did cocaine in the 80s. Like KEITH HERNANDEZ. When I see him on that commercial for that men's hair dye. To remove grey hair. How could he have grey hair? He is so young! FROM SNORING COKE, THAT'S HOW!
So she goes and participates in a raid on a germ warfare lab (or was it chemical warfare?) and then has to go underground or face arrest. That's selfish?
One can argue that she should have stayed, gone to court and faced a prison sentence. But one can hardly dismiss the original act as selfish.
So maybe she should have taken Homer underground with her? I can't think of instances of that. Abbie Hoffman didn't take America underground. When Bernadine Dorn and Bill Ayers went underground, they had no children, but they had two while underground (and when they turned themselves in in the fall of 1981, I believe one reason was to give the children a "normal" life).
Chesa Boudin was born while his parents David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin were underground, but they went out and did a robbery (now that's a selfish act even if it was under the guise of "revolutionary fundraising") when he was one year old. Bernadine Dorn and Bill Ayers became his legal guardians while his parents did hard time; his real father isn't likely to get out of jail.
Philip Berrigan had children with Elizabeth McAlister, and then continued to do civil disobedience. I've never met anyone less selfish than he. When I met him in 1983 he was facing a long prison term for smashing nose cones, yet he was concerned about my well being.
No, I think Mona leaving Homer with Abe was an unselfish act. She knew he'd be better off with Abe than constanly on the run.
People wanting to change the world are not selfish. Better they should act because it's an abstract thing than having to act because something has already happened to their children.
One early attempt at Mother's Day was Julia Ward Howe's attempt in 1870 at making a day for women to speak against war. It's not clear whether the very commercialized Mother's Day we know today is actually a descendant of that attempt, or just some sort of parallel thing.
She was a "selfish" one, being against slavery and war and wanting the right to vote for women.
If you are a parent, it's selfish (or stupid) to get yourself into a position of being arrested. It doesn't matter how "worthy" you think the cause is. There are plenty of unmarried, childless youngsters who are glad to throw themselves on the sword. Plus, The Simpsons conveniently removes all moral ambiguity in these situations by using Burns as a cartoony super-villain.
As for some of the criminals you mentioned, they are fundamentally no different from the crack-head parent, for the purposes of this conversation: they are putting their own interests before their children.
The same Julia Ward Howe who authored "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"? Well, anti-war probably looked a bit different back then, and women (and mothers especially) *should* be against war.
I could not find any mention of her abandoning her children for her beliefs or criminal actions.
She didn't just abandon Homer for the sake of her cause this time. Homer's mom actually tricked her son into going on a dangerous mission to sabotage a missile launch, without telling him what he was getting into.
If there's anything worse than abandoning your kids, it's throwing (ot tricking) them into the line of fire.
Remember, the guards were armed, though their rifles somehow morphed into billy clubs when Homer got closer.
She should have done the jail time, and then. It's even worse because she was a normal, caring parent at first and then started doing this hippie crap just because she saw a pair of sideburns(!). She really did choose hippies over her family. Compared to her, Abe was the good parent.