Veterans Day Event Will Promote Peace, Not Militarism

Monday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day in the United States, although you may not realize it until you notice there is no mail delivery. Otherwise, it is pretty much business as usual for most Americans.

In Milwaukee and other cities, however, Veterans For Peace celebrates it as Armistice Day, the original day Congress created as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace.” It commemorated the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918 that ended World War I.

But in 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, it was changed to Veterans Day in the U.S. and has become a day identified with war instead of peace – a day for remembering yet more war dead, honoring all veterans, and glorifying militarism.

The official, national ceremonies for Veterans Day take place at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. At 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, a color guard executes “Present Arms” at the tomb. The nation’s war dead are remembered by the laying of a presidential wreath. The bugler plays “Taps.” It is a ceremony more in keeping with Memorial Day than Veterans Day.

In Milwaukee, Veterans For Peace (VFP) and a coalition of other peace and justice groups will celebrate Armistice Day on Monday, Nov. 11 with a program at City Hall, as they have done since 2008, when the national VFP began a “Reclaim Armistice Day” campaign.

This year’s Milwaukee program features Colonel Ann Wright, a career Army officer and diplomat who resigned from the State Department and became a leading peace activist in protest over the US invasion of Iraq. She is an advisory board member of Veterans For Peace, International Peace Bureau, World BEYOND War, Gaza Freedom Flotilla and NO to NATO and a CODEPINK board member.

Also speaking will be Reggie Jackson, an award-winning Milwaukee journalist, Navy veteran and nationally and internationally recognized race relations expert. Drawing from his background as a griot – a traditional West African oral historian – he illuminates often-overlooked narratives within the African-American experience and that of other people of color, both past and present.

“Clearly, a day that celebrates peace, not war, is the best way to honor the sacrifices of those who have served in war,” VFP says on its national website. “We know the destruction war has caused and continues to cause, and we understand its senseless futility. In reclaiming November 11 as Armistice Day, we call for an end to armed conflict and recommit ourselves to the hard work of building real and lasting peace.”

This year celebrates the 106th anniversary of the signing of the World War I armistice that ceased hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. Monday with acoustic music by singer-songwriters David HB Drake and Richard Pinney, with the program at 7 p.m. in the City Hall rotunda. It is free and open to the public.

Bill Christofferson is a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam and a member of Milwaukee Veterans For Peace Chapter 102.

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