Below the fold is the Veterans For Peace Armistice Day message. Kurt Vonnegut is quoted at the end which where this diary gets its title.
I have written before on Armistice Day:
In 1938 Congress proclaimed; "...it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples."
The date referred is November 11th; the day an armistice was signed bringing an end to the "War to end all wars". The proclamation established Armistice Day as a national holiday.
Veterans For Peace Armistice Day Message:
November 11 is a cause for mixed emotions among those former members of the military who wish to permanently halt the horror of war.
A holiday in our name is indeed an honor, as was our service itself, but "Armistice" somehow still sounds more suitable. That word refers to the end of a conflict, the end of the killing, the maiming, the destruction, the inhumanity, the erosion of civilized personal behaviors that have taken centuries to mold. While "Armistice" does not connote lasting peace, at least it does connote a chance for societies to grasp hold of themselves and, if able, to pull back from the abyss.
Veterans For Peace, while grateful for the parades recognizing our duty and the ultimate sacrifice of our fallen comrades, would prefer a time of reexamination of the jaded justifications and obscene outcomes of the military causes we served. All too frequently those justifications have been morally insufficient to vindicate the malevolent international conflicts to which they gave such ignoble birth.
For these reasons Veterans For Peace gratefully acknowledges the heartfelt recognition which our nation solemnly offers us today. But we fervently urge that tomorrow our great nation devote its equally heartfelt and solemn attention and talents to the cessation of existing wars and to the prevention of similar calamities in the decades to come.
Kurt Vonnegut, the internationally acclaimed author from our country and a POW in Dresden during the Allied firebombing of that city in WWII, gives us something to think about on this day of remembrance.
"...November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy all the people of all the nations which fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I've talked to old men who were on the battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veteran's Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veteran's Day is not...Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things."
I had this op-ed published in 2007 our local fishwarp, The Oregonian, much to my surprise:
In 1938 Congress proclaimed; "...it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples."
The date referred is November 11th; the day an armistice was signed bringing an end to the "War to end all wars". The proclamation established Armistice Day as a national holiday.
Unfortunately the horrors of World War One were to be outdone by those of World War Two and to honor the sacrifices of the veterans who fought in it and the Korean War, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in 1954. Previous proclamations by Presidents Wilson (1919) and Coolidge (1926) did recognize the sacrifice of those who fought and died in WWI. While it is fitting and proper to honor all veterans for their service, the original intent of November eleventh has become lost to the militarization and commercialization of this important date.
With flags flying and bands playing, veterans from all eras march in parades. Dignitaries give glowing speeches glorifying the heroism of those who had the misfortune to end up in combat. Fighter jets streak above the gathered crowds, cannons roar, taps played and shopping malls offer special sales on merchandise more than likely made in third world countries. So one day a year we remember those men and women who put on the uniform and took the oath. The rest of the year it is business as usual. We pass by the homeless vet with the cardboard sign. We allowed our elected representatives to gut the Veterans Administration.
This is nothing new. Throughout the history of the United States, veterans have been treated abysmally until WWII veterans were granted the first G.I. bill. When that bill expired, the new G.I. bills which followed, were mere shadows of the original and again established the perception, if not the fact, that veterans could be thrown a bone and be happy. While America enjoyed the economic benefits of the 50s and 60s, veterans who had been exposed to atomic bomb tests, used as lab rats in experiments of the effects of different chemicals and drugs at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland and exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals in Vietnam were denied claims or simply ignored by the government, the public and the Veterans Administration. This pattern was continued as veterans of Desert Storm started displaying disturbing aliments after they returned from the war. They too were dismissed until years later Gulf War Syndrome was recognized as a real malady.
The military casualties of war are the price paid by those who are called to engage in its "obscenity of violence". And as history has shown, it seems one day a year is adequate to remember their service.
Now we have the returning veterans from the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been numerous reports of the way the returning veterans have been treated and there is no need to rehash every scandal and misstep perpetrated on these men and women except to say that while shocking, it was not unexpected if history is our guide. While there have been individuals and many ad hoc organizations set up to try and help these service men and women and the general public reads or hears a heartwarming story about a vet overcoming his or her disability, we soon forget as we are distracted by the next celebrity divorce, death or DUI endlessly repeated on what is called "news".
There are many differing opinions on what a "just war" is and whether the two we are engaged in qualify. There should be no difference of opinion on how to recognize and compensate those who answered the call.
We, as members of Veterans For Peace, will honor our brothers and sisters in arms in a different way, by working to increasing public awareness of the costs of war. We will work to restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations. We will work to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons. We will work to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy. This is our mission. So on this November eleventh we will not be marching in parades. As Ulysses S. Grant stated; "The one thing I never want to see again is a military parade."
Instead we will be gathering to renew the spirit of Armistice Day and commemorate it, "with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." We will be gathering to reflect on our mission and to move it forward with purpose and commitment. We will be gathering to renew our bonds of service and the bonds forged by a realization that war is obsolete and that peace is the only path to a "more perfect union" with "liberty and justice for all."
I have the dubious honor of attending a High School Veterans Day orgy of patriotism tomorrow. I then get to go into a classroom and educate the little darlings. I plan to start with this quote:
"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities."
Voltaire
Some mood music.
Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.
I'll finish with this poem.
Michael
Words by Robert Service (1921)
There’s something in your face, Michael
I’ve seen it all the day
There’s somethin’ square that wasn’t there
When first you went away, when first you went away
It’s just the army life, mother,
The drill, the left and right,
That puts the stiffening in your spine
And locks your jaw up tight, and locks your jaw up tight
There’s somethin’ in your eyes, Michael,
And how they stare and stare
You’re lookin’ at me now, boy,
As if I wasn’t there, as if I wasn’t there
It’s just the things I’ve seen, mother,
The sights that come and come
A bit of broken, bloody pulp
That used to be a chum, that used to be a chum
There’s somethin’ in your heart, Michael,
That makes you wake at night
And often when I hear you moan
I tremble in my fright, I tremble in my fright
It’s just a man I killed, mother,
A mother’s son like me
It seems he’s always haunting me
He’ll never let me be, he’ll never let me be
But maybe he was bad, Michael,
Maybe it was right
To kill the enemy you hate
In fair and honest fight, in fair and honest fight
I did not hate at all, mother,
He never did me harm
I think he was a lad like me
Who worked upon a farm, I’m sure he worked upon a farm
And what’s it all about, Michael?
Why’d you have to go?
A quiet, peaceful lad like you
When we were happy so, when we were happy so
It’s them up above, mother,
It’s them that sits and rules
We’ve got to fight the wars they make
It’s us as are the fools, it’s us as are the fools
And when will it end, Michael,
And what’s the use, I say,
Of fightin’ if whoever wins
It’s us that’s got to pay? It’s us that’s got to pay
Oh it will be the end, mother,
When lads like him and me
That sweat to feed the ones above
Decide that we’ll be free, decide that we’ll be free
And when will that day come, Michael?
And when will fightin’ cease?
And simple folks may till their soil
And live in love and peace? And live and love in peace?
It’s comin’ soon and soon, mother,
It’s nearer every day
When only those who work and sweat
Will have a word to say
When all who earn their honest bread
In ev’ry land and soil
Will claim the fellowship of all,
The comradeship of toil
When we the workers all demand,
"What are we fighting for?"
Then, then we’ll end that stupid crime,
That devil’s madness, war.
