Armistice Day

Today is Armistice Day.  The U.S. media report it as Veterans Day; in England it is Remembrance Day.

All are the same,  At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, hostilities officially ceased, ending WWI.

There were hopes and dreams that we would move beyond war, but as we know peace is not guaranteed.  And WWII can be said to have been birthed by the humiliation of Germany at the end of WWI.

Thus by the midpoint of the 20th century millions of persons were dead; countries essentially destroyed, on and on.  And, of course, WWII didn’t end war; neither did successor wars of various kinds in various places, including in our own country, among ourselves.  And on this Armistice Day conflicts rage in various places.  As the song lyric goes “when will we ever learn?”

The commemoration I attended today was at the Victory Memorial in North Minneapolis , 44th and Victory (Washburn) Ave N.  It is a very impressive monument, deserving a visit.  I’d guess there were 40 or so of us there.  Vets for Peace Ch 27 did the annual ringing of the bells – 11 repetitions.

As it happens, perhaps intentionally by initial design, at precisely 11 a.m. the monument itself cast its shadow down the sidewalk at right.

War and Peace is probably an eternal quandary among humans.  A reality seldom approached; often encouraged.

Today’s commemoration came less than a week after a nation divided voted for national leaders in the U.S.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago still rages; Israel/Gaza, on and on.  “Peace Now” has a good ring for me, but it is not quite so easy to achieve as to declare, as WWI and all the others prove.  There are plenty of power hungry people ready to exploit the human emotions of fear and loathing.  Best we can do, probably, is to witness to peace by our own lives.

Today’s event was quiet but nonetheless profound.

I’m glad I chose to go.

POSTNOTE:

This morning long-time friend Michael Knox sent this about his dream of a U.S. Peace Memorial.

Please take a moment to look at this, and consider donating.  I’m one of the founding members, and the initiative has been in progress for near 20 years.  Take time to learn about it.  And consider contributing to it.

POSTNOTE 2 Nov. 12: The matter of Russia/Ukraine, Jews/Palestinian specifically; Yemen, Sudan….

How to deal with the issue of Ukraine is a quandary for the anti-war crowd, which is essentially the Veterans for Peace membership and emphasis.  This is not a routine matter, given the presumptions of how the next President of the U.S. will deal with the matter.

Just for a little context,  if you’re interested, here’s the first post I did about the pending Russian invasion of Ukraine mid-February, 2022.

Paradoxically, eight years earlier, in 2014, I did a post referring to both Ukraine and Gaza.  You can read that here.

Most recently, September 13, I was privileged to be at the Optimist Club in Roseville, where a group of visiting students from Ukraine reported on their recent visit to the United States – a break from the tension in their country.  Twice previously, in the summer of 2022 and 2023, I was similarly privileged to be at gatherings of two other groups of Ukrainian students.  For all of these kids, in the past two years, what is happening in their country is not something casual.  It’s more than just a sound bite.

“Peace now” has a powerful ring to it, but it is not quite as simple as it seems.  I vividly recall the TV images of Russian tanks gathering near the border of Ukraine in the winter of 2022.  I recall the earlier encroachments by Russia into an independent Ukraine in the times of Crimea and 2014.  There are all sorts of ‘yah, buts’ on every side of every conflict, of course.

The non-violence answer is not simple.

I remember a Nobel Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College some years back where Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, a personal hero of mine, and I were in the display area for students attending the festival.   I don’t recall the specific year, but this particular day our neighbor was the local representative of the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

We were discussing non-violence, and of course we thought we were among friends with our colleague from the Gandhi Institute.   The man set us back, posing a question: what if you were charged with defending your property and someone threatened to take it from you by force?  What would you do?

We were rendered more or less speechless.  The nonviolent answer would be to give up; the more reasonable answer is to defend.

I don’t remember the exact year, nor the name of our colleague friend representing the institute.  But I’ll never forget the conversation, and it applies as much today as it did then.