I prefer Armistice Day as it was meant to be

 (All photos used here are my own, 2018.)

I hate to see everything just turn into reflexive jingoism as Armistice Day did with Veterans Day. Everything is about parades and supporting troops and shaming those who don't thank our troops. Patriotism has become synonymous with militarism and I dissent. Patriotism for me is working in your community to make things better through increasing the minimum wage or working to ensure everyone can vote or just picking up trash: respecting people and working together to help all, not just a few.

A great resource
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/armistice-day


This is how it used to be commemorated: 

Quote from Albuquerque Journal - "Armistice Day is all about peace":

In 1938, the U.S. government passed legislation making Nov. 11 a federal holiday, declaring “it shall be a day dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.”

Armistice Day used to be about peace... 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/11/us-observe-armistice-day-more-comfortable-war-than-peace

This is what I think of on Armistice Day- not a celebration of the military and war, but thoughts on how to not get there in the first place. Diplomacy and negotiation is hard. War and taking your marbles and stomping off (or chasing down the kid walking away and beating him senseless and taking all his marbles, in the case of the US...) is bloody and stupid and lazy.

This always comes to mind:

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

FDR Memorial

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."

January 9, 1940

The true meaning of ‘Armistice Day’ — a commitment to peace :

“It’s not Veterans Day. It’s Armistice Day,” Russell Messner angrily retorted. “Those damn politicians went and changed it to Veterans Day so that they could keep having more wars.”

I am mourning the loss of life and loss of focus on peace on this 100th anniversary of the end of the great war. War is ugly, War is bloody. War is stupid. War is weak. War is immoral.


Armistice Day was eventually changed to Remembrance Day and Veterans Day to remember the dead, but from what I can tell, kind of leave out the bit about peace.

FDR Memorial

"Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind." - FDR February 12, 1943

We couldn't agree more, Macron:

Remembrance Day - live: Emmanuel Macron says 'old demons' of nationalism are rising again in speech to Trump and other world leaders

Photos:

In Photos Unpublished for 100 Years, the Joy of War’s End on Armistice Day

My photos:

FDR Memorial

"In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice...the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man."

October 2, 1932