Stop to remember lives lost in needless wars

By Phil Pflager, Veterans For Peace Chapter 101 Chapter Contact
This letter appeared in the Mercury News on November 15

The photo shows the Armistice Day ceremony in 2015.

Veterans For Peace Chapter 101 has hosted an Armistice Day commemoration on November 11 every year since 2010 on the corner of Fourth and Santa Clara Streets in San José to remind people of the original intent of the 75th congress who established November 11 as a national holiday. The law clearly states “…the 11th day of November in each year, a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day,…” The text of the law does not mention veterans! “Hereafter” lasted until 1954 when Armistice Day, a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace,” was re-branded by Congress which made November 11, in effect, a day to exalt war using veterans as the vehicle.

For the past 10 years, the VFP101 Armistice Day event was well attended and supported by members of the peace community. Attendance was growing each year and I am sorry to report that out of concern for the coronavirus outbreak, the commemoration did not occur this year. I hope the virus is past by next November so we can continue where we left off.

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