Exactly at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 99 years ago, people across Europe suddenly stopped shooting guns at each other. Up until that moment, they were killing and taking bullets, falling and screaming, moaning and dying. Then they stopped, on schedule. It wasn’t that they’d gotten tired or come to their senses. Both before and after 11 o’clock they were simply following orders. The Armistice agreement that ended World War I had set 11 o’clock as quitting time.
Each year, for a lot of years, there was a remembrance on November 11th. The U.S. Congress called Armistice Day a holiday to “perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations,” a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace.” When churches rang their bells at 11:00, that’s what they meant. And they meant it right up until the war on Korea, the one the North Koreans all still remember with shudders of horror. And then Congress turned Armistice Day into Veterans Day, and veterans into props for marketing more wars and a permanent state of war preparations.
~ David Swanson ~
join with me on the 11th at 11 to chime bells 11 times commemorating the 99th anniversary of WWI’s end following that with a wave of three minutes of silence dedicated to all who died and to all who lived… and then, may we rise up singing and dancing peace…
“The weary world is waiting for
Peace forevermore
So take away the gun
From every mother’s son
And put an end to war.”~Al Jolson~
let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me and thee…
namaste
