A few weeks ago, I attender a Quaker memorial service for a friend named Gary. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know Gary as well as I would have liked before his unexpected death, but that made the service all the more thought-provoking.
One thing I learned about Gary was that he was serious about following the Quaker Christian testimony of peace. Key to this testimony is Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Gary wanted to serve his country so, when he was young, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, the branch of the American military known to be least violent and most about peacemaking. After his time of service, he joined an organization called Veterans for Peace, a group I had sadly never heard about.
Veterans for Peace sent a representative to Gary’s memorial service and made two major points, neither of which I had ever considered. First, rather than offering a typical 21-gun salute – which they believed glorified violence – this representative rang a bell, signifying the hope for peace and moving most of those in attendance to tears. Second, the representative for Veterans for Peace noted the shift in our country from celebrating Armistice Day to celebrating Veteran’s Day, something others apparently have discussed often – sometimes with considerable frustration – but which I had been completely ignorant about.
Without going into great detail, Armistice Day was created to celebrate and commit to ongoing peace after the end of World War I. After the Korean War, the day was changed to celebrate all Veterans – and not just those veterans who served in World War I or World War II – which obviously makes sense. However, in doing so, as some have argued, the shift became more about the glorification of war; the celebration of peace was lost.
Today, with so many others, I celebrate all Veterans, including those in my family such as my dad who put himself in harm’s way to combat evil. I am thankful for this service, just as I am also grateful for the service of many others who serve our country in often unrecognized ways (such as public school teachers, just to name one example).
At the same time, I remember the original intent of Armistice Day. I pray for a day when war is no longer necessary, when men and women in the prime of their lives do not have to be deployed and put in harm’s way. I pray for those who have been hurt physically, emotionally, and spiritually because of violence. I reflect on which of my actions plant the seeds for further war. And what habits I might nurture in myself and others to plant seeds for peace instead.
