11/11/11/11

The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month... This is the time we honor the end of "The War to End All Wars," which later became known as World War One, when the mission to end war, by war, failed.

Since that time the wars have gone on and the men and women, of all nations, have been wounded and have died in them over and over and over again. Twenty-three years ago, during the Reagan led conflicts with the Soviet Union and the illegally funded and illegally waged contra war in Nicaragua, I helped to create a recording on the subject that unfortunately still holds very much true today.

Then, the war was largely to the south of us where we claimed a sort of divine right to control the lives of those who lived in the same hemisphere as we do. Today our men and women battle over dusty ground on the other side of the world because there are those in our country who believe that the economic interests of oil companies (which actually means the economic interests of themselves and their friends) are the "vital national interests" of our government and country and people. They return home (if they return at all) to inadequate medical care, lying bureaucrats with no interest in their needs, and broken contracts over proper benefits. They also return home to fractured families and soul numbing woundedness that is left untreated and hidden away. They receive neither glory nor honor, but are largely left to fend for themselves by the very same lying thieves who sent them into harms way to begin with.

Our truly vital national interests do not reside under the sand in Iraq... or Kuwait... or Saudi Arabia; they reside in the flesh and blood, hopes and fears, soul and heart of the men and women who are sent as a sacrifice for our benefit, and the families, lovers and friends who suffer without them while they are far away, or gone forever.

Shortly, I will be getting up from my computer and walking down to the city center of Petaluma where the annual Veteran's Day Parade will soon begin. I am not going there to protest. I am not going there to proselytize for peace. I am going there to stand and witness to the heart, and the hope and the bravery of the men and women who have been asked to serve the country.

I am going there to honor their dedication, their commitment, and their service.

I am going there to pray (to whatever God, Goddess, or Flying Spaghetti Monster that is out there) that they and theirs will be kept safe and whole and that those our "leaders" claim are "the enemy" will also find safety and peace because they believe with all their heart that they are in the right as well.

I am going there to say "thank you"... and to say "no more."

"There is no way to peace... Peace IS the way." - A. J. Muste