Veterans and WaterProtectors marched through a blizzard Dec 5. Veterans linked arms, formed human shield around protectors.
VFP stands with Standing Rock
by Barry Riesch, member Veterans For Peace
For several months now Veterans For Peace nationally and locally has stood in solidarity with the struggles of the Native Water Protectors on Standing Rock encampment in North Dakota. We do this not only to keep the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from crossing under the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock reservation, which is the source of life for their community and many thousands downstream, but to bring to light the ongoing struggles of the First Nation People of this land.
The Armistice of 1918 ended the terrible slaughter of World War I. The U.S. alone had experienced the death of over 116,000 soldiers, plus many more who were physically and mentally disabled. For one moment, at the 11th hour of the 11thday of the 11th month, the world agreed World War I must be considered the WAR TO END ALL WARS. There was exuberant joy everywhere, and many churches rang their bells, some 11 times at 11 a.m. on November 11th, when the Armistice was signed.
Each year, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 asks churches and other groups to join with us and ring the bells on or around Armistice Day, November 11.
Jack Nelson Pallmeyer speaking at the 2011 Chapter 27 vigil on November 11, when 11 of us slept/stood watch at the Occupy site in downtown Minneapolis:
This past April Congressman Keith Ellison submitted to the Congressional Record a notice of what the Kellogg Briand Pact is and our chapter’s involvement in calling attention to this Pact that outlaws war. Additionally he encouraged members to look for the winners of a Peace Essay Contest facilitated by the West Suburban Peacemakers of Chicago entitled “How can the U.S. obey the law against war?” The best of these essays are to be submitted to Congress in August.
It was at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 that World War I was halted as a result of the signing of the armistice between the Allied Nations and Germany. In the years to follow, people from around the world have stopped what they were doing at 11:00 AM local time on November 11th in silent rememberance of the point in time when what’s been known as the “War to end all wars” that took the lives of tens of millions of people came to an end. In other commemorations of that peaceful pledge begun on the 11th hour of November 11, 1918, bells have been rung from
In 1928 U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand proposed that all nations join them in signing a pact outlawing war as an instrument of national policy and called upon all signatories to settle their disputes by peaceful means.
