Carolina Peace is calling for church bells and alarms to ring on the “Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month” to remind all to observe two minutes of silence in Armistice Day remembrance, renewing an old tradition to recognize the human cost of war and solemnly reflect on the need for peace.
Armistice Day Remembrance
SATURDAY Nov 11th 11:00AM Facebook Event
This year marks the centennial of US entry into WWI, a war that killed nearly 20 million, including 116,516 American servicemen, among them over 2,000 from South Carolina and over 3000 from Georgia. On the “Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month” the guns finally fell silent when the armistice negotiated to end the war began Nov 11th, 1918 at 11am. Armistice Day was established to honor their sacrifice to win a “War to End All Wars” and as a peace holiday. As President Woodrow Wilson declared a year after the war ended…
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
Carolina Peace is calling for church bells and alarms to ring on the “Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month” to remind all to observe two minutes of silence in Armistice Day remembrance, renewing an old tradition to recognize the human cost of war and solemnly reflect on the need for peace.
In doing so, Carolina Peace joins a campaign to #ReclaimArmisticeDay and return November 11th observances to its Armistice Day origins. As Matt Schiavenza notes in his 2014 article in The Atlantic “Veterans Day’s Other Name”, the change of Armistice Day to Veterans Day in by Congress in 1954 is understandable: four times more soldiers died in World War II than in World I with many millions more mobilized as well. Even President Eisenhower’s declaration of Veterans Day for 1959 includes the boiler plate language reference it as not just as a day to honor Veterans but also as a “a day dedicated to the cause of world peace”, legacy language from Armistice Day. Yet, that sober peace tradition has been lost in observing Veterans Day. Carolina Peace would join those that who are concerned that Veterans Day has been hollowed out into ritual uber-patriotism, exaggerated hero worship of our servicemen and blind militarism rather than solemn remembrance of the human cost of war, earnest recognition of servicemen, and honest consideration of the issues of war and peace. Regardless of how much you may agree with that critique, we think everyone would agree that centennial of US entry into World War I makes a special Armistice Day commemoration as part of Veterans Day appropriate.
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Carolina Peace Resource Center 