Ring Bells for Peace! 11:00 am at Veterans Memorial Park
Alaska Peace Center and Veterans For Peace North Star Chapter 146 invite the Fairbanks community to ring bells at 11:00 am at Veterans Memorial Park, 700 Cushman Street in Fairbanks, in celebration of Armistice Day on Monday, November 11. Bring a bell if you have one (we’ll have extras if you don’t), in any case bring a friend. The Peace Choir will be present to lead us in some songs.
Bell-ringing has been a traditional way of celebrating Armistice Day ever since the end of World War One (known at the time as “The Great War”) 106 years ago. It signifies the relief and joy felt around the world when the Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Bells were rung to celebrate peace and the end of four years of war that killed or wounded more than 21 million people. In the wake of so much carnage, it was then clear to millions of people that wars were not about valor or romantic ideals, but about empire, which benefits a few at the expense of many. A tradition of observing the anniversary of the Armistice by ringing bells to honor veterans and promote peace spread throughout the world.
Armistice Day was first officially recognized by Congress in 1926 as a day that “should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations,” and “with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.” It became a legal holiday nationwide by an act of Congress in 1938, dedicated to the cause of world peace. In 1954 Congress changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. In his proclamation on the first Veterans Day in 1954, President Eisenhower admonished Americans to “reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.” However, in contrast to Eisenhower’s intention, rebranding Armistice Day as Veterans Day has led to a change from celebrating peace to celebrating the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day has been flipped from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism.
According to Wikipedia there are currently 56 separate armed conflicts going on in the world, with a combined death toll of 176,993 men, women, and children so far this year. Chief among these in our current consciousness is the horrific ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. For over a year, unspeakable atrocities have filled our screens and haunted our consciences. The US government is complicit in Israel’s merciless campaign of ethnic cleansing. The bombs that Israel drops on Palestinian children and their parents are made in the USA and provided by the US government. Israel’s US-backed war has now expanded to the West Bank, to Lebanon and to Iran, risking a wider war that could even go nuclear.
The Alaska Peace Center, along with Veterans For Peace nationally and locally, celebrates the original intent of November 11th – as a day to rededicate ourselves to work toward peaceful solutions to the world’s problems. Peace, not war, is the best way to honor the sacrifices of veterans. We are not free until we are all free!
Veterans For Peace 2024 Armistice Day Statement
Essay by Skip Oliver on an earlier Armistice Day
Alaska Peace Center 