Celebrating the 40th year of Veterans for Peace, the organization published a special "Reclaim Armistice Day 2025" edition of its online newsletter with the subtitle "Until Never Again Means Never Again for Anyone".  As I have mentioned before, the horrors of war should never be forgotten.  A much loftier and less achievable goal would be the complete end of war.  Period.  Below is the first paragraph of the newsletter.

"On November 11, 1918, the guns finally fell silent. The “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” marked a global sigh of relief and a promise: War No More. Armistice Day was meant to remind future generations of the cost of empire and the necessity of peace."

Since a very small part of our population is currently in the military (informationally, the Border Patrol and ICE employees are not members of the military), it is important to remember those who served and still serve and fight for democracy and decency.  

The newsletter ends this way:

"Our Oath and Our Promise

As veterans, we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that means resisting fascism in every form and standing with the oppressed until the guns fall silent and true justice prevails."

I still remember older men (probably much younger than I am now) ringing the doorbell at our home in Albuquerque, asking for donations for poppy pins.  Both of my parents always gave whatever money they had to these people who had served in World War I, and frequently showed the scars of their service. I was quite young and really didn't know anything about it, but it somehow seemed significant.  "In Flanders Fields", a poem written by Canadian physician/Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae and published in December of 1915, is a heartbreakingly perfect explanation of why poppies have become symbolic of horrible battles in a horrible war.  McCrae served in the Second Battle of Ypres. Below is the first section of his poem.  

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky, The Larks still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below"

According to Wikipedia, "Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields^[1] in an area straddling the Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders as well as the French department of Nord, part of which makes up the area known as French Flanders."  Entire villages were obliterated.  Poppy pins retain their significance and importance to this day, particularly in Europe and the United Kingdom.  
 

Santa Fe National Cemetery, 2025 

Santa Fe National Cemetery

Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day.  The name varies.  All that matters is that we remember.
 

Thanks to Lluvia, Paule, Barbara F. R., Steve, Catherine, Marilyn G., Jean & Sam, Ann A. for commenting on last weeks's blog.

 until next Monday,

DB 

a passion for the image©