Veteran’s Day is designated as a national day of commemoration honoring peace and sacrifice:

‘November 11, 1919, President Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day: “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… and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

America and her sympathy with peace and justice are failing. Peace is now an afterthought.

Soldiers (some far nobler than our country’s war mongering profiteers) are marched into horrific circumstances with a stroke of a bureaucratic pen. Many brave men and women enlist with honorable intentions; many left to die… abandoned by the Government, of the country they swore to protect. Freedom, it seems, diminishes profit margins. War is good business to the real tyrants-the war profiteers. On the horizon, the silhouette of a once great nation remains, reduced to a nation divided, misguided, and woeful. A nation subdued by the ills of war, blinded by the industrial military complex as it wages perpetual wars for profit at the expense of humanity.

A Government’s wars, cloaked in the blood soaked sacramental cloth that bears the stars and stripes of our heritage. Yet, as fate would have it, history inked with the blood of the noble, the innocent, and the evil, is of great consequence to those who hope to one day acquiesce to a peaceful state of existence.

Wars are a part of history that should not be repeated. If only our leaders would concede that mistakes have been made, damage has been done, and lessons were learned. But, lessons have not been learned, history repeats itself, and the wars continue.

Today as we contemplate sacrifice, contemplate the reflection in the mirror of humanity. – Annie

“If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.” D. Lama

W.E. Whitmore

“Who stole the soul-And who stole the heart
And who took the spark from inside of me…
Why can’t I breathe…

And I’m afraid they won’t stop…’til all the poets have failed;
Til all the good men are jailed for nothin’ at all
Who let them take the fall…

And they’ll bring devastation; And call it diplomacy…
But an occupation won’t bring a nation to peace

Oh and I’m so ashamed, in these things beyond value; that we cherish so dear
I won’t let them go. No I won’t let them go…”

Neither will I…

Neither will I

– Annie