Circuit Writer

“The 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month…”

Ninety-one years ago today the echoes of the guns of August finally faded into silence.  The parties of what at the time was known as “the war to end all wars” laid down their arms and began negotiating the peace.  World War I had come to a close. (Of course, this didn’t mark an end to fighting – the Ottoman Empire disintegrated into civil war and wouldn’t reemerge as the Republic of Turkey for almost five years.)

Today we observe this date as Veteran’s Day, a national holiday to honor all of those who have lived and died in the service of the U.S. military.  Given our current crisis, this observance is perhaps more important than ever.  I think we may have exceeded Winston’s Churchill’s imagination of military sacrifice when he famously said, “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”  The burden of our military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan teeters dangerously on the less-than-Atlas-sized shoulders of our all-volunteer military.  While this disproportionately small segment of U.S. society* fights our wars, the majority of us continue to rally around the cause of conflict with virtually no ownership.  How many of us have family members in the military?  In combat zones?  What is our personal investment in these conflicts?

I fear that our disregard for the face of this holiday has allowed the deeper meaning of Veterans Day to remain obscured.  Prior to becoming Veterans Day in 1954, this date was celebrated as Armistice Day, marking the cease fire that ended World War I.  Buried within the deep of the Veterans Day tradition, there is not only an honoring of  those who have served, but a remembrance of the terrible cost of war.  A concurrent resolution passed by Congress in on June 4, 1926 reminds us of this price and encourages us to observe this date in the totality of its meaning (with thanks to the Veterans Administration, emphasis is mine):

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

To put it simply, Armistice Day was originally conceived as a day to celebrate the end of the fighting and to honor the cause of peace.

I fear we live in an age where much of the power of the original Armistice Day holiday has been lost; a power of which we are in dire need.  We are politically dominated by the symbol of 9/11, a rallying cry to war uninhibited by any understanding of the deeper causes of resentment and hatred for our neo-imperial foreign policy.  For those of us seeking to make a difference in our national life, it’s time to claim the symbol of 11/11: a call for peace grounded in the hope for a more cooperative community of nations, yet tempered in the sober reality of the destructive war whose end it commemorates.

Until we recognize that the cost of our callousness is truly greater than we can afford to bear, we will continue to live in fear instead of hope.  Defining our orientation in terms of the devastating attack of September 11^th only reinforces our national paranoia.  Redefining our direction in terms of an admittedly uneasy armistice and peace could allow us to begin the process of international reconciliation that will truly be required to ensure not only our national security but international security as well.  The time has come for those of who support the cause of peace to reject the fear of 9/11 and claim anew the hope of 11/11.

*Which also happens to be disproportionately overrepresented by African Americans and is rapidly rising in Latino/a representation – See Government Accounting Office Report GAO-05-952)

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

This article is a re-imagination of the article I originally published in my congregational newsletter, The Tahlequah Christian.  You can read the original article here.

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• Section 60 | Xenia Institute

This week will mark the passing of 11/11: the day we commemorate in our nation as Veterans Day. As you mayalready know, this day only came to be known as Veterans Day following the end of World War II. Prior to that war, it was known as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of the World War I. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent throughout Europe and the Middle East bringing to end what had been one of the most destructive conflicts known to humanity. Today this date is still observed throughout the world; Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, Armistice Day for others, and even Independence Day for some.

On November 11, 1918, the warring nations of the world laid down their arms and exhaled their first relieved sighs of peace in over four years. Finally freed from conflict, the world was able to take stock of all that had transpired during this time: the destruction of Western Europe, Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine, modern-day Poland and Iraq, Russia, and many other territories and lands. The pall of war crimes hung like a cloud over the landscape of peace: ethnic cleansing and genocide, mass deployment of chemical weapons, and unrestricted submarine warfare. And all of this seemed to diminish behind the crimson stain of an estimated 20 million or more dead. (Sadly, we can never know the exact cost in human life – war often steals away life under the tragic circumstances of anonymity.)

So when did 9/11 become more powerful than 11/11?

This is more a question of rhetoric than of research, but it tugs at my thoughts this week as I reflect on the upcoming Veterans Day holiday – an observance to remember all of those who have fought for our nation, and I hope, an opportunity to remember the heartbreaking cost of our seemingly human predisposition to violence and war. It stands in contrast to the symbolism of 9/11, a date which has become our new Pearl Harbor or Alamo: a rallying cry for war.

As Christians, we have much to think about as we approach the season of Advent and the celebration of the one whom we call “Prince of Peace.” Will we remember the tragedy of conflict and reflect soberly on 11/11 before engaging in warfare, or will we embrace the rally cry of 9/11 and rush toward war without pausing to regard the cost? Sometimes the Gospel forces us to confront the most difficult of choices.

Praying for peace in a war-torn world,

Clint

I’ve decided that I’m going to start publishing my columns for The Tahlequah Christian, the weekly newsletter of First Christian Church of Tahlquah, OK and my congregation.  These will be categorized under the heading of the same name.  This article was originally published on October 27, but from here on I plan to begin publishing my columns regularly on Tuesdays simultaneous with the weekly newsletter.  So without further adieu…

It’s the time of the year when our televisions tend to get a little worked up over the season. Without fail, my tv is overrun with horror movies, candy commercials, and all kinds of “information” on Halloween. Normally, I don’t get too excited about it. I haven’t worn a costume in years, and more often than not I seem to be away from my home on Halloween night, so I don’t hand out a lot of goodies. But this year, with all the hoopla starting up again, I decided to do a little research into the holiday myself.

Did you know Halloween itself is short for All Hallows Evening, which comes from an old English term: eallra hâlgena æfen? (Don’t ask me to pronounce it!) And furthermore, it has its roots in Catholic tradition? Hallow is another word for Holy, and it turns out Halloween is traditionally the evening before All Saints Day on November 1st. The scary stuff, however, comes from Celtic lore. The festival of Samhain (from old Irish) was held to mark the end of summer and the beginning of the “darker” days of winter. It was believed that on Samhain the boundary between this world and the spirit world was especially thin, and spirits could slip back and forth between the two. Today that translates to ghost costumes at our front doors and weird horror movies on our tv sets.

And all of this left me to think about that which we “hallow”: our faith tradition, our scriptures, our God. What information have we missed out on when it comes to our Christian journey? I’ve been doing some theological work at school that has led me deeper into certain parts of the bible than I had ever studied before. Did you know that there are multiple stories of God creating and re-creating the world? Genesis 1 gives us the 6-day creation. Genesis 2-3 gives us Adam & Eve in the Garden. John 1 gives us “in the beginning was the Word.” Psalms 74 & 89 give us a battling warrior God – all creation stories, but not all of the creation stories. Noah’s story in Genesis 6-9 gives us one of the re-creation stories along with the entire book of Job. It’s too bad we don’t have a “Biblical Creation Day” holiday, so we can have our tvs and stores teach this stuff for us. I guess we’ll just have to make time for it on our own!

Looking forward to studying with you along the journey,
Clint