Paul Deaton and Ed Flaherty hold Veterans for Peace sign

Armistice Day is a day to promote peace and to remember the victims of war, both veterans and civilians.

Veterans For Peace Chapter #161 is sponsoring an Armistice Day Observance to be held on Monday, November 11th at the Clinton St. entrance to Old Capitol, Iowa City. Gather @ 10:20AM. The observance will begin @ 10:30AM, and bells will be rung @ 11:00 AM,  (11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month)  as they were rung around the world at the end of WWI in 1918 and on each November 11th for decades thereafter. Veterans for Peace Armistice Day Observance  will recall the hopes of peoples for an end to war when the Armistice ending World War I on the Western Front was celebrated 95 years ago on Nov. 11, 1918.

Bells rang throughout many lands as the guns fell silent across France and Belgium–“the war to end all wars” was over–but the hopes for lasting peace foundered over the repeated conflicts which followed during the remainder of the 20th century and into this century.

Ed Flaherty, who will preside at the commemoration, notes that the legislation establishing Armistice Day as a national holiday declared it “…a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace…Too often rhetoric and patriotic symbols are used instead of genuine compassion for the extraordinary sacrifices and service of military personnel. Honoring veterans alone distracts the public from the awful price paid by those other than members of the military.” He also notes that Veterans for Peace calls for “waging peace” as well as ending wars and the “terrible” human and financial costs resulting from wars and our military policies.

The event will feature Veterans for Peace from throughout the state of Iowa.  The presidents of the three Iowa Veterans for Peace chapters will speak. John Jadryev is president of VFP #161 in Iowa City. Gil Landolt is president of VFP #163 in Des Moines. Joe Aossey is president of VFP #169 in Linn County.

James Yee, the Army Captain who was the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo in 2003, will also speak.. A graduate of West Point, Captain Yee objected to the torture of Guantánamo prisoners. Subsequently he was imprisoned for 76 days in solitary confinement and falsely accused of aiding the enemy. Months of government investigation led to all criminal charges being dropped. Yee authored the book, For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, a gripping account of his Guantánamo experience and struggle for justice.

The event is free, and the public is welcome. For further information, please contact Ed Flaherty @ 319 621-6766 or John Jadryev @ 319 430-2019.