Celebrating Peace

WORLD WAR ONE was such a nightmare that when it ended, the joy and celebration inspired the idea to create a new holiday in honor of the end of the war to end all wars, "Armistice Day". A day to celebrate peace. The war was so horrible, so destructive compared to earlier predictions, and its end so wildly wonderrul, such a great salvation, that it was widely and mistakenly believed that all the major differences between nations had finally been solved permanently, and humankind was ushering in a permanent peace. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a time of peace. Then the holiday morphed into veterans day. The Armistice part of it, the message of peace through negotiation, agreement, and treaty, peace for all time, got lost in the shuffle, as it became obvious that there was no such thing. Celebrating peace seemed silly in a world filled with war. Better to honer to vets as heroes, and honor the wars as glorious, noble endeavors, rather than celebrate a nonexistent peace. It always makes us better to justify our behavior even our bad behavior. Maybe its time to reintroduce the original meaning of the holiday, the return to celebrating peace, and the hope and dream that we can attain peace permanently. What, precisely, is wrong with celebrating aspirations and hope? Veterans, Armistice, and Peace Day. Over the one hundred years since the end of World War One the trend has been for few wars, and lower death rates in war, believe it or not. Despite our seemingly war torn world, it seems that the world is less war torn than ever. this certainly says much about human nature and history, but it also gives up reason to be hopeful, about our capacity to create lasting peace. Einstein said that as long as there are people, there will be war. maybe he was wrong. It wouldn't be the first or the only time. may we always celebrate and honor our heroic military veterans, and particularly those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the United States. And what better day to pay tribute to the humany capacity for living in peaceful harmony, and the eternal hope that we will someday achieve it?