- The episode reminded me of why I lost interest in attending Memorial Day and Armistice Day (now re-labelled Veteran’s Day) events and parades a long time ago.
- “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”– Dwight D. Eisenhower
- The Myth of America’s Global Peacekeeping Past
Subscribe or “Follow” us on RiseUpTimes.org. Rise Up Times is also on Facebook! Check the Rise Up Times page for posts from this blog and more! “Like” our page today. Rise Up Times is also on Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr. Find us on Twitter at Rise Up Times (@touchpeace).
Gary G. Kohls, Duty to Warn
May 20, 2014 | For the first time in recent memory, the Duluth-area Vets for Peace Chapter 80 float has been banned from participating in Duluth’s Memorial Day parade.
The Northland Veterans Services Committee, which is the organizing committee that is planning this year’s Memorial Day parade has informed the local chapter of Vets for Peace that it will not be allowed to participate. The decision was recently announced over the phone to VFP Chapter 80 president Phil Anderson. The person on the phone simply said that the planning committee “didn’t like us or our group”.
Chapter 80 has had a float in the Duluth parade each Memorial Day for a number of years and it has been in many other summer event parades across the northland. The float has always been well received by parade watchers, and it and its clear peace messages often garner applause as it passes by. The theme of this year’s float is “Honor the Fallen, Heal the Wounded, Work for Peace”. In past years, the float highlighted the unaffordable, high cost of war, and gave specific information of the exact monetary costs for each of the communities that were hosting the parade.
Gary G. Kohls is a retired physician who writes about issues of war, peace, justice, mental health and nonviolence and feels it is important to mix religion and non-partisan politics.
Related:
The Myth of America’s Global Peacekeeping Past, Leon Hadar, The American Conservative
There is something morally appalling in Kagan, The Economist, and other cheerleaders for the botched wars in the Greater Middle East arguing once again that only the full application of American military power will deter aggression and build the foundations for stability.
Rise Up Times 
Recent Comments