Tag: Veterans’s Day

Taking the Side of Peace

Peace is not something you wish for. it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. John Lennon

Peace

Make Peace

PEACE

Today I am taking sides.

I am taking the side of Peace.

Peace, which I will not abandon

even when its voice is drowned out

by hurt and hatred,

bitterness of loss,

cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace

whose name has barely been spoken

in this winnerless war.

I will hold Peace in my arms,

and share my body’s breath,

lest Peace be added

to the body count.

I will call for de-escalation

even when I want nothing more

than to get even.

I will do it

in the service of Peace.

I will make a clearing

in the overgrown

thicket of cause and effect

so Peace can breathe

for a minute

and reach for the sky.

I will do what I must

to save the life of Peace.

I will breathe through tears.

I will swallow pride.

I will bite my tongue.

I will offer love

without testing for deservingness.

So don’t ask me to wave a flag today

unless it is the flag of Peace.

Don’t ask me to sing an anthem

unless it is a song of Peace.

Don’t ask me to take sides

unless it is the side of Peace.

Rabbi Irwin Keller, Oct. 17, 2023

Veteran’s Day 2016

20161111_160745I believe in peace and non-violence.  The veterans I have known are awesome. The sacrifice of time and lives is more one can imagine. I have gratitude for what all the veterans of the world have sacrificed for our freedoms and hopes for a better world.
In Canada it is Remembrance Day. This is a post from an amazing college freshman, Sherina Harris.  Read her here.

My biggest problem with some of our elected officials is they do not understand the implications of their actions. They don’t respect the lives and families of those in our military when they send them into combat. Leadership, Compromise, negotiations, and PEACE wins the day for me.

Below is from a Startribune.com newsletter by Patrick Coolican:

Veterans Day. A letter home from Sgt. Michael A. DiRaimondo, 22, of Simi Valley, Calif.:

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003: Life is so precious. Living day by day in good health or just happiness is probably what makes me happy right now. I try not to think that what I do makes me happy. Just being alive, having a wonderful family, good friends, watching the sunrise morning after morning that’s what makes me feel good. I think people take their lives for granted. Some just haven’t hit that part of their lives where they stop and say, “I am such a lucky person to have the life that I have.”

DiRaimondo, who planned to be a paramedic firefighter, was killed on Jan. 8, 2004, when his helicopter was shot down while on a medical evacuation mission near Fallujah.

bird-62696_640“Keep them in your thoughts and learn about America’s current and potential conflicts. In a democracy, ultimately it’s the citizens who make decisions about war.” Patrick Coolican