Memorial Day Observance

On May 23, Memorial Day, Chapter 80 of Veterans for Peace will offer a Ceremony of Remembrance at 11:00 am, at Lake Place Park by the Peace Statue (Michigan St. and 2nd Ave. East, overlooking the Lakewalk).  Those who have made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in serving the nation will be honored and remembered.  So will their families, who pay a high price.  In fact, these experience the same devastation of war that “the fallen enemy” and civilians in war zones also experience.  The ceremony mourns those who fall without glorifying war.

Veterans for Peace recognize that establishing and maintaining peace is the objective of our military.  Therefore, the best way to honor the sacrifice of troops is to work for peace.  A better future lies beyond the culture of violence and militarism.

Alongside military veterans, the ceremony will also acknowledge those who have sacrificed their lives in working for a better future, whether around the world or here at home — labor organizers, voting rights advocates, civil and human rights workers, whistle blowers, nonviolent peace activists, immigration rights workers, whistleblowers, and others.  Think of the Mexican teacher’s college students who were massacred last year; of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff; of aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig; of Doctors Without Borders staff in Syria, to name but a few instances.

The Way of Jesus calls for a new paradigm for human life in the world.  You are invited to offer your public witness of honoring all these lives, and standing for a better world and a better way, through your presence at this ceremony on Memorial Day.