Friend—
It surprises many to learn “Veterans Day” as we celebrate it in the
U.S. was originally remembered internationally as “Armistice Day” to
celebrate the end of World War I. For decades, people came together to
express a communal commitment to ending all wars, not for
sales at big box chain stores and NFL “tributes” that are actually
paid-for advertising from the U.S. Armed Forces.
Our government is not just at war around the world, it’s at war
with history. It tries to erase the memory of people’s resistance to
militarism and exploit our natural solidarity with veterans to rope us
into supporting illegal invasions and unjust occupations.
But they’ll never stamp out the legacy of peace movements and
the Green Party will never stop fighting to end this system of
empire and exploitation. Will
you contribute $19.19 today in honor of the year of the very first
Armistice Day, to help us elect Greens who will dismantle the military
industrial complex and redirect those resources toward an
Eco-Socialist Green New Deal?
“Our decent impulse, to recognize the ordeal of our veterans,
has been used to obscure the fact that they died, they were crippled,
for no good cause other than the power and profit of a few. Veterans
Day, instead of an occasion for denouncing war, has become an occasion
for bringing out the flags, the uniforms, the martial music, the
patriotic speeches reeking with hypocrisy. Those who name holidays,
playing on our genuine feeling for veterans, have turned a day that
celebrated the end of a horror into a day to honor
militarism.”
— Howard Zinn, radical historian and
WWII veteran
Professor Zinn gets to the truth of it: As war turns people against
each other, the warmongers try to use sentiment and ceremony to turn
us against our own conscience. We must have the courage to stand up
against political smears and popular pressure to champion this
essential message: that all war is a project of mass murder, waged by
corrupt elites who sacrifice nothing.
Any political leader who betrays that message is unworthy of our
support. Help
build the Green Party with your contribution today so we can beat back
the tide of jingoistic and xenophobic propaganda, run real peace
candidates for office and end the bi-partisan, perpetual war economy
that endangers our entire planet.
For Peace, People and Planet Over Profit, Green Party of the
United States
P.S. The first celebrants of Armistice Day rang bells because
church bells went silent during the war. Ring
in your support for peace all year long by becoming a Green Party
Monthly Sustainer!
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org/
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