November 11 is widely recognized in the US as Veterans Day, but in other parts of the world it goes by Armistice Day, signifying when the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War One.
Western New York Peace Center Executive Director Stephanie Mejia joined several advocates at Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park to recognize the original holiday, as well as the sacrifice of military members. They voiced concerns about the country’s attitude toward international conflict.
“These monuments are really cool. They're really beautiful. They honor a lot of our vets and those who have passed. But what else are they representing?" she said. "The fact that war continues on, and how much more space does this naval park have? Do we need to erect another monument in the next couple of years? I really hope not.”
The culture around military service can often be destructive to those who served, said retired Marine Cpl. Jim Anderson, who served in Vietnam.
“It's hard to be all you can be if you (have) trauma from war, particularly PTSD," he said. "And people don't understand it's not just a little nightmare; it's a horror when you're in what we call a firefight, and you're shooting back and forth, and you know you're killing somebody, and you're not allowed to see the body.”
Anderson, a Buffalo native, is now co-chair for the national grassroots organization Peace Action. Many young adults now are more politically aware than in his generation, which provides the potential to revive Armistice Day, he added.
"They're hungry for the truth," Anderson said. "They're tired of the lies and the misinformation that this country has spread, and they want, they want the truth.
Armistice Day was first recognized in 1919 and declared a federal holiday in the US in 1938. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Congress renamed it Veterans Day in 1954, to recognize all the country’s retired servicemembers. It’s still called Armistice Day in France and Belgium. In the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it's known as Remembrance Day.
