An Armistice/Veterans Day Sermon
By Hilary (Holly) Hosmer,
November 12, 2006, First Parish in Bedford
Introduction
While visiting my family plot in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, I noticed that all my male relatives had small American flags on their graves, honoring their service as veterans. The flags fluttered colorfully in the breeze across the whole cemetery, and I wondered which organization provided a fresh flag every year for each veteran of every war.
The females in my family had no comparable tribute. The most flagrant omission was the grave of my grandmother, a patriot who had sent her husband and all her sons to war. She was both gentle and strong, a peacemaker within the family and her community and a generous contributor to national and international causes throughout her life. When she died, her funeral was televised, impressing the young man who later became my husband. I longed for something to put on her grave that said “Peacemaker” as powerfully as the flags said “Veteran.”
Honoring Sacrifice
We honor our warriors often: Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day, Armed Forces Day, Patriot’s Day and Evacuation Day. The families of fallen soldiers are honored as Gold Star Mothers and Fathers. We name streets and squares after local military heroes. We may bury our military dead with honor in national and international cemeteries. At Arlington and Normandy crosses and Stars of David stretch as far as the eye can see. There is a WWI memorial on the Common right in front of our church.
War with its inherent conflict and strategy is a popular subject for films and study. This Veteran’s Day weekend AMC television featured a marathon of war movies, including Patton, The Green Berets, and Tora, Tora, Tora.
However, war isn’t glorious for those who serve or for the families they leave behind.
Let us take a moment of silence to honor those closest to us who served their country.
What You Honor is What you Get
There is an old expression that what you honor is what you get. I’ll repeat that. WHAT YOU HONOR IS WHAT YOU GET. Teachers know that an easy way to get children to settle down is to admire one who is sitting quietly upright in his/her seat.
Honoring Peacemakers
If we want more peace, we must honor more peacemakers. Surely those who resolve conflicts and inequities before they flare into violence deserve as much credit as government-sanctioned fighters do! Similarly, those who can cut through the Gordian knot of long-term conflict to create lasting peace deserve our greatest thanks.
The Nobel Peace Prize goes to only one person a year. Many peacekeepers, including teachers, police, counselors, mediators, judges, and activists do not get the recognition they deserve, even though they put their lives in harm’s way. For example, police who respond to domestic violence risk their lives. Justice-seekers Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King were all assassinated.
Let us take a moment to honor the peacemakers in our own lives. This time tell someone next to you in the pew about a peacemaker you know or admire.
Peacemaking requires wisdom and skill. The best peacemakers are able to accomplish their goals without risking lives. Three examples from South Africa include:
· The international banking community dramatically and peacefully forced the collapse of apartheid by refusing to buy South African government bonds.
· Nelson Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation program forestalled a post-apartheid war of vengeance on whites in South Africa.
· Mandela’s resignation before the end of his term forestalled a civil war of succession after his death.
Many areas I know and love have fallen prey to violence:
· In Oaxaca, Mexico, a recent teachers’ strike became violent;
· Ivory Coast, West Africa, fell into Civil War;
· Israel and Palestine have endured 60 years of strife.
I bemoan today’s on-going violence, both in Iraq and in our cities and homes. What peacemaking techniques work? What can be done?
Google “Research”
I googled “Peacemaker” out of curiosity. The first things I found were New Testament quotations to guide Christians in conflict resolution, and a video-game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I then tried “Peacekeeper” and discovered it often has a military connotation, as in the “Peacemaker” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. I learned that UN peacekeepers, soldiers authorized by the UN Security Council after a cease-fire to stay on the ground while diplomats resolve the conflict, are not expected to fight.
I was delighted to see 21.8 million hits on Google for “peace organizations.” Millions of peacemakers, including Quakers and World Federalists, use the Internet to communicate, organize, and advocate for peace.
Peacekeeping Methods
We will need to use our best peacekeeping methods to help resolve today’s and future wars. Here are a few classic peacemaking principles with real-life examples.
1. Vengeance is counter-productive.
WWI ended on November 11, 1918. The reparations the Armistice forced on Germany created such economic distress they paved the way for the rise of the Nazis and WWII.
We learned from our WWI mistake, and after WWII rebuilt the economies of our opponents via the Marshall Plan.
South Africa needed the skills of its white minority to maintain its status as a First World country. Nelson Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Program both documented the terrible truths of apartheid and forgave the perpetrators, thus avoiding vengeance and keeping the white populace.
2. Include all the Stakeholders in Negotiations
Including all the stakeholders, especially those with differing positions, is very important in creating enduring peace. Consider the 60-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The USA now refuses to recognize Hamas, the democratically elected Palestinian government, because of its position on Israel and support for terrorism. (Hamas believes that since Europeans rather than Muslims, were responsible for the Holocaust, Israel should have been built on European rather than Palestinian land). Hamas, the primary source of government services for the Palestinians and known for its integrity and lack of corruption, would make an excellent negotiating partner for Israel.
There are many options to move toward peace. Three great faiths consider Israel/Palestine holy. Perhaps the Holy Land should be a World Heritage Site with access to all under international control and protection. The Jewish homeland could be built in a less contentious place. It would be less expensive to compensate Israelis and Palestinians who lose or lost their land to than provide 40% of the USA’s annual foreign aid budget to support and defend Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian problem must be solved, or radical Islam and terrorism will continue to grow.
3. Search for truth
Assess interests, power, and motives dispassionately. Avoid demonizing. Propaganda, hidden agendas, and covert action are normal to the peacemaking process.
President Bush got us into the Iraq War by welcoming information that supported his beliefs and ignoring facts that didn’t. Truth requires many perspectives. President Kennedy, a very fast reader, read many international newspapers before breakfast. President Bush gets his information primarily from his daily briefing book, saying he believes newspapers contain more opinion than news.
Subtle filters skew truth. Because of the possibility of divided loyalty, bilingual sons and daughters of foreign-born parents have difficulty getting security clearances from the CIA and other intelligence organizations. Thus, the USA intelligence services find themselves without enough native foreign language speakers. Service personnel went to war in Iraq without translators. Miscommunication was too often fatal.
4. Help different ethnic groups to live in peace together.
In Ivory Coast, administrators were assigned to posts away from their own ethnic groups so they could be objective and wouldn’t be deluged by their extended families asking for handouts.
Our country assumes voters can read English. In contrast, South Africa planned for diverse languages and illiteracy. The ballots for the first multiracial, multiethnic election in South Africa pictured the face of each candidate, as well as the party symbol. Directions were nonverbal and in all eleven national languages.
Share wealth across the country. Switzerland, which has four official language groups, has been a model multiethnic democracy for over 800 years. It shows that a high standard of living and ethnic diversity can go together.
5. Redistribute wealth without taking property away from current owners.
Distributing wealth can begin at the source of the wealth. If the state of Alaska can share its oil wealth with every inhabitant of the state, USA oil companies can share royalties with every citizen in a country. In many countries, oil companies often deal only with those in power, paying royalties to dictators or princes who then pursue their own goals or share only with their own tribe. Coupled with the principles of micro-finance, wide distribution will produce economic growth and employment.
If property must be taken, compensate the owner fairly. Palestinians who fled Israel before the 1948 war were not allowed to return to their land and water after the war, nor did Israelis compensate them for it.
6. Establish rules of succession.
Succession of power is a traditional problem with a risk of devastating civil war. The Ivory Coast split into factions followed by civil war when the original leader for independence died in power.
“What will happen to us when Mandela dies?” South African whites worried repeatedly. To ensure a smooth succession, Mandela resigned early, able to return if needed. He’s a remarkable peacekeeper.
7. Accommodate different religious groups.
For 800 years Muslims practiced religious tolerance in their medieval empire, permitting minorities like Jews, Christians, and Animists to practice their own faiths. After Ferdinand and Isabella retook Spain from the Moors in 1492, tolerance faltered. The Spanish Inquisition started to burn books and heretics. Centuries of religious wars in Europe and elsewhere illustrate the importance of freedom of religion.
Summary of Peacemaking Techniques
I have identified seven techniques for peacemaking:
· Assess power and interests dispassionately.
· Include all stakeholders in negotiations, including neighbor states.
· Rebuild rather than take revenge.
· Make sacred shrines national or international.
· Share national resources among all the people.
· Protect ethnic and religious minorities.
· Anticipate succession problems.
Peacemaker Symbols
Returning to my concern about honoring the unsung peacemakers in my family, I googled “peace symbols” and got 5.3 million hits.
Our peace symbol, I learned, is based upon Goya’s painting of a peasant outstretched before a firing squad, abstracted by British artist Gerald Holtom in 1958.
In Bar Harbor, Maine, I finally found something appropriate for my grandmother: the peace symbol composed of fifty stars on the blue background of the Stars and Stripes. Peace and Patriotism together!