Please join us today for our Armistice / Veterans Day Parade and Peace Event. We would like as many veterans as possible to join us. This year we will be joined by our "Outhouse House Band" the Leftist Marching Band and musicians from three other Honk Parade bands. Also this year we will have a large contingent of peace allies. Peace groups will be gathering for a Stand-out at Park Street T Station at 12:00 noon then will be joining our parade. We have a wonderful program for our Peace Event at Sam Adams Park at Faneuil Hall. Veteran poets will be reading their works, this should be a very powerful and moving event - Please join us. 

We will gather at 12:30 pm at the corner of Charles and Beacon Streets. The first parade steps off at 1:00 pm. We follow a couple of hundred yards behind them and continue down to Sam Adams Park at Faneuil Hall.

Our Press Release and Peace Event Program is below:

                 Veterans For Peace

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Pat Scanlon                                                                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Telephone: 978-475-1776

Cell Phone: 978-590-4248

Email: patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com

 

Armistice / Veterans Day for Peace

Tuesday, November 11, 2:30 p.m.

Sam Adams Park at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston

 

BOSTON – Veterans For Peace is hosting a Armistice / Veterans Day

for Peace event at Sam Adams Park at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston on Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2014 starting at 2:30 p.m.

 

Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day in honor of ending of hostilities on the

western front in World War I. It was on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918 that this war ended. It was originally a day of peace, a day to solemnly remember the 20,000,000 people who died in that war. It was a day to celebrate the end of the war to end all wars.

 

“Sadly, we know”, said Pat Scanlon, Coordinator of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 9 “that that terrible conflict that decimated much of Europe did not end all wars. In fact, wars have become ever more prevalent, more impersonal, more horrific and deadly. On this Armistice / Veterans Day, we as veterans who have dutifully served our country will once again proudly walk two hundred yards behind the end of the first Veterans Day Parade in Boston. We will be, as in years past, the largest contingent of Veterans walking the streets of Boston on Veterans Day.”

 

We will walk and we will talk about peace on this most reverent day honoring veterans.

We walk in memory of all those who have lost their lives or have been wounded, maimed or who suffer from PTSD and other emotional trauma as a result of these wars. We walk to bring attention to the economic reality that these wars are severely impacting our economy at home. We also walk for peace and the hope that some day, as was the original hope of Armistice Day that all wars will come to an end, forever.

 

At the conclusion of the parade Veterans For Peace will be hosting our Annual Veterans Day for Peace Event at Sam Adams Park located at the Faneuil Hall Market Place in Boston, beginning at 2:30 p.m. There will be speakers, music, and poetry. Veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Fox, and the Iraq war will be reciting poetry and song that they have composed. This sharing of the written word through poetry, created by veterans who have experienced war first hand will be powerful and a clear reminder of the original purpose of Armistice Day – A Day of Peace.

See the program below

 

Armistice / Veterans Day For Peace

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Samuel Adams Park, Boston, Massachusetts

 

Program

 

Leftist Marching Band                                         Bring us together music

 

Pat Scanlon, Vietnam Veteran                              Welcome

Coordinator, Veterans For Peace

Smedley D. Butler Brigade, Chapter 9

 

Rev. Lara Hoke, Gulf War Veteran                       Words of Peace

Secretary, VFP, Chapter 9                                  

 

Doug Stuart, Vietnam Veteran                              Meaning of Armistice / Veterans Day

Member, VFP, Chapter 9                                   

 

Bob Funke, Vietnam Veteran                                Ringing of the Bell

Member, VFP, Chapter 9                                             One Minute of Silence

 

John Ratliff, Vietnam Veteran                              VFP Statement on Syria & Iraq

Member, VFP, Chapter 9

 

Sev Bruyn, WWII Veteran                                   Hurt Souls

Member, VFP, Chapter 9                                             War is Not a Game

 

David Rothauser, Korean Veteran                         A True Story; Sushi and

Member, VFP, Chapter 9                                    the making of Article 9            

 

Leftist Marching Band                                         Music         - Down by the Riverside

 

Webb Nichols, Vietnam Veteran                           Elegy for the Fallen

Member, VFP, Chapter 9

 

Karen Scolfield, Panama 1989                              Backblast Area Clear,

                                                                        Army SMART Book: On Being Lost

 

Caleb Nelson, Iraq Veteran                                  Cat’s Cradle, by Vonnegut

 

Eric Wasileski – Oper. Desert Fox Veteran            ‘til Armistice Day                            

Ex Comm. VFP, Chapter 9      

 

Leftist Marching Band                                         Musical Wrap-Up 

          

                  Appreciation to the City of Boston for use of Samuel Adams Park              

 

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