To the Editor:Nov. 11 is Veterans Day, right? Well, yes and no. Nov. 11 was originally chosen at the end of World War I — the so-called ‘War to end All Wars" — to be the day to remember and to honor all those killed and injured in wars: soldiers, civilians, women, children, etc. It was called Armistice Day and celebrated annually on Nov. 11 in many countries, including ours. However, in 1954, the U.S. Congress changed Nov. 11 to Veterans Day and the focus became soldiers and veterans of the U.S. military. Gone was the recognition of the many ways that all people suffer from war and violence. Gone was the emphasis on No More Wars and the need to stop humans from slaughtering each other, especially as technology advances. We live in the nuclear age and cannot afford to keep making war in the futile attempt to “make ourselves safe.” In 2024 our tax dollars continue to be squandered on wars, even though the potential of another world war is great, and war and militarism are neither inevitable nor glorious.Historically there have been many voices that warned of the combination of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry. In his farewell address in 1961 President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the corrupting influence of the “military-industrial-complex,” i.e., the network of contracts and flows of money and resources between defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians. Eisenhower warned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders created a disastrous rise of misplaced power.This Armistice Day, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, the Syracuse Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP) and the Beyond War and Militarism Committee (BW&M), a joint committee of the Syracuse Peace Council and the CNY Solidarity Coalition, call upon all to join us from 10:30 to noon at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, 3800 E. Genesee St., to reclaim Armistice Day. We will hear a variety of speakers, including veterans, the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha and Jewish Voice for Peace. We will learn from Raw Tools of a creative and symbolic method of dealing with the proliferation of guns in our community; they will have a hands-on demonstration of the process of turning guns into garden tools. In addition, the Nottingham High School choir will perform songs of peace and solidarity. Once again, Mayor Ben Walsh, as he has done for the past six years, has issued a proclamation, declaring the 11th day of November 2024 to be Armistice Day for Peace in the City of Syracuse. We will come together, not to pay homage to the weapons of destruction, but to remember the millions killed, wounded, widowed, imprisoned, orphaned and displaced by past and current wars and renew our commitment to work for an end to all wars and to foster justice and peace, at home and abroad. As the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. warned: “The choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.” This event is free and open to all.Ronald L. VanNorstrand