Armistice (Veteran’s) Day 11 November: “A Day to be Dedicated to the Cause of World Peace”
An Act of Congress, approved May 13, 1938, made November 11th of each year a U. S. federal holiday. Bells were rung throughout the world on November 11, 1918, the day that World War I, which the U.S. Congress called “the war to end all war”. The Act stated that it was the nation’s desire to have peaceful future, away from war, and that each November 11th from then on “shall be a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.”
However, on June 1, 1954, the 83rd Congress amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans”, which enabled Americans to honor all veterans of wars the U.S. has engaged in. The organization Veteran’s For Peace, Inc., holds that Congress’s changing the word “Armistice” in the original law to “Veterans” the 1954 law changed the focus of the holiday from preserving the peace to “honoring warriors and war”, furthermore states “that too often rhetoric and patriotic symbols are used instead of genuine compensation for the extraordinary sacrifices and services of military personnel…”.
The Veterans for Peace also states (in its 2008 proclamation) that “the ringing of bells is so much more fitting and peaceful than the often practiced gun salutes and fighter plane flyovers” and Veterans For Peace, Inc. urges its membership to adopt the procedure of honoring peace by focusing on bell ringing on Armistice Day, November 11 and other solemn occasions”. The following, as well as the picture above, is taken from their website:
Veterans For Peace calls for the observance of Veterans Day to be in keeping with the holiday’s original intent. Congressional Act (52 Stat.351: 5U.S. Code, Sec.87a) approved May 13, 1938, made November 11th of each year a legal Federal Holiday,“A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
The ceasefire on the, “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 along the European Western Front was such a relief to all those involved as the world had never seen such horror and carnage as World War I. The horrible conflict that had come to be known as the “War to End War” brought the bulk of humanity to contemplate abolishing war.
Veterans For Peace calls on its members and allies to observe Veterans Day by rejecting militarism and the glorification of war. We call on the nation to honor veterans and all those who have died in war by working for peace and the prevention of war. There is no better way to honor the dead than to protect the living from the fear, terror and morale deprivation of war.
VFP Resolution Submitted by Bob Heberle, VFP Chapter 27, (Endorsed by VFP Chapter 27)
Whereas bells worldwide were rung on November 11, 1918 to celebrate and recognize the ending of WWI, “The war to end all wars” and
Whereas to commemorate that peaceful pledge, bells were rung November 11 for over 35 years, and
Whereas, legislation making November 11 a holiday passed in 1938, ” Shall be a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” and
Whereas the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars, and
Whereas the substitution of the word “Armistice” to “Veterans” changes the focus from peace to war by celebrating and honoring warriors and war, and
Whereas that November date symbolized the nation’s desire to hold to a peaceful future and away from war, and
Whereas, too often rhetoric and patriotic symbols are used instead of genuine compensation for the extraordinary sacrifices and services of military personnel, and
Whereas 90% of victims of wars are now civilians and by honoring only veterans, the public is distracted from the awful price paid by those other than military members, and
Whereas Chapter #27 has for over 17 years promoted the ringing of a bell eleven times at its ceremonies on November 11 and at other solemn occasions such as funerals to remind the public of that Armistice Day peace pledge, and
Whereas the ringing of bells is so much more fitting and peaceful than the often practiced gun salutes and fighter plane flyovers.
Therefore Be It Resolved that Veterans For Peace, Inc. urges its membership to adopt the procedure of honoring peace by focusing on bell ringing on Armistice Day, November 11 and other solemn occasions.
Approved at the 2008 VFP national convention.
Governor Walker’s $100 Million Tax Cut Not in Wisconsin’s Best Interest*
I do not believe Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature’s decision to give Wisconsin property owners a $100 million tax cut over the next two years was in our state’s best interest. The bill was rush through both houses and signed by Scott Walker in order to have it reflected on this year’s billing. But for the sake of efficiency our government clearly discouraged us from having any input.
92,000 Wisconsites Formerly on BadgerCare Insurance May Be Uninsured Come January 1st
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The Gov. Walker administration has informed about 92,000 poor or disabled Wisconsin residents that their BadgeCare health insurance has been terminated as of January 1, 2014,, the day the state expects those people to move to insurance coverage planned to be available at the federal marketplace exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act.
The letters also inform the Medicaid recipients they need to purchase health insurance through the new online exchange, or marketplace, by December 15. That is the federal deadline for obtaining ACA coverage by January 1st. Governor Scott Walker’s budget has striped BadgerCare Medicaid benefits from those who earn between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Governor Walker then rejected $119 million of federal money over two years that would have paid to keep those earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level enrolled in Medicaid.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett asked Governor Scott Walker in a letter late last week to delay changes in the state’s BadgerCare program to ensure that the 92,000 persons who were informed that their health insurance coverage was being terminated will have a reasonable opportunity to enroll in an alternative health insurance plan by the December 15 deadline. Reason is that the highly publicized problems with the new federal marketplace have created widespread enrollment problems, potentially leaving thousands of people who had formerly been covered by BadgerCare completely uninsured come January 1.
“The simple solution to this problem is to postpone implementation of all BadgerCare changes until March 31, 2014,”, Mayor Barrett wrote to the Governor. “This is all about the well-being of tens-of-thousands of vulnerable Wisconsinites who are likely to lose their healthcare coverage while being unable to secure a federally approved marketplace policy in time.
Barrett says that because people would have to sign up by Dec. 15 to get the federal coverage by Jan. 1, and there have been problems enrolling in the federal program, the state cutoff of BadgerCare should be delayed three-months. to March 31. Walker denied his request, saying “we’re still going to believe the federal government, in the comments that they made, that it will be operational by the end of the month.”
Wisconsin’s Hungry to get Hungrier, Starting Tomorrow!
No this is not a Halloween joke. It’s harsh reality for the families and individuals in Wisconsin, and other U.S. states, who presently rely on federal food stamps for their daily living. Beginning November 1, nearly 900,000 Wisconsinites will see cuts to their monthly food stamp benefits. Food stamps help people with limited money buy the food they need for good health. Income eligibility for food stamps is based on household size and monthly gross and net income, relative to the federal poverty level. The poverty level ranges from $958 to $1,963, per month, for an individual to a family of four living in Wisconsin.
Persons and families who count on food stamp (called food shares in Wisconsin) for their monthly food budget are getting an unwanted trick tomorrow. What started as a temporary increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2009 as an element of the federal stimulus act ends tomorrow.
After today, 860,000 people in Wisconsin will get considerably less money to buy food. A family of three loses $29 in monthly shares. In total, the Wisconsin Budget Project, an initiative of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, calculates that Wisconsin families now getting food shares will receive $89 million less in 2014 ,
SNAP is supposedly our country’s anti-hunger program, designed to help poor people – most of them children, disabled or elderly – buy nourishable food. Enrollment has doubled since 2004 and the program’s cost has nearly tripled. Aside from a less than adequate state and federal economy the last few years, another big reason for the increase in number of people who depend on the SNAP program is no doubt due to the federal government’s failure to raise the minimum hourly wage, which remains at $7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009. A person who works for $7.25 an hour (2080 hours/yr.) and provides for a family of two falls below the poverty level. According to a recent study, more than half of all employees working in the fast food industry in the country rely on food stamps. Beginning tomorrow, one of every seven Americans,or 47.6 million people (15% of U.S. population) will get less food starting when the $5 billion cut in food stamps takes effect.
Congress has the power to halt the cutback but is not likely to do so at a time when Republicans, lead by Rep Paul Ryan, are calling for even more drastic cuts to food stamps. Other changes to Food Share in Wisconsin are planned to take place July 2014 when the state implements its work or training requirement. Exemptions like age, pregnancy and ability would prevent some from having to work to receive benefits. Of course many of those not exempted from working are undoubtedly already working but in low paying jobs. Many states (18) and Washington D.C. have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage (Oregon and Washington have their minimum wage set at $8.95 and $9.19, respectively); however, Wisconsin uses the federal hourly work minimum of $7.25.
Meanwhile, just to show where Wisconsin politicians’ priorities lie these days, when a highway bridge developed a sag requiring closure on September 25th this year ,state transportation officials wasted no time and called for an “aggressive” target date to have the bridge opened back up to traffic – January 17, 2014 – at a total project cost of $15 million. (The Wisconsin State Journal reported today that the contract to make the repairs has already been issued to a Waukesha construction company.) And of course the Wisconsin State Legislature wasted no time passing Governor Scott Walker’s $100 million property tax subsidy this month (6 days and virtually no time for public comment) , which benefits the state’s wealthiest and business property owners the most.
The federal food stamp program as a whole is facing potentially devastating cuts in the coming years if House of Representative Republicans get their way. The House approved legislation last month that would cut $39 billion in funds over the next decade for food stamp programs. The The Senate’s farm bill also would cut food stamps, but by $4.5 billion over a decade. Negotiators in the Senate and House of Representatives are meeting beginning this week to resolve their differences in a long-delayed farm bill.
27. Media, Government and Religious Organizations Derelict in Duties to Inform Public of Necessary Actions to Take to Avoid Global Warming Catastrophe
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Some may have wondered why our mass media sources, including CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN, FOX News, CNN, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio, the National Weather Service, as well as the many major national and local newspapers and local TV and radio weather forecasters, have refused to sound the alarm bells on global warming the past several years when it started to become fairly obvious that humans were causing the world to warm as evidenced by the faster melting of the polar ice and land glaciers, the rate that sea level was rising, and the poleward movement of the growing seasons, insect populations, and animal in America and elwhere were happening at the same time as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere were rising., among other physical and biological changes,were all occurring
But all credible scientists are now admitting that catastrophic warming of the earth is underway and the resulting profound impacts on most of the world’s life systems has already been begun. They also say the warming will continue every day that people and businesses conduct “business as usual”, which is what the world’s fossil fuel companies and related corporations want everybody to do.
Despite President Obama’s speech to the graduating students at Georgetown University on June 25th this year, where unveiled his new policies to confront global warming – a transcript of the speech can be read at blog entry #18 – the. United States Congress and Wisconsin’s Legislature and Wisconsin’s state governor Scott Walker have been done virtually nothing to confront climate change in Wisconsin.
Every day we continue to live our lives as we did in the past, by engaging in activities that burn fossil fuels – in driving motor vehicles, in flying by jet airliner, in heating and cooling our homes, and in visiting places of business and/or recreation that cause the release of more and more volumes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, we add more “fuel to the fire”, so to speak, Earth and her ocean’s will become hotter and hotter, setting in motion an almost unthinkable cascade unintended consequences upon all of us and the generations that follows. It is shameful that our Wisconsin Legislature, our governor, and our governmental representatives in the House of Representatives, and the U. S. Senate have all failed to take meaningful major actions on this growing catastrophe and have continued acting as though things should be done “business as usual”
In 2000, I proposed a strategy to my elected governmental officials at the state and national level that would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Wisconsin. I believe it would have resulted in significant annual reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Wisconsin’s transportation and energy use sectors. In doing so, it would likely have benefited all sectors and income levels. Individuals and families who drive less (or not at all), fly less (or not at all) and use less fossil fuel derived energy in their home on an annual basis see blog #7: “A Socially and Environmentally Just Program that Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions to the Atmosphere by Offering Financial Incentives that Reward Less (or no) Driving, Flying and Home Energy Use”, or click on the links below:
26. A Reflection on the National Governor’s Association Meeting in Milwaukee this Month
Yosemite National Park – August 24, 2013. “”No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite… The grandest of all special temples of Nature . (John Muir)
I was disappointed reading the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel’s report on the National Governors Association’s meeting held earlier this month in Milwaukee, particularly that their agenda did not even include the growing threat of climate change and what steps the governors might take to reduce their state’s contributions to the rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as well as how they might better help their state populations cope with increasingly more severe weather conditions already being witnessed worldwide. The wildfire that has spread into Yosemite National Park is now being called “one of the largest wildfires in recent California history”. It is said to have already burned more than 125,000 acres.
25. Most Prestigious Worldwide Science Organization and NBC Sound Alarm on Global Warming
NBC Nightly News | August 20, 2013
NBC ‘s Lester Holt is anchoring NBC’s “Nightly News” program this week while regular news anchor Brian William is having reconstructive knee surgery. He reports on a recent draft of the United Nation’s upcoming climate report, which states what scientists have been warning about for several years – that the main cause of long-term global warming is carbon dioxide emissions.
“Tonight a leaked report from one of the world’s most prestigious group of scientists, winners of the Nobel prize , has a lot of people taking notice because of the alarming conclusions about climate change . NBC’s Ann Curry recently traveled to one of the most breathtaking places on earth where folks are seeing their way of life disappear before their eyes. She joins us now in the studio. Ann, nice to see you.”
For several years Greenland’s native Inuits have witnessed the effects of climate change near the North Pole. The key finding in this leaked draft report is that it’s extremely likely, as in greater than 95%, that human activity is the main cause of the planet’s temperature rise in the last 60 years. Well, recently our news team went looking for answers in a place where the ice melt is unprecedented. Reporting from the top of the world in arctic, Greenland, scientists like Dr. Jason Box study the icy landscape. He says all this might be lost to climate change: “There’s no debate, it’s really quite simple. we’ve overloaded the atmosphere with trapping gas, and the rest are just details”, Box said.
NBC : The new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change seems to confirm what Box and other scientists have been warning long before the draft was leaked. Among the findings: “that the main cause of long-term warming is carbon dioxide emissions , that sea levels could rise about three feet by the end of the century , and that even if we stop producing carbon emissions now, climate change will persist for hundreds of years.”
Here in what’s known as Iceberg Alley, Box, who’s been studying the arctic for 20 years, says “the ice is now melting at a pace never seen before, affecting weather systems” . Reporter: “So in ways that people don’t fully yet realize,climate change is affected us in America and across the world?”
Dr. Box: “Yeah. there are manifold that climate change is having impact. The arctic is a very useful bellwether of change. And it’s ringing.”
Reporter: But in Greenland, once called Eskimo (now called Inuits), they don’t need a scientist to tell them about climate: “the sea ice are disappearing”. The Inuit leader says melting ice means his people struggle to reach their traditional hunting grounds. Some have even fallen through the thinning ice and died. You’re saying that a way of life is so threatened, it could die? It could be lost forever?
Inuit leader: “The only humans around the North Pole in the Arctic are us. We have been here for thousands of years. and we tell you, things are changing. and you will feel it, maybe tomorrow.”
Ann Courry: “His message essentially is that we in the industrialized world are using more than our fair share and that our children and our grandchildren will pay the price, Lester”.
Lester Holt: “Very Sobering, Ann, thank you”.
22. The Evidence of Global Warming is Overwhelming Yet the U. S. House of Representatives Denies It
The evidence is now overwhelming that our continuing to burn fossil fuels – for heating, electricity production and in transportation – has led to a significant warming of the atmosphere, namely global warming. Yet our U. S. House of Representatives of the U. S. Congress has foolishly – and dangerously – refused to acknowledge global warming is a problem much less acknowledge any awareness that greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning by humans is causing the warming.
One month after President Obama laid out a bold plan to tackle climate change, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to say that carbon pollution is not a problem. They are wrong, big time.
The burning of fossil fuels and other fuels that emit carbon dioxide when burned has undeniably led to the following: a profound melting of the polar ice caps; the receding of numerous mountain glaciers, worldwide; a significant and accelerating rise in sea level; ocean acidification (by 30%!) and resulting in harm to the lobster and other species living in the oceans; the loss of billions of dollars as a consequences of global warming caused drought and flooding; and the loss of human life from increasingly more extreme weather events such as hurricanes, more severe storms, heat waves, and fires, plus the increased threat of deadly mosquito and tick transmitted diseases in the U. S., including dengue fever and West Nile virus infection, to name just two.
Scientists the world over predicted all these things could happen, that catastrophic consequences would be inevitable if humankind took no action, and that the number and intensity of such tragedies would worsen over time. Regrettably, especially for the young people of today and future generations – who will have to face the wrath of global warming and its awful consequences their entire life – those predictions are now becoming reality.
Yet today a committee of the U. S. House of Representatives voted to prevent the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency from limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and then the House voted to cut the EPA’s budget by 34 percent!
And now it’s not just the national academy of scientists of the world who are warning others of the global warming threat. Last week, four former EPA administrators under Republican presidents wrote in The New York Times: “The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: delay could mean that warming becomes ‘locked in.'”
But still there are so many politicians in Congress who are still choosing to ignore the problems that global warming is already causing our U. S. citizens and other populations of the world, by their continued silence about the issue, or even worse, their ridicule of others who have concluded the threat is great enough to speak out about, including the president of the United States himself.;
They should be singled out and openly chastised, as they are undoubtedly doing so because of financial contributions they receive from the fossil fuel industries. And then we should thank those who are standing up for our environment by fight against global warming with their votes. This is a call for action to contact your representatives in the U. S. Congress and tell them to vote for actions that reduce U. S. greenhouse gas emissions, that reward individuals and families in the U. S. who use less fuel burning derived energy in their home, business and in transportation, and that will help us all to better adapt to the changing climate that global warming is now already bringing.
We’ve already heard from our president about the need for swift and major governmental action now to confront global warming enemy. Below is how he concluded his June 25, 2013 speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.:
“THE QUESTION NOW IS WHETHER WE WILL HAVE TIME TO ACT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. AS A PRESIDENT AND AS A FATHER AND AS AN AMERICAN, I’M HERE TO SAY: “WE NEED TO ACT!”‘
See post #7 “Positive Financial Incentives: An Environmentally Just Approach for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions” for a proposal to reward using less greenhouse gas emitting energy on an annual basis .
21. Recent Heat-related Deaths in Wisconsin
Heat-related deaths and sicknesses are likely to become much more commonplace in the U.S. and the rest of world as a consequence of increased global warming, primarily caused by human activities. Following are six deaths that have been reported by the news media in Wisconsin:
Milwaukee authorities are reporting a fourth and fifth suspected heat-related death. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office says the latest victims are a 64-year-old woman, who died early Saturday, and a 69-year-old man who died Friday.
They said the woman developed breathing problems in her Milwaukee home, where the air temperature was 93 degrees. Her body temperature was 110 degrees. She had an air conditioner, but was unable to install it on her own. All the windows in her home were closed, and the family never opened them because they feared shots being fired in the neighborhood. They said the man was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital from a home in Milwaukee on Thursday with a body temperature of 102 degrees and died Friday night.
The bodies of two of the other dead men, ages 71 and 79, were found in separate houses Friday. In both cases, the medical examiner said the houses were sealed with no fans on and no air conditioning on in the house. The fifth victim is a 44-year-old man who was found unresponsive in an alley Wednesday evening in Milwaukee and pronounced dead in an intensive-care unit Thursday.
Finally, the death of a two-year old boy found by a deputy in the trunk of a car on his parents’ property near Centuria, Wisconsin, has been confirmed to be heat-related. Preliminary autopsy results released Friday said the boy likely died of hyperthermia — a condition in which the body temperature spikes from high and prolonged heat.
The National Weather Service says Milwaukee has recorded four consecutive days of highs in the mid-90s this week, with the “heat index” (factors in humidity) registering more than 100 degrees Fehrenhei.
20. Obama’s Speech on Fighting Global Warming: “Too Little, Too Late”?
The president’s speech was great in tone and in the way he showed we need immediate action to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and deal with other countries of the world in the collective reduction in worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases. But the plan lacked detail, especially in how we should all be CONSERVING more energy that is generated by fuel burning in everything we do, especially driving less, flying less (or not at all), and using less energy in our homes and in the places where we visit.
The U. S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that U.S. gasoline and diesel fuel consumption for transportation in 2012 resulted in the emission of about 1,089 million metric tons from gasoline and 422 million metric tons of CO2 from diesal fuel burning to the atmosphere, respectively, for a total of 1,511 million metric tons of atmospheric CO2 in 2012. This total was equivalent to 83% of total CO2 emissions by the U.S. transportation sector and 29% of total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions.
Regarding air travel, it is often said that transportation by plane usually results in by far the largest quantities of greenhouse gases (GHG’s) emitted by a person in a year. GHG’s emitted (CO2 and nitrous oxide). This is due to the tremendous quantities of fossil fuels burned in takeoff, climbing and cruising at high elevation in a heavy jet airliner.
In 2011, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,280 kWh. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 16,176 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,252 kWh.
To meaningfully reduce our emissions from transportation and household/business use our Congressional representatives and senators needs to ENACT MAJOR PROGRAMS THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION. The U. S. Congress should enact programs that offer voluntarily “positive financial incentives” ($) to Americans who limit their carbon dioxide emissions to minimal levels, as measured by their annual mileage driven in automobiles (all registered vehicles they own) over a year’s time. It is not enough to rely on vehicle energy efficiency improvements to reduce CO2 emissions by transportation since studies have shown than most people who buy more fuel efficient cars eventually drive even more miles per year than they did before, not less, which therefore negates the fuel efficiency caused greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions.
These programs should be funded by taking away the many tax exemptions now given to fossil fuel development corporation, reductions in funding the military industrial complex, and by eliminating major expansions to highways and airports and by avoiding the construction of new power sources due to increased conservation of energy in homes and increased energy supplies from wind and solar sources. The money should then be directed into funding for offering positive financial incentives for people to drive less (miles) (or not drive at all); to avoid flying; and to use less fossil fuel derived energy in their homes or businesses. People who already chose to walk, ride buses, and not fly airplanes would benefit financially by this program, as would individuals, families and business who use less fossil fuel derived energy in heating and electrifying their homes and businesses.
More details on the financial incentives plan are contained in: “Positive Financial Incentives: An Environmentally Just Approach for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, published earlier on this blog site on May 9, 2013.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
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