At 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, the guns stopped. The Armistice began. That calamity and horror, still known to many as “The Great War,” was stopped. In the sudden silence, millions dared to dream. Their world, torn and broken, now dreamed and prayed that they, the survivors, might live together in a lasting, life-giving peace.

In the midst of bitterness, cynicism, and exhaustion, the dreadful sacrifice had to ensure even more than victory; people across the world prayed they saw the first flags of a new dawn: a time to move into a just, lasting, and fruitful peace.

That an imperfect set of treaties, indifference, vengeance, and lost opportunities led to the nightmare of dictators, militarism, and an even more terrible great war, should not blind us today to the remembrance of Armistice Day. The price of the catastrophe in blood, treasure, and trust in institutions was, on that Nov. 11, 1918, a reality that cried out to bind peoples and nations to eternal vigilant work for a just peace.

Now, a century later, the call this Nov. 11, is to remember, honor and ponder the ancient sacrifice and the dream still before you and me, to work and witness, without ceasing, together, all through our battered world, to build, establish, and ensure peace with justice. The alternative is bleak beyond our worst fears: the destruction of all we have and cared for, all that we hold in trust revere.

As we hold that sacred remembrance, may we hear the call to work for the ancient and sacred dream.

Ned Gammons

Warren

Mr. Gammons is writing on behalf of East Bay Citizens for Peace.