Veterans Day at Carrillon

From West of the Boulevard; Events start at 1 p.m. I haven’t seen if the weather will cancel this event.

The City’s event will feature a bell concert on the unique clavier found on the upper level of the Carillon and played by City Carillonneur, Lawrence Robinson, Richmond’s Memorial Riffles will present a 21 gun salute followed by “Taps”. There will also be a presentation of colors by the Franklin Military Academy. Retired Major Miguel A. Casasnovas will recite the poem “Salute to a Veteran” by Frank J. Montoya, retired U.S. Army. In addition, renowned classical pianist and Julliard graduate Jim Pettis will accompany soloist Brian C. Little, Sr. Invocation and benediction offered by the Reverend Cheryl Ivey-Green.

It was on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month that the guns fell silent on WW1. The war to end all wars. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies.

Siegfried Sassoon a British officer served in WW1 and become well known for his poetry about the horror of war.

Reconciliation
(November 1918)

When you are standing at your hero’s grave,
Or near some homeless village where he died,
Remember, through your heart’s rekindling pride,
The German soldiers who were loyal and brave.

Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done;
And you have nourished hatred harsh and blind.
But in that Golgotha perhaps you’ll find
The mothers of the men who killed your son.