Veterans for Peace and MidEast: JustPeace hold ceremony on Memorial Day

TRAVERSE CITY - Veterans for Peace and MidEast: JustPeace were at the Open Space in Traverse City on Monday to remember the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war.

For them, Memorial Day isn’t just another holiday.

“It’s very emotional for some of us,” says Veterans for Peace President Tim Keenan. “I’m a combat veteran myself, and we’re also this year we’re teaming up with MidEast: JustPeace and try to bring light to and just to all the people that are killed in the Israel and Palestinian war right now.”

“No mother or father wants to bury their child,” says MidEast: Just Peace member Gina Aranki. “And I think that’s something that is something that people can understand, no matter what country they’re from or what religion they are or where they are in the world. We go to sleep at night here and security and relative peace and don’t have to worry about being bombed or sniped at and how that must be for someone else to have to live in those kinds of conditions and their children to have to live through those kinds of conditions.”

“Each of these folks represents 260 service people that died in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says Tim Keenan. “And in front we have the local the local soldiers and Marines and air people that were killed there. Every time I put their their picture up there and look at their faces and think about their families, that’s the hardest part of my my post-traumatic stress disorder from Vietnam is just the family and the friends who miss their loved one, who lost their loved one to war.”

“And so it’s very emotional for me,” continues Keenan. “Every one reminds me of one of my brothers. A lot of times people just celebrate and have fun, drink beer and do barbecues. But it’s a day for me to remember all my brothers and sisters lost in war.”