November is Peace Month at your School Library. All month long we will explore issues related to movements for peace in the world, including non-violence, antiwar movements, civil disobedience, peace activism, and more. We will celebrate organizations and individuals who have been champions of peace. We will feature songs of peace. And of course we will share our collection of books and other resources related to peace. Visit us in person, and online, to find out more.
Peace Day is observed every September 21. The International Day of Peace is a celebration of those who have worked for peace in our, and who continue to seek a peaceful future. However, the day is also a stark reminder of how far we have fallen short of the quest for lasting peace for humanity. Our world continues to be ravaged by war, including, in our current day, some of the most horrific acts of inhumanity imaginable. Learn more about the International Day of Peace and join in the movement.
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Can you identify champions of peace? Give this “Sporcle” quiz a try.
November is Peace Month in your School Library
“Hero of War” is a 2009 song by the American band, Rise Against. Many of the most well known peace and antiwar songs that are most prominent in popular culture come from the 1960s and 1970s, particularly protest songs against the American war in Vietnam. However, there are also many other more recent songs that look critically at more contemporary wars, including the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Have a listen, and spend some time thinking about your response. What do antiwar songs, and songs of peace and alternatives to violence, have to say to us in 2023?
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
One of the most famous and influential songs of the antiwar movement of the 1960s and early 1970s is “Ohio”, written by Neil Young and performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. So many aspects of youth counter-culture, protests against the Vietnam War, and deep divisions within American society came together tragically as four university students were shot dead, and nine more wounded, at Kent State University in Ohio when the National Guard opened fire against student protestors. Neil Young wrote “Ohio” in reaction to the tragedy at Kent State, and the song was released in June of 1970. It has grown to become known as one the anthems of protest and antiwar activism.
November is Peace Month at your School Library.
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
Another head hangs lowly
Written by Dolores O’Riordan
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
Performed by The Cranberries
One of the great songs of the 1990’s, “Zombie” by the Cranberries is also one of the great anti-war songs of all time. Dolores O’Riordan wrote the song in response to another atrocity of sectarian violence spilling out of Northern Ireland. In this case two young boys were killed, and over 50 people injured, after an IRA bomb exploded in Warrington, in the northwest of England. O’Riordan was sickened by the bombing, and like most people in Ireland, she had had enough of seeing violence carried out in the name of the Irish. “The IRA are not me. I’m not the IRA,” she said. “The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not. When it says in the song, ‘It’s not me, it’s not my family,’ that’s what I’m saying.” (source)
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Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
Can you identify these conscientious objectors, nonviolent activists and other champions of peace?
Come down to the School Library to check out our display of antiwar fiction. Our November focus is on Peace and such related concepts as peacekeepers, non-violence, antiwar movements, conscientious objectors, pacifists, and alternatives to war and violence. Antiwar fiction can take many forms, often trying to separate the myths from the realities of war, exposing the horrors of war and celebrating those that offer alternatives to violence.
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 