Memorial Day 2026: My Song of Peace
By the Rev. Connie
Yost
May 26, 2026
I grew up in a family that always went to the gravesite of my grandfather, and later my father to place flowers and honor their service in the military. They did not die as soldiers, but we honored their service nonetheless.
I no longer live in Seattle where they are buried, but when next I travel there, I will visit their gravesite and say my own prayer of gratitude and memory. It is a ritual that holds meaning for me, and when Memorial Day wasn’t even mentioned in the church service I recently attended, I decided to go out to Willamette Cemetery and pay my respects.
There were thousands of small flags placed at the gravesites by local boy scouts, and a few gravesites had flowers as well. In the pouring rain, I stopped the car and said a prayer for peace. In these days of national power plays of war on foreign countries and domestic immigrants all framed in lies and increasingly coarse rhetoric, it is what we need the most. Peace. Compassion. Justice. Peace.
Peace. Peace in our world, peace in our country, peace in our lives. Peace in how we treat one another. Peace in how we treat ourselves. A vow that we ain't gonna study war no more.[i] A vow that we won’t support leaders who with impunity declare, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”[ii] A vow that we will work side by side with our immigrant neighbors to bring justice, compassion and sane policies that will allow them to live and work legally and safely in peace.
Recently a friend was reflecting on how in our younger days there was a whole genre of protest music (especially around the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War) that we all knew even if we never participated in a march or protest. That resonated with me because I grew up loving Peter, Paul and Mary from a young age. My you find your own song of peace and offer it to the world.
SONG OF PEACE
(Finlandia)
Performed by Peter,
Paul and Mary
Written by Sibelius/Stone- Lorenz Publishing Co.-ASCAP
Mary Travers' Finlandia ( A
Song of Peace)
This is my song
O gods of all the nations
A song of peace for lands so far away
This is my home, a country where my heart is
Here grew my hopes and dreams for all mankind
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine
And sunlight shines on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too and clover
And skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine
O hear my prayer, O gods of all the nations
A song of peace for their lands and for mine
[i] Down
by the Riverside
Traditional African American Spiritual (1865)
Why
Freedom Matters: The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence in Prose ... -
Google Books
Gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside (3x)
Gonna lay down my burden
Down by the riverside
I ain't gonna study war no more
Study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
