- 4 Oct 2012
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Some of you may not know, but November 11 is Remembrance Day in Britain, Canada and elsewhere. It began to be celebrated one year after the end of WWI as: " a day of remembrance for members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I. "
People started to wear red poppies about 1921 to commemorate soldiers who died in WWI. But as new wars have come, both the day and poppy are used to commemorate soldiers who died in each new war.
But some people, including myself, see a back handed militarism in all this. On Remembrance Day we see military uniforms and it is emphasized how war and sacrifice has "preserved our freedoms". Also some feel that the red poppy was only meant to commemorate the deaths of British soldiers in WWI. Thus:
White poppy (symbol) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But there is a huge controversy over this. Some take the white poppy as an insult, such as that battle ax Margaret Thatcher. I have read comments suggesting that anyone wearing a white poppy should have their faces kicked in.
But the way I see it, anytime anyone gets angry and threatening over a white poppy, they prove that to them the red poppy is a symbol of war. They prove they are pro-war, nationalist and pro-violence. If not, they would appreciate the all-inclusive nature for all war dead of the white poppy and its demand for peace, which is a state of affairs that will ensure no more dead veterans.
Seriously, anyone getting mad over a peace symbol exposes themselves as a war lover IMHO.
What are your feelings about the white poppy?
People started to wear red poppies about 1921 to commemorate soldiers who died in WWI. But as new wars have come, both the day and poppy are used to commemorate soldiers who died in each new war.
But some people, including myself, see a back handed militarism in all this. On Remembrance Day we see military uniforms and it is emphasized how war and sacrifice has "preserved our freedoms". Also some feel that the red poppy was only meant to commemorate the deaths of British soldiers in WWI. Thus:
In 1926, a few years after the introduction of the red poppy in the UK, the idea of pacifists making their own poppies was put forward by a member of the No More War Movement (and that the black centre of the British Legion's red poppies should be imprinted with "No More War"). Their intention was to remember casualties of all wars, with the added meaning of a hope for the end of all wars; the red poppy, they felt, signified only the British military dead. However they did not pursue the idea. The first white poppies were sold by the Co-operative Women's Guild in 1933. The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) took part in their distribution from 1934, and white poppy wreaths were laid from 1937 as a pledge to peace that war must not happen again. Anti-war organisations such as the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship now support the White Poppy Movement.
Those who promote the wearing of white poppies argue that the red poppy also conveys a specific political standpoint, and point to the divisive nature of the red poppy in Northern Ireland, where it is worn mainly by the Unionist community. They choose the white poppy over the red often because they wish to disassociate themselves from the militaristic aspects of Remembrance Day, rather than the commemoration itself.[1]
White poppy (symbol) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But there is a huge controversy over this. Some take the white poppy as an insult, such as that battle ax Margaret Thatcher. I have read comments suggesting that anyone wearing a white poppy should have their faces kicked in.
But the way I see it, anytime anyone gets angry and threatening over a white poppy, they prove that to them the red poppy is a symbol of war. They prove they are pro-war, nationalist and pro-violence. If not, they would appreciate the all-inclusive nature for all war dead of the white poppy and its demand for peace, which is a state of affairs that will ensure no more dead veterans.
Seriously, anyone getting mad over a peace symbol exposes themselves as a war lover IMHO.
What are your feelings about the white poppy?