Saturday, November 11, 2006
Poppies of places other than Flanders Fields
We always had poppies for Remembrance Day.
My mother would give us a suitable donation and we would buy them at school. I was very fond of them; I liked the way they came apart and reassembled, albeit in only two possible ways- leaf in front or leaf behind. I liked the black button in the front.
As a pacifist and Quaker teenager I flirted with white poppies for a couple of years. But I never really saw the red ones as glorifying war and I felt rather guilty not to support the fund raising. So I went back to red ones.
I never gave them much mind after that. I would tend to pick one up most years but I didn't feel self conscious about having or not having one.
This year I observed the 2 minute silence for the war dead along with the rest of the queue in Starbucks. That's just weird.
In general I am in favour of Armistice Day. The further away we move from the two world wars, the more useful it is as a reminder.
However I don't have a poppy this year, or last year, or the year before. Not in fact since I read some of the Royal British Legion's leaflets.
I have no objection to the RBL. What they do is genuinely charitable, and no doubt they do a lot of good. But the passage of time means inevitably that the 10p I took into school back in 1977 went to a rather different organisation than my £1 would go to now.
The poppy appeal used to mostly be used to support the ex soldiers of the two world wars and their families. I do feel a genuine debt to those soldiers, conscripts and volunteers, ripped out of their normal lives to face a horrible threat to their country and in many cases suffering, along with their families, the effects for the rest of their lives. They are quite entitled to 2 minutes of my time once a year and a bit of spare change.
But they are, mostly, dead. And the poppy appeal now goes, to a great extent, to supporting the modern day UK soldiers. A couple of years ago this involved things like schemes to retrain soldiers choosing to leave the Forces for civilian careers. Now, sadly, I am sure the appeal supports those damaged by our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while the job of the modern soldier is unenviable, I cannot see that professional soldier who chooses his occupational hazards is in the same position as the conscripts of WW1 and 2.
I don't like the idea of donating to one type of cause in order to show solidarity with another one. I don't like the blurring of Armistice Day to include any sort of army related good cause. I don't like the idea that the poppies somehow show our support for Our Boys overseas. I don't particularly support Our Boys any more than I support Our Diplomats or Our Food Inspectors. I do believe that they should have proper treatment and compensation from their employer for their employment-related mental and physical injuries, just like anyone else but I don't think a charity appeal is the appropriate way to supply these.
So no poppies.
My mother would give us a suitable donation and we would buy them at school. I was very fond of them; I liked the way they came apart and reassembled, albeit in only two possible ways- leaf in front or leaf behind. I liked the black button in the front.
As a pacifist and Quaker teenager I flirted with white poppies for a couple of years. But I never really saw the red ones as glorifying war and I felt rather guilty not to support the fund raising. So I went back to red ones.
I never gave them much mind after that. I would tend to pick one up most years but I didn't feel self conscious about having or not having one.
This year I observed the 2 minute silence for the war dead along with the rest of the queue in Starbucks. That's just weird.
In general I am in favour of Armistice Day. The further away we move from the two world wars, the more useful it is as a reminder.
However I don't have a poppy this year, or last year, or the year before. Not in fact since I read some of the Royal British Legion's leaflets.
I have no objection to the RBL. What they do is genuinely charitable, and no doubt they do a lot of good. But the passage of time means inevitably that the 10p I took into school back in 1977 went to a rather different organisation than my £1 would go to now.
The poppy appeal used to mostly be used to support the ex soldiers of the two world wars and their families. I do feel a genuine debt to those soldiers, conscripts and volunteers, ripped out of their normal lives to face a horrible threat to their country and in many cases suffering, along with their families, the effects for the rest of their lives. They are quite entitled to 2 minutes of my time once a year and a bit of spare change.
But they are, mostly, dead. And the poppy appeal now goes, to a great extent, to supporting the modern day UK soldiers. A couple of years ago this involved things like schemes to retrain soldiers choosing to leave the Forces for civilian careers. Now, sadly, I am sure the appeal supports those damaged by our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while the job of the modern soldier is unenviable, I cannot see that professional soldier who chooses his occupational hazards is in the same position as the conscripts of WW1 and 2.
I don't like the idea of donating to one type of cause in order to show solidarity with another one. I don't like the blurring of Armistice Day to include any sort of army related good cause. I don't like the idea that the poppies somehow show our support for Our Boys overseas. I don't particularly support Our Boys any more than I support Our Diplomats or Our Food Inspectors. I do believe that they should have proper treatment and compensation from their employer for their employment-related mental and physical injuries, just like anyone else but I don't think a charity appeal is the appropriate way to supply these.
So no poppies.
# posted by Louise H @ 8:45 pm 
Comments:
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I think that anything that both the Daily Express and the Daily Mail think should be compulsory probably ought to be banned.
How does the British Legion advertise at the moment? Some years, it was pictures of old codgers, and text saying "Give us some money and we will be able for us to pay for him to go to a reunion with his old army mates and give them each a bottle of beer and a sticky bun" which is fine; but some years, it was the whole "Wear your poppy with PRIDE" thing, which I am fairly uncomfortable with. And I think that the whole festival of remembrance thing is horribly over done (laid down, in what sense? for their country, in what sense?) Patriotism is one thing, but a patriotism that is focussed on the First World War without mentioning that the First World War was a shocking cock up is not something I am very relaxed about. If I were in the business of wearing badges of any kind, I would probably go down the red-and-white-poppy together route.
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How does the British Legion advertise at the moment? Some years, it was pictures of old codgers, and text saying "Give us some money and we will be able for us to pay for him to go to a reunion with his old army mates and give them each a bottle of beer and a sticky bun" which is fine; but some years, it was the whole "Wear your poppy with PRIDE" thing, which I am fairly uncomfortable with. And I think that the whole festival of remembrance thing is horribly over done (laid down, in what sense? for their country, in what sense?) Patriotism is one thing, but a patriotism that is focussed on the First World War without mentioning that the First World War was a shocking cock up is not something I am very relaxed about. If I were in the business of wearing badges of any kind, I would probably go down the red-and-white-poppy together route.
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