Why I Don't Wear a Poppy

[0110110]

<div align='center'>Why I Don't Wear a Poppy
I support freedom, but not war.
By Clay McLeod
Published: November 9, 2005</div>

Source:
http://anonym.to/?http://www.TheTyee.ca

There's an episode of The Simpsons where Apu takes his American citizenship exam. The proctor asks him what the cause of the American Civil War was. Apu replies, "Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists, there were economic factors, both domestic and inter..."

The proctor interrupts him, saying, "Wait, wait... just say slavery."

Apu replies, "Slavery it is, sir."

There is also an African proverb that says, "Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters." Although wars are never completely black-and-white, the winners write the history. Accounts of war turn into simple slogans rather than accurate descriptions of conflicts, causes and consequences.

Honouring suffering

I imagine that if the Nazis had taken over the world, we would be encouraged to celebrate that conquest on some day of observation, perhaps "honouring" the soldiers of the Fatherland and the sacrifices that they made as the Third Reich spread its "benevolent influence" over the world, heralding an age of prosperity and racial purity. On the other hand, they might have developed a pithy slogan to represent their foul cause, perhaps one like "freedom". Either way, I wouldn't wear a swastika on my lapel on that day, just like I don't wear a poppy on my lapel on Remembrance Day.

I can hear the retort: "Blasphemy! Our soldiers did fight for freedom and democracy. They liberated Europeans from the yoke of Nazi slavery! They fought so that you can enjoy the freedoms that you enjoy now."

Let me clarify that if the purpose of Remembrance Day was to remember the suffering of almost 11 million Jewish people, Gypsy people, gays and lesbians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Polish people, Serbian people, disabled people and others who were murdered during the holocaust, I would gladly acknowledge their suffering by wearing a yellow star of David, a pink triangle, or whatever symbol was chosen to say "never again" to such atrocities.

Pro-war flower

Sadly, the poppy acts more as a rallying cry to support military solutions to the world's problems, instead of a heart-felt and genuine plea for an end to the suffering of war.

We are exhorted to wear poppies to honour the sacrifices that Canadian soldiers made in WWI, WWII and the Korean War to protect our lives and freedoms. The assumption is that their sacrifices were made to protect our freedoms. But an objective view of history, uncoloured by nationalistic sloganeering, casts a shadow of doubt on that premise.

Unarguably, WWI was "for king and country," not freedom and democracy; its causes were rooted in European imperialism and nationalism - schisms and divisions between people, rather than virtues like freedom and democracy. Unless of course you are taking Apu's citizenship test and are required to describe its causes in two words or less.

WWII was a complex conflict based in the context of the resolution of WWI. Although that context gave fertile soil to the most notorious example of evil known to history - Hitler and the Nazis - the resulting conflict was more a continuation of imperialist rivalries and nationalistic competition than it was a legitimate battle between good and evil, as it has been characterized in the Remembrance Day sloganeering that has come to dominate November 11th.

War and its discontents

Ask a Japanese Canadian who spent time in a WWII internment camp and whose family was stripped of its property whether his or her "freedom" was safeguarded by the efforts of Canada's soldiers. Ask one of Canada's indigenous people who, at the end of WWII, wasn't allowed to vote in elections as a result of his or her "Indian status" whether he or she felt free at the conclusion of WWII. The fact that we recognize the efforts of our soldiers in the Korean War - a border skirmish in the ideological Cold War - conclusively demonstrates that we are not just recognizing the efforts of soldiers to protect freedom and democracy. Remembrance Day uses the veneer of virtues like "freedom" and "democracy" to glorify military solutions to the world's problems.

I don't refuse to wear a poppy to criticize the efforts of individual soldiers, many of whom were barely adults, who fought - and died - in these conflicts, believing that they defended and fought for noble goals. I respect their spirit of duty, sacrifice and dedication to causes that they saw as greater than themselves. I refrain from wearing a poppy to criticize the use of military force, at the expense of soldiers, civilians and their families, by the state - any state - in order to achieve political goals, no matter how noble. Remembrance Day usurps the sacrifices made by individuals and conscripts those sacrifices in the name of nationalism - a divisive cause that fragments the human race into pockets of "us" and "them."

Non-violent fighting

Of course, the question must be addressed, "Faced with the Nazi menace, what were we to do?" Mahatma Gandhi, who also faced oppressive imperial forces during his lifetime, said, "Non-violence is a weapon of the strong." When faced with oppression and injustice, sometimes it can be easier to lash out in violent reaction - one that will further propagate the conflict, perhaps sowing seeds of future conflicts - than to react in a constructive, non-violent way that will actually resolve the conflict, giving rise to things such as true freedom and democracy. What would Gandhi have done in Poland or Germany if he were faced with the advance of the Third Reich and witness to the holocaust?

Perhaps, in protest, he would have joined a line up of Jewish people waiting to board a train to Auschwitz. Would you have the courage to make that sacrifice? Would I?

Hopefully, we'll never have to find out. I've always wondered about how the soldiers guarding concentration camps were able to supervise such genocide. They were, after all, just boys, the same in many respects as those Canada sent overseas. Of course, they were able to do it because they participated in a shared delusion; they believed that their victims were not human and that their actions were for the greater good. I like to think that it would have been possible to open their eyes to reality if more people had stood peacefully opposed to their actions. Perhaps if their mothers had joined my hypothetical Gandhi in the line-up for the concentration camps, they might have seen the evil they were perpetrating for what it was and stopped participating in it.

Opting out

Regardless of whether I'm right or if I'm deluded myself, the fact is that violence is a never ending cycle and there is no question that "the war to end all wars" doesn't exist, unless, of course, it exterminates all of us. That is why I oppose war and refuse to wear a symbol that justifies and glorifies it. While I'm glad that I don't live in a country ruled by Nazis and I don't have to protest observations of the glory of the Third Reich under penalty of death or imprisonment, I do insist on exercising my freedom by not honouring the fictitious efficacy of military solutions that divide humanity rather than renew it.

That means that, instead of wearing a poppy on November 11th, I wear a symbol of peace on my lapel to represent my hope and aspiration that we are capable of something better than war to defend our precious way of life. If we aren't, it isn't worth protecting.

[i]Clay McLeod is a teacher in Kelowna with an interest in global education and social justice. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from OWL Magazine to the Alberta Law Review, and he is working on a book called The World in Your Classroom: Engaging Students in Global Education, to be published by Heinemann.

http://anonym.to/?http://globaleducator.blogspot.com/

[triplesix]

You could always wear a white one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Poppy

[LeveL]

I guess I agree, I would wanna remember the soldiers, but not the war. Fuck the war.

[MrBS]

Best way to remember what your grandparents (presuming you are not Japanese/German/Italian) fought for (or rather what they thought/think they fought for) is to not allow any state (specifically your own) to turn into a totalitarian one....

Ooooppps...

Now if that upset you, to calm down there's always those poppies now being harvested in record numbers just outside Osama Bin Laden's cave....

[jack]

I disagree with war as well, yet I still think that my civil and revolutionary war GGG & GGGGrandfathers (german born) were brave men that believed they were fighting for the good of all in their new country.

One entering the revolution at 25, and the other - at a ripe 54yrs when joining the confederate side of the civil war. (if any one is wondering, NO they didn't have any slaves, the man just wanted to secede)
It must have sucked to enlist at that age, only for your side to lose and your half of the state to secede from the mother state of Va to join the Union side.

they were evil masons btw :biggrin:

[V13]

I recall a Medal Of Honor recipient, not his name. He was a medic in WW11. He refused to carry a weapon. His religious conviction prohibited him. During a battle that took his life, he saved many wounded soldiers. He heard there cries and went to retrieve them, bringing them out of harms way, back to friendly lines. He was hit 7 times during the course of his mission before he died. This battle took place in the Japanese Theatre. The men in his company did not like the fact that he refuse to carry a weapon. Prior to this battle they learned to respect his conviction. He received the Medal Of Honor as a result of this battle, he saved the lives of many of the men. I can't recall for sure but, I think he was a Seventh Day Adventist... I saw this on some show where they were interviewing the men from his unit. I can't think of a better example of courage and duty for the Love of God in Christ... When I am able, I'll try to post any related link...

[MrBS]

Quote:I can't think of a better example of courage and duty for the Love of God in Christ.

I can. The Spanish Inquisition

You must really love God/Christ and have a enormous amount of duty to religion to be able to kill up to 112 million people for them, and in their name.

Still, I'm not knocking what this brave man did - just that saving some people doesn't suddenly make your religious beliefs any more better or believable, even though your conviction might be.

[V13]

Quote:

Quote:I can't think of a better example of courage and duty for the Love of God in Christ.

I can. The Spanish Inquisition

You must really love God/Christ and have a enormous amount of duty to religion to be able to kill up to 112 million people for them, and in their name.

Still, I'm not knocking what this brave man did - just that saving some people doesn't suddenly make your religious beliefs any more better or believable, even though your conviction might be.

Interesting reply... as far as my personal conviction, your response gives me an equal mission to sustain such conviction. This mans life had no use among the dead, as you were, therefore... the dead among the living should live longer... To suffer living among the dead SUCKS... The word ''You'' does not account for the current ability to know the Love of God accounts for the grace that conviction receives... This guy is a Protestant by the way. There is nothing he, you, or I would disagree on, regarding all Inquisitions. To bring up such a subject in the manner you have presented it, is awful... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxHKfPvLx6o

[Guest]

are poppies in Afghanistan dedicated to the dead of wars too. or just the drug war?

blood red fertilized by the fallen in flanders or dove white tavistock stylee - no symbolic poppy adornments for me. which dead care about people wearing poppies apart from the living dead rulers of the so called chattel/cattle. Fuck their symbols glorifying the murder of people.

No poppy for my coat

[nataraja]

yes i say to people wearing a poppy that they are supporting war

they realy cant handle it

in london it has become a fashion statement, most of the people probaly dont even think about why they wear it.

at work when i refused to buy a poppy or donate i said that i dont support people going to war, the goverment has no power if the people dont listen to it.

the people are the problem not the goverment.

[deathstickboy]

Remembrance Day started based on the day the FIRST world war ended, so it had sweet fuck all to do with the Holocaust.

Flanders Field!!!! FFS!!!!

I stopped reading there when I saw that glaringly obvious lack of fucking research/retardedly annoying spin, and now I can't be bothered to read the rest.....

[deathstickboy]

I'll just copy the PM I sent you here:

Quote:It seems you misunderstood me, and I won't be appologizing.

Remembrance Day started when the first world war ended. The "holiday" and the poppy had nothing to do with the Holocaust because when that tradition began, it had not happened yet.


So....what the fuck are you on?


http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-poppies.html

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

So, call me names, call me arrogant, I really don't give a fuck. You clearly don't know what the fuck you are talking about, and its fairly clear you misunderstood me.

So I'll forgive you in advance.

:wink:

Plus I never attacked you, or read the thread past the line that set me off, AS I STATED.

So get off your cross. What did you write this article? You weren't the one who posted it, how could I be attacking you?

[deathstickboy]

Quote:Let me clarify that if the purpose of Remembrance Day was to remember the suffering of almost 11 million Jewish people, Gypsy people, gays and lesbians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Polish people, Serbian people, disabled people and others who were murdered during the holocaust, I would gladly acknowledge their suffering by wearing a yellow star of David, a pink triangle, or whatever symbol was chosen to say "never again" to such atrocities.

This was the offending paragraph from the above article which caused me to snap on this thread....it was not a reference to anything anyone said in this thread, what so ever.

I hope this is clear now.

Looking back it appears I mis read it anyways....lol....

[ploder]

Non violent resistance against Nazi's? The article asks what Gandhi would have done. He would have just been shot in the head and the Nazi's would have just continued. I'm pretty much against violence in most cases, but even I have to accept that sometimes you may have to use violence. The big question is when is it justified?