Thanks for this Nora. For several years now I have not worn the red poppy. There is too much of a celebration of war about it. In one of his books Kurt Vonnegut commented about the renaming of Armistice day as Veterans in the US along the lines of taking a day dedicated to celebrating the end of a war and giving it to the living. "Remembrance" day is not quite as bad but it has a similar deliberate ambiguity conflating manifestly unjust or problematic wars... WW I, the Vietnam war, the war in Afghanistan, the Korean war with WW II which was -- regardless of the reasons that countries entered into it -- a war against fascism. The mainstream media is blithely unaware of this. There was a CBC report the other day reporting on "Armistice Day" in a European country referred to it as "their" Remembrance day thus eliding the difference in meaning. Criticising "Remembrance" day is certainly a taboo subject and as you point out is hypocritically celebrated at the same time as watching Israel and tacitly supporting war crimes and possible Genocide in Gaza.
"And here we are again — where people wearing a red poppy have no problem also advocating for Israel’s right to murder and destroy." I began to wonder about the hypocrisy of wearing the poppy in the early '60s when people wearing one had no problem advocating for the Yanqui right to murder and destroy, in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and elsewhere ever since. This year with what is happening in Gaza made it clear to me. The "Poppy" and "Remembrance Day" are nothing more than cons to assuage the evil humans can and will do to one another.
Thanks for this Nora. For several years now I have not worn the red poppy. There is too much of a celebration of war about it. In one of his books Kurt Vonnegut commented about the renaming of Armistice day as Veterans in the US along the lines of taking a day dedicated to celebrating the end of a war and giving it to the living. "Remembrance" day is not quite as bad but it has a similar deliberate ambiguity conflating manifestly unjust or problematic wars... WW I, the Vietnam war, the war in Afghanistan, the Korean war with WW II which was -- regardless of the reasons that countries entered into it -- a war against fascism. The mainstream media is blithely unaware of this. There was a CBC report the other day reporting on "Armistice Day" in a European country referred to it as "their" Remembrance day thus eliding the difference in meaning. Criticising "Remembrance" day is certainly a taboo subject and as you point out is hypocritically celebrated at the same time as watching Israel and tacitly supporting war crimes and possible Genocide in Gaza.
"And here we are again — where people wearing a red poppy have no problem also advocating for Israel’s right to murder and destroy." I began to wonder about the hypocrisy of wearing the poppy in the early '60s when people wearing one had no problem advocating for the Yanqui right to murder and destroy, in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and elsewhere ever since. This year with what is happening in Gaza made it clear to me. The "Poppy" and "Remembrance Day" are nothing more than cons to assuage the evil humans can and will do to one another.