Wearing a white poppy

OK here's Wilfred Owen because the last line applies now more than ever.
Dulce et Decorum Est
BY WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

We attended the remembrance service here in Kenya, it was held at the military cemetery.

The service was conducted by the Padre and the Local Kenyan Bishop.

They both paid tribute to the civilians who have lost and are still losing their lives.

The British Legion do a marvellous job all over the world, not just in the U.K.

I wear my red poppy with pride

Bluebell ...totally agree with you. Too much setting out personal agenda's along with looking for trouble.

Just want to add that all of the religious groups you mentioned plus a few you didn't were actually represented at the Cenotaph today. All wearing poppies.

susiewoozie wrings hands in mock despair.

I started the thread because most people do not know what the white pooppy stands for. Most people do not know about the history of the women who started it or that more civilians die in wars now than serving personnel. And if it is bullish to think these things matter then so be it. No-ne ever said pacifists had to be silent and stay out of things we simply believe things are not worth killing for. And that all deaths matter not just soldiers .

Oh the irony. The one purporting to support peace is the most bullish of the lot. Ha, ha, Ha, ha, ha.

Poppy it’s not just this thread - the other two are actually much worse

Why start this thread in the first place?? Today we remember our war dead with Red Poppies...... they symbolise all the young men who died serving their country. We are proud of them all and are very grateful for the sacrifice they made.

I despair of some of the comments on here .............

Oh tedber it’s not about us all being the same, of course we’ve all got a right to be different and have different views that s what makes the world go round it’s about the acceptance of others views without always getting in a ‘I m right you’re wrong’ scenario
Wear a white poppy, a red poppy, a purple poppy, what colour shall we wear to remember all the Muslims, the Sikhs the plucky Ghurkas and other Commonwealth fighters who never get a mention, or wear no poppy at all its an individuals right to make they own decisions without others trying to prove them wrong
Let’s have a new movement in this country called acceptance

Wear a white poppy if you want, it really doesn't bother me. I wear my red poppy with pride...and in gratitude for my son returning home safe and sound from his two tours of action, and also for all those families who were not so fortunate, for all those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and for those who did return home, but never to be the same. And a purple poppy for all the animals who died in war...

The point is that someone wearing a poppy of whatever colour is an objective fact. As to why it is being worn, well ......

Oh B** suziewoozie! Still that won't stop me wearing a red poppy (yet)

I’m not going to say whether I wear a poppy or not or if I do what colour it us. Neither am I going to mention male relatives who served / died in either war - it would be exceptional if people of our generation didn’t have those links. I don’t care at all how anyone chooses to remember or if they don’t. I do care that poppy wearing has become something to argue about or seen as a sign of some sort of moral position. A landlord of a pub yesterday said he wouldn’t serve anyone not wearing a poppy. Tommy Robinson is one of the biggest supporters of poppy wearers going

I wear a red poppy. My grandfather's fought in WW1, my father in WW2. They were never jingoistic the way they explained WW1 was I now know, historically accurate. They saw WW2 differently, of course. My father was as horrified by the invasion of Iraq as I was.

I won't wear a white poppy, though I understand its history. The red poppy came from the way that blood red poppy grew in the cracks of soil, between the men who lay dying in that war that was to end all wars. I wear the red poppy in commemoration and lest we forget. My dogs have been wearing purple poppies on their collars this week, to commemorate the animals who gave their lives during wars.

Well said Bluebelle (I generally find I am in agreement with most of what you say) HOWEVER, .... wouldn't it be boring if we all agreed with one another? I love a good argumentdebate!

The red poppy was THEIR symbol.They regarded it as the memorial to the men they had seen needlessly sacrifice their lives on the battle fields of Europe. They regarded it as a promise that no-one would ever again enter such conflict. When it was used by the BL to promote what they saw as militarism they could I suppose have begun a campaign of arguing. Instead they created their own version. White poppies were first produced in 1933 by the Co-operative Women's Guild, made up largely of women who had lost husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends in World War One. They were worried by the growing militarisation of Remembrance events and the detachment between the red poppy and the need to work for peace. The Guild's General Secretary, Eleanor Barton, called for renewed commitment "to that 'Never Again' spirit that was strong in 1918, but seems to grow weaker as years go on
They may have been wrong in their estimation of what might happen but you have no right to question their commitment and the sheer horror of living through a period where a whole generation of men were needlessly sacrificed.

Hands off our red poppy.

How would wearing a white poppy have avoided the Second World War? The women should have invented their own symbol. A white lily perhaps.

They were trying to turn the poppy into an anti-war symbol. Just not possible when Hitler was around.

And they didn't want the red poppy abandoned just for their poppy to stand beside the red.

Gonegirl the white poppy was proposed by women in 1933 that's when the RBL rejected it. The women who started it had all had relatives who had died in WW1 are you saying no-one should ever try to promote peace? Or that the civilian dead of wars (and they vastly outnumber serving personnel) should just be forgotten?

The poppy for remembrance is so much more than a "blooming symbol".

Well, it's a good job our men did fight and win the Second World War trisher. Heaven knows what kind of life we'd be living now. It's no wonder the British Legion didn't accept the white poppy.

I have just returned from our village Remembrance Sunday Service at the war memorial It was so moving, dignified nd a very fitting tribute to those who died in war.

The British Legion were in attendance as were some young airmen and their commander from the local airbase. The names of the local boys who lost their lives in WW1 were read out by our vicar and it was so poignant.

Let’s not argue about poppies and money. If it weren’t for the British Legion and other similar charities, God knows how those injured and bereaved would get support in any other way.

Ditto eazybee. I've been absent for a while too and noticed the subtle change.