International Peace Day

I'm sure I heard on the radio that parts of Aleppo are still untouched. Can that be right?

Saw Johnson sitting next to Kerry. Nowhere on this earth could I imagine him giving that sort of speech just delivered by Kerry.

What is so frightening is as Kerry says "people say it can't get any worse in Syria, well they are 100% wrong. It can get very much worse"

I heard it a Russian planned manned by Syrians. Perhaps things have moved on from this morning though.

They'd be scared of the US! Probably.

Obama bowed to pressure from the home front. Conveniently forgetting that it was the US (and Britain) that started it all off.

I think you'll find it could be! It's certainly just as cruel, ruthless, and frightening. It would appear that the convey was bombed, by Russia in retaliation! I wear a red poppy for personal reasons as well as to commemorate those two dreadful wars and subsequent conflicts.

Yes but they must still be a bit scary.

Russia isn't the power it used to be.

But what do I know?

Apparently Clinton is supposed to be more Hawkish, whatever that means. Bit hamstrung with Russia in the mix I would have thought.

My white poppy commemorates them jingle and the hundreds of civilians killed in my home town during the bombing raids which my mum and my MIL were almost part of. There are more civilians killed in wars now than ever before. The number has climbed from 5% to 90%. They surely deserve some commemoration

Yep. And America has a president with no balls.

Just watched John Kerry's excellent speech in the Security Council.

Now watch how nothing happens. Bloody useless the lot of them.

For me my red poppy commemorates those who died fighting Nazism. And the poor lads dragged from their mothers/families/towns/villages to fight who knew what, in the lot before that.

If

How does trying to make people think about war deaths help anyone? Of people want to think or pray about those killed in wars, that's fine. So is wearing a badge about it. But I don't think it helps anyone. I'd gladly be persuaded otherwise if anyone has a good argument that it does help. Until I hear such an argument I think it's about the people publicising their thinking/praying rather than about the dead.

I suppose some relatives of war dead might feel comforted knowing that some people are thinking about their losses 'out loud' (wearing the badge, talking about it, etc), so to speak.

There is in fact far less war in the world now than ever before in human history. See worldindata.org for info.

I'm not suggesting that wearing a white poppy IS mocking, but I would feel that for me to do so would, for me, feel like it. Peace is just such a forlorn hope and as for prayer, to whom do we pray? In the end of course, these particular conflicts will cease, so perhaps in the end prayers can be said to have been answered, but not anytime soon I fear.

The point of the white poppy Jings is that it remembers ALL the people who have been killed in wars, not just the soldiers, not just 'our side' but the thousands of people who are caught up in the battles that are fought and those who have been imprisoned or killed for refusing to fight. So it unites people across the world. I wonder if you wear a red poppy for Remembrance day? Do you realise it only commemorates the British dead-nothing matter with that but some of us want to go further. Is it "Virtue signalling" to wear a red poppy?

I think we have to assume that many of those who do not wear a white poppy share the ideal of peace and it is very much alive in their minds.

Sadly it does not do anything to quell the evil over which we have no influence whatsoever. We are wholly impotent in the face of evil men.

I certainly wasn't "mocking". Just questioning the point of it.

I think, yes. Sadly.

found that thread (About seven posts from beginning. I still stand by what I said there.

Yes.

Just out of interest, would the power of prayer be regarded as a waste of time?

I honestly don't remember that at all Tegan, so I can't really comment. I suppose with the GN awful search thing, you wouldn't be able to find the thread?

Not exactly mocking white poppies. Just can't see the point in them. And I am a little suspicious of why people wear them. Especially on a day that most people won't even have heard of.

We feel so helpless in the light of all the awful things that are happening in the world. And if it makes just one other person think about what's happening that wouldn't otherwise have given it a second thought then it's worthwhile. I seem to recall that you mocked my lighting of a candle at Christmas to think about the people that had had awful things happen to them on the run up to that time jingle. Different things work for different people.

Would you walk about saying "I want peace in the world" to everyone? No. Because it wouldn't make one jot of difference to anything.

But still, like I say, if it makes you feel good....

It's just posing! How can it help? Virtue signalling!