White Poppy and Rememberance

There is no point diligently remembering the people who have given so much for us if we don’t do something about it or we will still be standing there in another hundred years time honouring yet more dead. The greatest honour we can give to those who died is to prevent it happening again. Governments need to stop solving their squabbles by fighting and killing.

Well, it hasn’t happened yet Jackiest has it?
Wearing only a white peace poppy instead of the usual red for remembrance is your choice franbern and while you were thinking about the cries of the children in Gaza I hope you spared a moment to think of the cries of children in Israel on the 7th October cruelly tied up and murdered by hamas.
Also if you stand around in the High St and hand out laminated sheets then you will likely get some remarks you may not like.

Oh well done Franbern I have to say that I am seeing more evidence this year of the white poppy. More people are wearing them and there is more on social media. It reminds us that the most lives lost in wars are civilians.

I respect what you are doing, and would never question or try to argue with you, but I wear a red Poppy and I always will.

I would wear a white poppy, which stands for peace, and commemorates all victims of all wars. My brother wears one, and finds it stirs more interest than hostility..

I am watching the ceremony at the Cenotaph and marvelling at the choreography. When do they rehearse? It is so complex, and nobody makes a mistake.

The red poppy is worn because of the many deaths in poppy fields, no one was buried beneath white poppies .

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae
1872 –
1918
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The White Poppy is worn because in 1933 members of the Cooperative Women's Guild, many of whom had lost men in WW1, were concerned about the increasing militarisation of the red poppy and so created a white poppy.
It stands for a belief in peace but also for all killed during wars. These days more civilians die than military personnel a very different situation than in WW1. I'm sure those men who died in that war, many of whom despised the argument for war would recognise the white poppy and echo Wilfred Owen

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.

Anniebach

The red poppy is worn because of the many deaths in poppy fields, no one was buried beneath white poppies .

Absolutely

My thoughts yesterday were very much with the dead of WW1

Glorianny

The White Poppy is worn because in 1933 members of the Cooperative Women's Guild, many of whom had lost men in WW1, were concerned about the increasing militarisation of the red poppy and so created a white poppy.
It stands for a belief in peace but also for all killed during wars. These days more civilians die than military personnel a very different situation than in WW1. I'm sure those men who died in that war, many of whom despised the argument for war would recognise the white poppy and echo Wilfred Owen

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.^

That is why my grandmother and her sisters wore them.

Anniebach

My thoughts yesterday were very much with the dead of WW1

As were the thoughts of the women when they created the white poppy. They were men they knew and loved. Their fathers, brothers, sons, husbands, not just dead soldiers.

How can anyone think of the dead of wars as ‘dead soldiers’,
I am shocked even by you Gloryanny

Just my own opinion but for me it really doesn’t matter what colour poppy you choose to wear, or how or when you choose to wear one. While they are a symbol of remembrance and respect....you may even choose not to wear one, remembering and paying your respects in a different way instead, and that’s absolutely fine. It's the act of remembrance that matters however you choose to remember.

Those advocating that only red poppies should be worn do seem a lot more combative than the people that wear white poppies. Surely there should be respect for both, not twisting words to suit one point of view.

More combative than calling those buried in foreign fields -
dead soldiers’ ?

Glorianny

The White Poppy is worn because in 1933 members of the Cooperative Women's Guild, many of whom had lost men in WW1, were concerned about the increasing militarisation of the red poppy and so created a white poppy.
It stands for a belief in peace but also for all killed during wars. These days more civilians die than military personnel a very different situation than in WW1. I'm sure those men who died in that war, many of whom despised the argument for war would recognise the white poppy and echo Wilfred Owen

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.^

Thank you for this. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me what the gigantic mess and disaster that was the First World War was about. Never.

Millions died in the worst possible circumstances. All those young men sent to slaughter on all sides, and for what?

I always wear both poppies.

Anniebach

How can anyone think of the dead of wars as ‘dead soldiers’,
I am shocked even by you Gloryanny

But Annie that is what the poem you posted advises. Be a soldier, fight on and if necessary die. And then others take up the fight. That is all you can remember them as, because that was what war did. It made them soldiers and they died. Not home with their loved ones but in mud, barbed wire and gunfire. That's what is on their tombstones their name and rank. Not beloved son, or husband or father because war robbed them of that. The women who created the white poppy saw that.

Wrong, I remember names

Oh franbern your vigil yesterday does you so much credit.

I too can hear the children of Palestine crying, but no doubt like you I can also hear the cries of the Israelis and so many Jews all over the world who want an end to the suffering now.

I would be a white poppy wearer if I could ever find out where to get them from
I want peace for everyone I don’t believe young men should automatically have to fight like the poor young men in Ukraine who were stopped from leaving no matter what they believed in I don’t want any of my grandchildren forced to fight for often things we have little understanding or control over There has to be other ways
Well done Franbern

You can buy white poppies here shop.ppu.org.uk/collections/frontpage

That sounds lovely Franbern. Well done to you all.

I've never seen white poppies on sale but if I had one would wear both. I'll have to be better organised next year and go on line.

Thank you Glorianny.