To all the old men in British Legion ties; to the astonishingly young men and women in army uniform; and to the even younger people in army cadet outfits:
No, I won’t be buying one of your paper poppies. Because this is what they make me think of… they make me think of nature’s beauty. Something like this:
And then they make me think of this:
Those who fought and died or suffered in wars deserve our pity because they were misled and exploited. They deserve that we should understand and remember their experiences, and wonder at how they had the courage to live through the unimaginable and to do what they thought was right and needful, what the exploiters said was right and needful.
But a poppy is not about pity for the victims of militarism, and it is not about remembering unimaginable horror. It is not about questioning the rightness or the need.
A poppy is about supporting a vision of militarism in which the men and women who were its pawns are transformed into its noble heroes. They are honoured, not pitied. And, as we remember, we are asked to feel, not horror, but gratitude.
| Have you forgotten yet?… | |
| For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days, Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways: And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go, Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare. But the past is just the same - and War’s a bloody game… |
|
| Have you forgotten yet?… Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget. |
|
| Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz - The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets? Do you remember the rats; and the stench Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench - And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain? Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’ |
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| Do you remember that hour of din before the attack - And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men? Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back With dying eyes and lolling heads - those ashen-grey Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay? |
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| Have you forgotten yet?… Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget. |
|
| (”Aftermath”, Siegfried Sassoon, 1920) |
10 November 2007 at 11:42 pm
Thanks Maia you’ve just managed to articulate what I feel every time I walk past the veteran selling poppies in my local precinct.
And wrt “have you forgotten yet” thank you for this.
11 November 2007 at 1:04 am
Oh yes thank you. I’ve been arguing this one since I was at primary school and people have had trouble understanding why I hate ‘poppy day’ so very much. The glorification of war sickens me. The slaughter of children (many soldiers on both side lied about their ages and so the trenches were filled with 15 year olds) must not be paraded as something to be proud of.
White poppies all round?
11 November 2007 at 8:33 am
Thanks Maia. I wondered if it was a Sassoon poem before I got to the bottom. You have inspired me to write a similar post if you don’t mind.
I’ve got a white poppy and also a purple one - in rememberance of the innocent animals who are killed in wars.
Those pics are hard hitting, especially because the first pic looks very much like a place near where I live and to imagine it war ridden…well I just don’t know how lucky I am because i can’t really conceive of it at all!
11 November 2007 at 10:59 am
[...] the lives lost in war. I will not however, glorify and celebrate the patriotism of war. Maia wrote this post and it really made me think. I don’t agree with war, even though I have questioned my [...]
22 November 2007 at 11:55 pm
You’ve got the wrong idea- I used to work for the Poppy campaign, admittedly I used to think that the Poppy was pro-war etc… in fact all the money donated for buying a Poppy goes towards helping people rebuild their lives after they have been forgotten by the MOD- homeless, unemployed, mental health problems, disability or women widowed by men who served in the war- the money raised by the Poppy buys people scooters so they can go out on their own to the shops, it pays people’s rent when they have no money, it pays off people’s debt to save their homes…
The Poppy doesn’t represent militarism, but allegiance with those sent to war by government, then forgotton about once dead or returned. It’s ok for those of us who don’t want to be reminded of war, to ignore the poppy appeal, but for those who have been to war and cannot live a day without thinking of the horrors of war, having remembrence for the hardship they went through, and still go through, will be comforting.
23 November 2007 at 8:34 pm
Hey Charliegrrl, thanks for your comment.
I do respect and empathise with your view, and it took me a long time to come to my own, different opinion. I don’t and never will dispute that the money raised by the poppy appeal goes to people who need it and who have been let down by the govt, or that the day involves remembrance of hardship.
However, every remembrance day event I have ever witnessed is also about heroism, gratitude that those men and women defended us in our hour of need, and an underlying assumption that there was some higher purpose served. To me, that honours the soldiers as heroes and I will not honour soldiers as heroes, however much I might empathise with what they endured (and still endure) as human beings. I spend my remembrance day in a different way, and I use my money to support unequivocally peaceful campaigns.