Something that tweaked me off this past Remembrance day...

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Remembrance Day came and went here in the Great White North (otherwise known as Canada)... and in what seems to be something completely unrelated, I was going through my "search engine hits" on my blog and I found this odd one... - Remembrance Day ethics of wearing a poppy - Ethics? Hunh? What's "ethics" got to do with it...? It's a token of remembrance to those who gave up their lives in the service of their country... Ethics? So, I followed the search. Lo and behold... and I WISH this was the first time I'd heard this claptrap, I found a blog entry... a lengthy one... telling EVERYONE not to wear poppies, not to buy them, not to support this... because... It was "pro-war" and "anti-peace". HOLY DUNG! This idiot said in his blog that he refused to "give in" to this tyrannical symbol of the veneration of war and he felt we should all, like sheep, listen to his wonderful words and oblige! Throw out your poppies! Kick those old vets and legion members in their collective keesters for being so pro-war! They're killing our children with their red-and-black-or-green propaganda! Again, I'd like to say this is the first time this garbage has been spewed at me... but it isn't. I've heard it ONCE in my youth... and corrected it then with another youth... but this, we assume, is an adult... a very stupid, un-learning adult. One has to wonder if they spent a minute or so READING or even listening to "In Flanders Fields"? This is not about the "glory of battle"... this is about youth dying. It doesn't make one wish to pick up a rifle... it makes one pause to think of those who did not make it back from war. It does not "glorify" the act of war... it criticises it... and shows the "other face" of war... the one where young people die. As for those vets and legion members selling the poppies... the money STILL goes towards those wounded who still need help. Your "purchase" (donation) to get your poppy helps those less fortunate BECAUSE of war... not to SUPPORT war. Remembrance day is about peace... peace in the extreme... We do HONOUR the dead... not because they fought... but because they were called on by their government to do a dangerous job and regardless of the morality of that job or the personal feelings of those back home, honoured their home and their government and DID that job... and paid the ultimate price for doing so. We honour them because they were loyal... many of them DID the right thing... in Canada, Remembrance day is not only about those who died in Germany, France, Italy, Korea, and even those Canadians in Vietnam... but the peacekeepers who gave up their lives trying to STOP wars. To NOT wear a poppy... To NOT honour these men... is not honouring peace. If you disagree with what's going on in the world now, can you say that you refuse to honour those in the past? The Canadians that liberated Holland from the Nazis? The "Allies" that put a stop to the horrors of Auschwitz? The people that fed those starving in Eastern Europe? China? Parts of Japan? Do you not feel the efforts of those (like my Grandpere) who took the chance of dying delivering supplies to Britain in the North Atlantic Squadron deserve thought? How about the men who laid down their lives in Ypres? The Somme? Flanders?How about Dieppe? Did you think that those men were "blood-lusting animals" or men that were trying to drive the Nazis out of France and protect England? How about the peace keepers? Those who set up hospitals? Those who establish fresh water? Schools? Feed the starving? Disarm forces? Should we condemn them to no day of remembering their acts? I guess for this moron, the answer is "yes"... I'm willing to bet he never spent any time with the military... even with people FROM the military. His view of those who chose to don a uniform and do a job is based on probably a terse reading of some philosophical texts, a select few movies, and a handful songs... reality was probably never a factor. Quick note: In this blogger's missive, he invokes the name Mahatma Ghandi as a "beacon" of non-violence... he should study his history better... Although Ghandi is famed for "non-violent protest" for political change, he toured villages in India urging peasants to join the British army during WWI... and tried to join the British Army twice to serve in the field with them. Anyway, why invoke reality for this person? After all, far more "fun" to be "anti-establishment"! Far more "meaningful" to be a "protestor"!Very few things could convince me to be violent... but reading this fellow's blog came dangerously close... Hearing my Grandpere TRYING to tell the story of the HMCS Athabasca did not make me "hate" the Germans... it didn't make me "want" to join the navy... ...it did make me sad for the men involved. It did make me wish it had never happened... and would never happen again. So, to this twit (and those twits who don't realise what Remembrance Day and the poppy are about,) please note... and this ain't lip service... you're stance is publicly allowed BECAUSE of the sacrifice of those men the rest of us honour. Thanks to those you spit on, you have the right to be an ungrateful, ill-educated, moronic, wanna-be protestor because, dollars for donuts, a lot of the folks who they fought would not give you such freedoms. (Please, this is NOT lip service... read your history from EITHER side of the conflicts.) If you "hate" what's going on in Iraq or Afghanistan now... fine... that is your right... but by not remembering and not supporting the poppy funds, this is hurting far more than those in political position who made these decisions... in fact, you're "non-support" of the poppy and Remembrance Day doesn't hurt of affect present-day politicians at all... ...it affects and hurts many others... and most of them did give the last measure of their life so that you could be a pain in the butt without fear of any other repercussions other than my feeble attempts to break through your sanctimonious, ignorant, myopic views with my words here... ...and as I know your type, chances are you’ve placed your blinders back on and ignore the inconvenient facts which I relay. No fun in being wrong after all, right? I mean, this is just "literary noise" in your perfectly silent and correct world, I'm certain of this... Why look around? Why learn? You MUST be right, correct?Personally, I find your protest stupid... self-aggrandizing... and most importantly, hurtful to the wrong people you seem to be hoping(?) to hurt. Like those who assume turning an area into a "sheet of glass" will solve ALL "the problems"... without considering the vast majority of people who live in that area that are only interested in their daily lives... you, in your lust to be a political protestor, level your stupidity at everyone too... and without considering your target. Next time you see an ancient vet selling poppies on a cold November day, YOU stop and tell him how much you hate them, do not support them... ...and then stop YOURSELF and think... Why is this ancient person out on this cold day doing this?Is he or she hoping their efforts will convince a child will join the army to fight in the Middle-East...? ...or are they doing this because they lost a friend... a brother... a husband... a son... in another battle at another time... and they are now doing their part to help those, like themselves, but less fortunate. If you want to truly support peace, support those who TRULY understand the cost of going to war. To this blogger, I only offer three suggested courses of action... THINK, READ, and TALK TO THOSE WHO ARE OR WERE DIRECTLY INVOLVED... Maybe a visit to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto to the Veteran's Ward might be in order...? That is, if you have the guts to stare your stupidity in the face. Just don't spew false propaganda because you ASSUME it to be correct. Get the facts. ...oh, one last thing... despite what you MIGHT think about yourself... GROW A HEART. You are apparently in desperate need of one if, on Remembrance Day, you can watch the tears of the vets... the widows... and yes, the children and grand-children of those killed in war... and feel that supporting them is some kind of sin.