White Poppies.
Author
Discussion

rude-boy

Original Poster:

22,227 posts

263 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all


I have a very good friend who is very much against any form of war. They are effectively a conscientious objector and believe that negotiation is the key to resolving whatever issues may exist.

Leaving aside whether or not they are right they still feel a huge amount of respect for those who actually have to fight the wars they would rather had never started. As such they feel it would be a lie to wear a red poppy (despite making generous donations every year), and said something about how they thought there used to white poppies for people of a similar disposition.

Are they right, were there once white poppies as well?

Should there be a choice for those who support the aims of the RBL, but perhaps not those of the Governments of the day ?

Celt

1,264 posts

222 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
I dont think the poppy signifies a war. Just the people who lay down there lifes for the country.

Bee_Jay

2,599 posts

278 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Some people still do: http://www.ppu.org.uk/poppy/

Slikk

2,135 posts

273 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
I thought the "Conchies" got given a white feather?

ETA: Ah I se what you mean now.. .. ..

Carry on.

Edited by Slikk on Tuesday 11th November 11:53

G'kar

3,728 posts

216 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Google brings up:

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html

I'd say show respect by wearing a poppy, or don't. wking about with a white one seems wrong.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Opium Poppies are white arent they?

Fittster

20,120 posts

243 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
I don't see a problem with people making a statement that they are against armed conflict.

badgers_back

513 posts

216 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
have seen any white poppies this year

All I can say is

Good riddance

Morpeth

666 posts

225 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
G'kar said:
Google brings up:

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html

I'd say show respect by wearing a poppy, or don't. wking about with a white one seems wrong.
agreed, it's in memory of the dead, its not a political statement. Why should i care to know what your disposition is.

neil_bolton

17,113 posts

294 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
G'kar said:
Google brings up:

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html

I'd say show respect by wearing a poppy, or don't. wking about with a white one seems wrong.
I have to agree and I think the argument has been raging for a while; by wearing a white poppy, there are some who thing you are disrepecting those who faught and were injured or fell in the wars.

As I understood it, the white poppy was for those who didn't fight in the war yet were still affected by it i.e. the public.

Either way, the poppy and the Remebrance is there for ALL who were involved in some way in fighting, past and present, and thus I believe that Red is perfectly fine to wear even if a person is antagonistic anti-war.

IMHO that is.

Edited by neil_bolton on Tuesday 11th November 11:57

jesta1865

3,453 posts

239 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
i thought it was poppy as they grew in the fields after the Somme, Ypres etc

they were red, so it was the symbol used.

sorry if i am wrong, i have never actually checked.

Spiritual_Beggar

4,833 posts

224 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
Opium Poppies are white arent they?
Support your Cartel today!!!

TBH, its someones opinion and views. If they want to wear a white poppy then thats their choice, just as its your choice to wear a red one.

It may not be right in your view, but it is in the person who's wearing it.

I personally wouldn't wear one (since the red suits me better anyway wink ), but im not going to have a go at people that do. Thats their prerogative.

petrol_penelope

924 posts

216 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Forgive me if i am wrong.

But arn't poppies worn because on the 11th day of the 11hour of the 11month all soliders stopped fighting that the war was in that of poppy fields and where the vast majority of the falling where?

I always do my bit as i was in the Air Cadets and on this day i was always the reeth bearer and would be the one to pay my respects at the senitaf with a salute and a bow of the head.

Smiler.

11,752 posts

260 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Celt said:
I dont think the poppy signifies a war. Just the people who lay down there lifes for the country.
Indeed, they are in remembrance for those who fell in the theatres of conflict.

Personally, I don't feel the need to make any further statement other than that. Any donation I give to the RBL fund is for those less fortunate than myself, the same sentiment behind giving to any charity (except for animal/preservation of course).

mechsympathy

58,694 posts

285 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Spiritual_Beggar said:
but im not going to have a go at people that do.
At least they wouldn't hit you back wink

BoRED S2upid

21,057 posts

270 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
jesta1865 said:
i thought it was poppy as they grew in the fields after the Somme, Ypres etc

they were red, so it was the symbol used.

sorry if i am wrong, i have never actually checked.
Your right. No idea what this white poppy melarchy is all about, ive never seen one. I always wear mine.

neil_bolton

17,113 posts

294 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
jesta1865 said:
i thought it was poppy as they grew in the fields after the Somme, Ypres etc

they were red, so it was the symbol used.

sorry if i am wrong, i have never actually checked.
Yep, I think it was the only thing that grew?

In the BBC Remebrance Sunday programme, they touched upon the history of the poem that resulted in the use of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance Sunday by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae in WW1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae

Fidgits

17,202 posts

259 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Morpeth said:
G'kar said:
Google brings up:

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html

I'd say show respect by wearing a poppy, or don't. wking about with a white one seems wrong.
agreed, it's in memory of the dead, its not a political statement. Why should i care to know what your disposition is.
yup...

just because you wear a poppy doesnt mean you agree with war..

Andy Zarse

10,870 posts

277 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
Fittster said:
I don't see a problem with people making a statement that they are against armed conflict.
Well I'd say wearing a red poppy is hardly a ringing endorsement of war, is it?

White poppy wearers are simply show-offs who subvert and pervert a simple act of rememberance for those who died in conflict into a projection of political statement. W*nkers.

Strangely Brown

15,835 posts

261 months

Tuesday 11th November 2008
quotequote all
neil_bolton said:
jesta1865 said:
i thought it was poppy as they grew in the fields after the Somme, Ypres etc

they were red, so it was the symbol used.

sorry if i am wrong, i have never actually checked.
Yep, I think it was the only thing that grew?

In the BBC Remebrance Sunday programme, they touched upon the history of the poem that resulted in the use of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance Sunday by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae in WW1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae
Chuck Maddox said:
One of the most asked questions is: why poppies? The answer is simple:
poppies only flower in rooted up soil. Their seeds can lie on the ground
for years and years, and only when someone roots up the ground, they will
sprout. There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western
Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May
1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him poppies blossomed like no
one had ever seen before.

Poppies are the perfect symbol for Remembrance Day, which is
November 11. From time immemorial they have been regarded traditionally as
flowers of slumber and forgetfulness, but now they have become a national
emblem of Remembrance.

Many thousands of years ago the ancient Greeks forged a legend regarding
poppies and sleep. In this legend they likened the heads of dying
warriors to the drooping poppies of the field. They even made crowns of
poppies to be placed on the heads of those who had died - a symbol of
perfect sleep.

However, it was the publication of these three simple verses which have
been called "the greatest poem of Britain occasioned by the First World
War" which firmly established the poppy as the international flower of
respect and pride to be worn each year on Armistice Day.

The poem was called "In Flanders Fields" and was written by a doctor who
was also a soldier and poet. He witnessed much of the trench warfare of
the time and wrote his immortal poem on a page torn from a dispatch book
which lay near him.

Dr John McCrae was born of Scottish parents who emigrated to Canada . . .
His medical career was interrupted when he enlisted as a doctor with
the Canadian troops so that by September 1914 he had been posted to
France to care for wounded soldiers.

After writing his poem, he sent his verses to "Punch" magazine were they
appeared on December 8th 1915. However, the poem was not to remain
unknown for long as it was recognized it was born in the heat of the
battle and that it had an enduring quality.

Dr. John McCrae was not to see the end of the War. He was wounded in May
1918 becoming a patient in his own hospital near the French coast where,
suffering from pneumonia, he died three days later.