In a recent arti­cle in the Independent, Robert Fisk writes that the poppy has become noth­ing more than a fash­ion state­ment in the UK. Merely a way to show that you are British, or to score points with the boss, or to make a polit­i­cal state­ment. He believes that wear­ing a poppy on 11-​​Nov mocks our war dead. He says that he doesn’t wear the poppy because he is not ‘wor­thy’ of wear­ing it. This makes me deeply sad. I don’t think that this is true in Canada, and I know that this is not the case for me.

I have not lost any­one in my fam­ily to war. I am not pro-​​military, but I under­stand why we must defend our­selves with lethal force at times. I believe that every­one who chooses a career in the Forces makes a major sac­ri­fice for me and for every other Canadian who does not serve, and I sup­port our troops in the work that they do. I believe that they are vital in ensur­ing that Canada can con­tinue to exist and pro­vide peace­ful lead­er­ship in the world.

I wear a poppy on Remembrance Day because I care deeply about the peo­ple involved. I care about every­one killed in these great con­flicts, not just our casu­al­ties, but those against whom we fought, and the civil­ians whose lives were destroyed because of these con­flicts. War is a waste. The vet­er­ans that I’ve met all want one thing: an end to war. So for me, the Poppy and Remembrance Day is about the peo­ple. It’s not about WHY we went to war. It’s not about the verac­ity of the rea­sons cited by our lead­ers. It’s about the courage of those that serve. Those that put them­selves in harm’s way. It’s about remem­ber­ing the loss. It’s about remem­ber­ing the sense­less­ness of war. It’s about choos­ing peace before arms. It’s about end­ing war.

That’s why I wear the Poppy, and it’s why Robert Fisk can write the things he writes. Today, I Remember.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011Some Rights Reserved