From our Blog

32 Responses

1. 

   The white poppies co-opt the meaning of the red. We can pray for peace and desire it, but the red poppies stand for the blood of men and women lost to war. To wear a white poppy is to discount that sacrifice.
2. 

   I’m not sure if the white poppy is meant to be disrespectful, but it feels that way to me.

   I work in long term care and many of my residents both male and female are veterans. I wear a red poppy out of respect for them and the sacrifices made by all veterns past and present for all canadians, even the ones who choose to wear white poppies.
3. 

   One this is certain, it isn’t about us. It’s about them.

   Red Poppy.
4. 

   If you want peace, prepare for war. Believing that “all war is wrong” is naive and to be honest, quite ridiculous. Very few wars are “right”, but regardless of opinion, a handful have been necessary. War is nasty business, and there have been way too many over the course of history, but there are those which were of absolute importance and necessity, the clearest being the war against the Nazis. And besides, is Peacekeeping wrong? Red poppies honour Peacekeepers too.
5. 

   I personally feel it isn’t important what colour poppy you wear, the important thing is to REMEMBER.

   I personally love the red poppy because I’ve grown up with it, but I wouldn’t refuse to wear a white poppy. Honour, love and remember those who gave their time and their lives – the way we do it is immaterial.
6. 

   In 2009 I decided to go to France for the 65th anniversary of D-Day and retrace my father’s steps from landing on the beaches of Normandy to being taken prisoner of war in the Abbey D’Ardenne. All along the roadside red poppies were blowing in the breeze.

   I don’t believe red poppies romanticized war. There is nothing romantic about war and any veteran who can bring themselves to talk about it will tell you the same thing. It’s horrible but sometimes it is necessary in order for us to enjoy our freedom.

   In Canada we have been wearing red poppies since 1921 to remember the sacrifices made for our freedom, why change now?
7. 

   Romanticized war? How dare “you-Peace Organ.” try to dictate that the red poppy is only promoting Romanticized war. Our grandfathers, fathers, sons & daughters had & is fighting in Wars to “not” kill strangers but to protect the innocent, and protect our country. They deserve our respect and by doing that I will respect the veterans that sell the Red poppy definitely not to “Romanticized War” but only to remind us that they have,will and are defending the innocent & our country.

   Please for the sake of the soldiers that have & are in places to promote peace, respect them by not labelling their reasons for being where they are. War is something no ne wants but we still need to support & life the soldiers up in praise for what they have done & what they will do for protecting others & our country.LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE, THE RED POPPY IS THEIRS!
8. 

   This is rediculous at best!!!! Is the Salvation Army romanticizing the war on sin with the color of their badge and the color of their flag -RED? We are an army at war with sin. To say a color is “romantizing” is almost scrapping the bottom of the barrel. The verterans do not deserve this in the slighest. Please shurt this down. Where is the profit from the sale of the white poppies going -to help our verterans their families -I think not? NO SUPPORT HERE GUYS, go somewhere else!
9. 

   Wearing a white poppy is an act of disrespect. Trying to change the colour of it, is trying to change History and how we feel about it. Yes is true all wars are wrong but we are not promoting war but honouring those who died for our freedom. The more we change things that part of our culture and history the faster the Canadian culture will extinsh.
10. 

    I agree! The red poppy has absolutely *nothing* to do with any sort of “romanticizing”. It is purely in respect to those who fell in battle protecting us and other nations from those who would otherwise just trample all over us.

    Imagine if Canadian, US, British and French forces had *not* gone off to stop Hitler’s regime, we might very well have been living under a Nazi flag representing fascias rule, instead of the maple leaf representing freedom!!

    Also, proceeds from the sale of red poppies go towards the veterans. Who knows where the money from the white poppies goes to.
11. 

    The white poppy symbolizes remembrance of the fallen soldiers, AND the fallen civilians and is a pledge for peace not war. It does not demean the meaning of Remembrance Day or the memory of the fallen soldiers. The white poppy just says more.
12. 

    Hi… my father is a veteran… god love him… he served in the second world war… he lost some of his best buddies… he was just 20years old… he joined the Royal Canadian Legion when he returned and supported the legion his whole live. He passed away several years ago… he would be very disappointed with the thought that a Red Poppy romanticize war… this is ridiculous… he sacrificed his youth to ensure the youth of today will have an opportunity to enjoy the Peace we have today. Yes wearing a white poppy during this time of remembrance is wrong and makes me very sad… the whole purpose of remembrance day is to reflect on the sacrifices our youth of yesterday made… don’t support this… Sean McLennon, NL
13. 

    The White Poppy is a reaction to cases of political manipulation or use of Remembrance Day to support current wars, and against the subtle glorification of war. As you may know, it is not new and not some invention from current peace activists in Canada. “The Co-operative Women’s Guild produced White Poppies in 1933, along with white poppy wreaths.” (Wikipedia)

    I have great sympathy for those who endured the First World War, but I feel very uneasy at the imperialistic motives behind it. Is it not true respect to ask oneself if such horrible wars can be averted?

    Of course, Red or White, most of us understand that Remembrance Day does not mean agreeing with all those wars, the way they were led or the governments. Those who wear the White Poppy, which I might do, just feel that some politicians have not learnt much from Human history.

    By the way : the phrase “White poppy promoters believe all war is wrong” does not represent an official collective statement, but a summary from the author of this web page. Chances are many pacifists actually decided to fight Nazi Germany and the fascist regime in Spain. Do not ask me to blindly think that all wars Canada is a part of must be for the greater good, simply because WWII was a rare case of a just war. I am not really a pacifist, yet I might wear the White Poppy.
    –

    “The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.”
    - Dwight D. Eisenhower

    “There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.”
    - Dwight D. Eisenhower

    “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
    - Dwight D. Eisenhower

    “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
    - Dwight D. Eisenhower
14. 

    Ecclesiastes 3
    A Time for Everything
    1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
    2 a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
    6 a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
    7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
    8 a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

    Red Poppies to be worn in Remeberance of those brave soldiers who gave their lives in “a time for war”.

    God Bless Canada and all who live in this great country and died defending the inoccent and freedom. Amen
15. 

    I cannot say it better than Michaël Lessard, above says. In the U.S., Veterans Day glorifies war and warriors, subtly and not so. And the few who even know wha the red poppy is about, let alone the white, are usually gung-ho about “support our troops” even if, on some level, they recognize that the wars the U.S. has fought since 1945 have been mostly illegal, immmoral, and wrong.
16. 

    The day white poppies outnumber red poppies in Flanders fields is the day I’ll consider wearing one…
17. 

    Red Poppy or White Poppy? I agree that war is terrible, and I’m sure that most, if not all, of the veterans will say that they wish WW1 and WW2 had never happened. But they did happen. I believe the white poppy is disrespectful and should not be allowed. The Veterans went through hell for our sakes, and to accuse them for trying to ‘romanticize’ war, belittles them and their sacrifice. If you ask me, the ‘peace-activists’ are fools. Let me ask you, ‘peace-activists,’ how many of you have said goodbye to your family, your loved ones, your country, in order to go into a foreign country and fight in a war that you are in no way responsible, for people you have never known? How many of you have sat in a trench, in mud up to your waist, as you hold your bloodied friend and watch the life leave him after seeing him be shot? I am not a veteran, I am 18 years old. But I have spent many hours listening to the stories and tears of true men and women who served and I know as well as they that there is indeed nothing glorious in war. However, I am determined to make sure and Remember, everyday, of their sacrifice and the sacrifice of all who fought, and the tragedy that was WW1 and WW2, so that even when the Veterans have all passed on, and I am old and have grandchildren of my own, we will still Remember, in order that such a war never happens again. To wear a White Poppy is to forget the blood and the tears and to make it into something pure that it is not. The Red Poppy is bitter and beautiful, and serves to Remember all life lost in those tragic wars, not just the civilians, or just the Veterans, but all life lost, and all the life that was saved because of this. Because of this, I will wear a Red Poppy.
18. 

    I wear a red one because everyone else around here does and I don’t want to start a controversy. But as the parent of young adults who have lost interest in Remembrance Day and don’t see the point in keeping it up year after year, I would rather they find a new way of thinking about war than forget it all together. If wearing another colour of poppy that means something more to them does that, than isn’t that more important?
19. 

    The white poppy for sure.
    We all honour the fallen in our own way but the white poppy makes the point that if the peace message isn’t the one that we embrace then we are doomed eventually to a WW3 or some such catastrophe. The remembering is important but not at the cost of the social inequalities, gross misuse of monies and corruption that the war effort supports. I’d bet that if you did some careful accounting that all of this misappropriated money would erase a lot of the world’s poverty and misery that is out there. Come on! There are no winners of war, only losers. Let’s put the focus on feeding, clothing and educating our own first and foremost.
20. 

    I am upset this day ,as i read the issue of the White poppy.
    The world is falling apart, and humans are slowly destroying it, and all we can argue about is the color of the POPPY.
    ALL the veterans that fought in any wars at any time should be remembered.
    BECAUSE they SHED…..what COLOR of BLOOD…………….Red.
    the POPPY of Rememberance should NOW & ALWAYS be RED.

    Jesus SHED HIS BLOOD for all mankinds SINS…His blood was RED.
    OUR BLOOD is RED….
    there is NO place for a white POPPY in this world, but in a field growing.
    NOT on some ones Shirt or Suit.
21. 

    The White Poppies are almost as old as the Red Poppies.

    The practice started after the First World War as way of saying “Remember those who died in the war and let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.

    Next year I’ll wear both to the Legion on Remembrance Day.
22. 

    The following poem, written by Moina Michael, was inspired by John McCrae’s famous poem, and this poem in turn inspired the wearing of red poppies as a symbol of rememberance:

    Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
    Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
    We caught the torch you threw
    And holding high, we keep the Faith
    With All who died.

    We cherish, too, the poppy red
    That grows on fields where valor led;
    It seems to signal to the skies
    That blood of heroes never dies,
    But lends a lustre to the red
    Of the flower that blooms above the dead
    In Flanders Fields.

    And now the Torch and Poppy Red
    We wear in honor of our dead.
    Fear not that ye have died for naught;
    We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
    In Flanders Fields.
    In Flanders Fields we fought

    It is the red poppy that grows in Flanders Fields, and not a white poppy; The red is the only appropriate poppy to wear at Rememberance Day.
23. 

    Personally, white has always symbolized purity, something untainted and innocent of sorts. Which, in reference to the war, definitely isn’t the case. The war, in a sense, is where many young men and women lose their innocence. They see the cruelty of the world head on and I think that the white poppy may be disrespectful to their effort in defending our country as well as others (as in WWII). War may not be the ideal answer to conflicts, but it was sometimes a necessity. I don’t say that I agree with war, and I personally don’t like the idea, but it did happen, and the veterans to the wars didn’t come home proud that they killed someone, proud of the violence that they were a part of. The red poppy does not represent anger or violence, it represents the fact that we remember their loss. We remember that they may have seen a friend die before their very eyes, they may have lost their lives themselves, they did what many others cannot even imagine and witnessed horrors unfathomable. I just believe that the red poppy is much more straight-forward in its symbolism. It says that you (the veterans) had done so much for us and we remember, we will not forget the sacrifices you made for us. Whereas the white poppy, to me, looks as if it disregards all that they had done.
24. 

    Fine with both. There are so many huge issues at this time I don’t see the need to worry over this.
    Regardless of the colour, the poppy says ‘I care, and I remember’. So I wear one in November. And I see people keep them year round sometimes, mine is in my car.
25. 

    My Dad came back from WWII alive but part of him died “over there”, along with many he served with. To us war and the idea of war has always been – ‘over there’ where the idea of the poppy in flanders fields was born along with that time honored tradition – Nov 11. My opinion is the concept of a new and improved poppy is like the “knock off” junk sold at flea markets, etc. IT IS NOT THE REAL THING. Kindly pick another originally BIG IDEA and not copy a great tradition we hold dear in Canada.

    Nov. 11 means – poppies that are RED. CFA
26. 

    No question, white poppies for sure. It’s an excellent creative idea that no one does. Also I’d probably actually wear one if it was white.
27. 

    My Grandfather was a German POW in WW2. I am sure he saw many of his friends, and other brave soldiers, fall in the war. Please, Red is the only poppy we need, as it symbolizes the blood shed in these wars so that we all may have our freedom today.
28. 

    I remember the white poppy coming out years ago. It is harder to find people handing them out. When I first saw the white poppy and what it stood for, I wore both red and white — sort of a “Canadian Colours” thing for me to do. I lost my white poppy which I kept for years, bringing it out each year. I remember those that fought and died and those innocents that got caught in the cross-fire and those innocents that come across land-mines and live ammunition today that was planted years before. I remember all of them.

    I remember ALL of them.

    I remember.

    I will never forget.
29. 

    Every year we claim to remember, but we’ve got a very selective memory.

    We remember sacrifices made in one singular war.

    We don’t remember the crimes committed by our own nations.

    If Remembrance Day were really about remembering, we’d be taught to remember the slaughter of millions of brown people over the course of decades.

    We’ve got this lovely selective memory. We remember all the stuff that makes us look like heroes fighting evil and forget all the stuff that makes us look like imperial scum.

    Pretty neat deal. Works just fine for the school system, which is run by the government, which is the same interest group that breaks promises every single election, the same interest group that decides to start illegal wars to ouste democratically elected leaders for not bowing down to western interests. School isn’t exactly the best place to learn the history of Canadian/American wars.
30. 

    By the way, I emptied my pockets of a heavy load of change for a single red poppy last year, when others might have given that veteran a quarter. I gave him several dollars of change for that little piece of plastic with a pin in it.

    WW2 was horrible and so many people died that it makes genocidal wars in the middle east look tame.

    But it doesn’t mean we should forget the horrible slaughter we’ve been doing in the name of Canadian peacekeeping, just because some democratically elected leader won’t bow down and obey the western world.

    Now that I know about the white poppy, I think I’ll wear BOTH. We need to remember both our defenses against imperial crime and our own bloody imperial crimes.
31. 

    As a Navy League and later a Sea Cadet, I sold many red poppies for the Legion, but always thought the poppy was meant NOT to honour the dead, but to reflect on the cost of wars in the future; is not the motto for the day ‘Lest we forget’?
    In recent years, however, the red poppy and Rememberance Day has turned on its head, sexualizing and glorifying the soldier as a rite of passage, their deaths as an Honour few deserve, as an expression of National fervour and patriotic duty, notions that were once not only anaethemic to Canada, but values we once fought against and for which we remember our WW2 vets!
    Perhaps we need a White Poppy just to reflect the sea change this day has made!
32. 

    There is a good solution in that the Legion should sell both red and white. I would wear both and the Legion would benefit from the additional sales. Whichever one you would choose to wear symbolized one’s thoughts of those that have died because of the devastation of war.