to get DD a white poppy to wear at a remembrance service?

[GallumDrawnAndQuartered]

She is 14 and has been selected by the school to represent her house at their service.

DD is vehemently pacifist and anti-war.

Rather than her get in trouble for refusing to go (which is what she is planning on doing) would it be unreasonable for her to go but to wear a white poppy instead of a red one?

Can you show me where I said the poppy condones war?

Ha Catholic. That is good :) I've often thought the same thing about Iceland...

earwicga..I read that a few posts up...I nearly fell off my chair! The funniest part of it was that the poster had said prior to making that statement that they do not need educating.

Appletrees, thanks for your kind words about me being on thin-ice. You seem to want to paint with a broad-brush in only black and white. I haven't said remembrance services condone war. I've said that there are some that take them to be glorification of the military, which is something I'm quite ambivalent about. Actually, I think it's part of the British make-up to be ambivalent about the armed forces. We tend to leave that breast-beating for the americans and some other countries.

As I've said I've never worn a white poppy, but there's a lot of misinformation here, along the lines of

X -"I wear a white poppy"
Y - "So you're against the red poppy?"
X - "no"

X - "I'm anti-war"
Y - "So you're saying the red poppy is pro-war?"
X- "no"
Y -"yes you are"
X - "No I'm not"

And so on. The general thrust of a lot of this thread is that some are so offended by the inclusion of a subtle, non-intrusive symbol such as a white poppy at a remembrance parade as something rather suspicious.

Thanks ritalynn I was thinking i was the only one seeing this pattern of 'debate'

'Wow I think I just found my stupid quote of the day!'

I don't think that is the stupid quote of the day!! When you think of the people throughout the world that have such an active hatred for each other-Catholics and Protestants in NI for a start. I think that it is generally realised that the ordinary German, Argentinian etc was just like us and that in different circumstances they would get on-it isn't like different tribes in Rwanda etc.

Yes and I am interested to know why we are 'unusual' and about how being an Island in your opinion has impacted on our foreign policy?

piscesmoon - do you think that because there are different ethnic tribes in Rwanda that of itself caused the genocide of 1994? I don't understand your comment so would be interested if you could expand a little.

I think that war widows wear white poppies and place a white poppy wreath on th Cenotaph on Remembrance Day.

This says that the two colours can be used together:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Poppy

Otherwise, would she feel happier wearing a purple poppy? These commemorate the sacrifices made by so many conscripted animals during wartime.

www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/pr_other/ALL/1689/

Maybe she could wear all three colours together?

Or perhaps she'd rather just say that she is very honoured to be chosen, but explain that she'd really rather not and ask them to choose someone else.

Because we are an island we are set back from our neighbours anyway-we are not like parts of Europe that change hands after wars and have a lingering hatred of those that were occupying.
If you were a a Tutsi you would have been brought up to hate a Hutu. The same as if you were a Catholic in NI, brought up to hate Protestants-rather than take everyone on their own merits. I doubt whether the average citizen in UK hates any nationality or group just in general.
I don't think that anyone joins the forces because they hate anyone and want to kill them-and if that were their purpose they would be weeded out before they joined.
I think that people join the forces for a variety of reasons-the prime one being that it may be a good career choice. They may be idealistic and want to stop oppression etc. They may just want excitement and action, but I doubt very much whether they hate anyone.
The forces are doing a job-it isn't personal.

It's ridiculous to imply that a Red Poppy is politically neutral. Wide spread acceptance != neutrality.

'If you were a a Tutsi you would have been brought up to hate a Hutu.'

Not true. You need to do some reading.

You might also want to do some reading about the parts of France that used to be part of England.

Btw, NI is part of the UK.

I don't know anything about much about Rwanda-except that there is hatred. I will read about it when time.
I don't hate anyone-I don't most of the UK population does either. I dare say that it would account for the French not liking us! However they don't hate us in a 'want to kill you' way.

Nobody suggested these wars were about hatred. But us being an Island has very little to do with the conflicts we have fought in. Just means we are harder to invade.

Have you heard of colonialism piscesmoon?

I am not going to get into a long argument about it. All I really mean is that if my DSs were to want to marry someone from any nationality or creed I wouldn't fear for my life. There might be a few nutters around but society in general, and the people I mix with, are just going to be happy for them (or not bothered either way).
I don't think that it would be very easy to be a Catholic in NI having a whole wedding party of Protestants.
Our forces are not going into countries hating anyone-they are doing a job.

Have you heard of colonialism piscesmoon?

don't be silly earwicga, it's the white man's burden! they invaded and pillaged for our own good!

remember, it isn't really a war if at least one side is brown! pip pip!

FFS

Unsure of your comment chibi but colonialism had a lot to do with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is all I was meaning.

They don't think that the UK is that bad-or they wouldn't want to live and work over here!

my comment minus the sarcasm is that the idea of the Uk/british people as anything other than an island of bloodthirsty marauding plunderers is hilarious, and i speak as one from a country colonised by them

it is a lot of other things too, shakespeare, common law, the cooperative movement, etc but that doesn't cancel out the bloodthirsty marauding bit

furthermore a healthy chunk of conflict around the globe today can be traced back to radioactive fallout from the activities and conquests of marauding plundering brits

so in that context, the idea that the uk only gets involved in 'just wars' whatever that means because it is an island country is naive at best

I think that we are getting bogged down in things that are well away from the subject-probably my fault. My only point was that people who join the forces don't hate anyone-and if they did they would be weeded out as unsuitable.

that must be a tremendous comfort to the families of civilians killed as collateral damage, to know that at least it wasn't personal

what colour poppy do you reckon they should wear?

Nobody suggested these wars were about hatred. But us being an Island has very little to do with the conflicts we have fought in. Just means we are harder to invade.

Ah, gotcha chibi.

piecesmoon - Foreign Policy is done by politicians and big business, not people who join the forces. War is rarely about hatred if ever. It's about money.

Everything in the world boils down to money, earwicga. Power and money- and to have power you have to have money-so therefore money. I would agree with you there.