To not buy a poppy

[Hippymum89]

Why is it more important to remember the death of a soldier who died fighting for the country (or so he believed) than the death of every other person who has died?
What about all the others who have died helping others? Were their lives less important? Or the little old lady who died in hospital at the age of 97, she didn't kill any Germans, or rescue people. She lived her life, but doesn't that count?
I think poppys glorify war and therefore murder, so I will not be buying one.

Not forgetting King Billy, which was an invasion or a rescue, depending on which side of things one stood.

I wouldn't call the battle of fishguard an invasion, since they were defeated in a day by locals, but I suppose so.

I like having freedom of speech to disagree with other peoples freedom to speech on occasion.

Im also grateful for it and everyone that made it possible.

and the Channel Islands are part of Britain, technically or otherwise.

Double hard welsh see.

They were frightened off by a male voice choir. Understandable, really.

so you really think people shouldn't be able to equate war with murder? Why not?

and the Channel Islands are not part of Britain, technically or otherwise.

I think perhaps the soldiers were sent to certain countrys to fight but for example in Ireland during the troubles they were sent there and what did they do, KILL loads of innocent people. They were sent to protect not fight and they had choice, fair enough they were sent their but they didnt have to kill many people. Therefore i completly disagree with poppys and what they represent.

It is fine not to wear one I wouldn't after being brought up in northern ireland and having it rammed down my throat every year by some rather dubious men who came to the school BUT it is a personal choice and there is no need to start a thread which may upset those who see it as important just because you don't.

Channel Islanders are British subjects but not necessarily British citizens.

oh that's fine then.

When I visit my Gran's grave, I walk past the graves of many, many men who died in WW1, many of whom who were only in their teens. It makes me weep to think of the conditions they fought and died in. So many young men from such a small town, so many devastated families.

And still the deaths continue, with families and friends losing their loved ones. I am grateful that my sister and neighbour's son came to no harm and that my friends have so far come home safely.

I give my donation and wear my poppy to pay my respects and to help those who found their lives changed forever by their memories and injuries.

My family are from the Channel Islands.

My Grandmother and Mum were taken from their homes and taken to interment camps in 1942.

My Mum was just 8 months.

To read the postcards my Gran sent my G-grandparents are heartbreaking. Begging for them to try and get shoes/blankets to her for my Mum.

My Grandmother is dead now. None of the Channel Islanders have received compensation from the German Government nor the British :(

I still wear a poppy.

The channel islands were invaded and were resolutly ignored by the British Government. But we don't really go on about that do we? Because you know, we only remember the nice bits where we won.

Don't be so fucking ridiculous.They were hardly ignored. It was just a teensy bit difficult to try and defend the Channel Islands as well when we were fighting a war on our bloody own for 2 years.

Remember we had disarmed cos we didn't want a war, and had to get help for ships and ammunitions from Franklin D Roosevelt in his lend lease programme.

Or do you just remember the bits that suit you and then twist it :o

Susanne, my family would disagree with you.

They were ignored during the war, and after.

Jews on the Island had (as we all know) a much worse fate. :(

What "nice bits" are you referring to anyway? What an odd thing to say.

When the Germans got control of French ports it was always going to be impossible to defend the Channel Islands (only a few miles from the coast).

The British Government consulted the islands' elected government representatives, in order to formulate a policy regarding evacuation. Opinion was divided and, without a policy being imposed on the islands, chaos ensued and different policies were adopted by the different islands. The British Government concluded their best policy was to make available as many ships as possible so that islanders had the option to leave if they wanted to. The authorities in Alderney recommended that all islanders evacuate, and nearly all did so; the Dame of Sark, Sibyl Mary Hathaway, encouraged everyone to stay. Guernsey evacuated all children of school age, giving the parents the option of keeping their children with them, or evacuating with their school. In Jersey, the majority of islanders chose to stay.

The islanders had a choice - a horrible one but still a choice.

Based on this thread I'm beginning to think that actually it DOES romanticise war.

You seem to have this idea that all British soldiers are upstanding citizens going out into the big bad world to be heroes and kill all the baddies! It's juvenile in the extreme to think the British army is "good" and everyone else is "bad".

I said upthread there are other families in the world who have lost loved ones too. To them, British soldiers ARE murderers. One mam's terrorist is another mam's freedom fighter and all that jazz.

I certainly feel nothing but disdain for the British soldiers who murdered my ancestors in Ireland!

But, as I said, I think people absolutely have the right to wear their poppies with pride. But could maybe stand to be a little less close-minded and insulting to those who don't agree with it?

I don't think my Mum and Gran had any choice

It wasn't a day out.

But your other points are valid/true.

my understanding was that there weren't enough ships.

What a load of bollocks Mr Soldier.

Fighting in afghanistan has nothing to do with freedom for british people, and the taliban wouldn't be invading even if there wasn't a single british soldier. Why do people insist on spouting such rubbish? All it does it make people wonder if you have the first idea what you are doing there.

You don't have to agree with the wars fought or lionise British soldiers to wear a poppy. Just have compassion for ordinary people, whether conscripts or volunteers (often with very few other options career-wise), soldiers, stretcher-bearers or medics, who have gone through hideous and shattering experiences.

If we had no rituals of remembrance, I think the lives and sacrifice of these ordinary people would be even more cynically exploited by politicians, not less.

I think the Vietnam war was unjustified, but I'd never want British troops who fought in such a war getting the sort of treatment meted out to them that American Vietnam veterans got when they returned home.

I certainly feel nothing but disdain for the British soldiers who murdered my ancestors in Ireland

I feel as much disdain for those soldiers as I do the scumbag IRA and UVF that murdered thousands of their countrymen.

But that is NOT what the Poppy is about. The Poppy is a symbol of Remembrance for those men and women who died in the fight for peace. They paid the ultimate sacrifice, whether in the fields of foreign lands, in the desert, or closer to home. They died on battlefields, in terrorist attacks and of old age. Dead, they deserve Remembrance; alive they deserve help, their families deserve help. The Poppy gives them that.