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AIBU?

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Original poster

To post this for the anti Poppy brigade?

392 replies

Jakebullet · 09/11/2013 12:43

Just posted on Facebook by a poet friend of mine

The whistles could be heard
Along the trenches below
The young men weren't ready
But they had to go
Some held photos
Of loved ones back home
They charged together
Yet died alone
The bulkets n bombs
rang loud in their heads
Yet forward they ran
Running over the dead
A war against tyranny and for freedom they fought
A price was to be paid
Yet could never be bought
But their actions
Should be remembered
Even tho with regret
By wearing The Poppy
LEST WE FORGET

By Billy Isherwood

Love this poem......it's been in his head several days and this morning was finally written down.

OP posts:
Whistleblower0 · 09/11/2013 20:45

What a crap poem. Never have or will wear a poppy.

Geckos48 · 09/11/2013 20:47

I don't wear a poppy because I am anti-war.

I would love there to be a day for the people (all the people) who died in the WW's rather than the mockery it has become today. Remembrance Sunday was never about the armed forces, it was about everyone who gave their lives for freedom, something we haven't done since the end of the Second World War.

AwkwardSquad · 09/11/2013 20:54

YABU and self-righteous. The poem is dreadful. Here's a war poem for you: www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/3303.

Talkinpeace · 09/11/2013 21:09

This summer we went to the Normandy Beaches and made a real point of visiting some German war graves.
The wreaths there are made from hops not poppies.
War is horrific.
Standing in the ossuary surrounded by the remains of 25,000 lads, some of whom were war criminals, many of whom were conscripts, none of whom died to achieve anything positive for their country

was far more moving than wearing a bit of paper that will clutter up landfill just before Christmas.

Raddy · 09/11/2013 21:12

That poem is mawkish twaddle.

FudgefaceMcZ · 09/11/2013 21:20

I prefer Wilfred Owen, if nothing else because he doesn't write 'bulkets n bombs' ffs. Referring to massive loss of human life like it's a take away isn't in any way respectful, it's stupid and trivialising. At least "anti-poppy" people (if they exist?) have thought about it for more than the 30 seconds it took to write that crap.

gintastic · 09/11/2013 21:35

I wear a white poppy instead to indicate a wish for peace not war. I do find myself having to explain it though.

imofftolisdoonvarna · 09/11/2013 21:35

The other thing that pisses me off is the way that the poppy has been adopted by the EDL and the 'I'll stop wearing my poppy when u stop wearing ur fuckin turban' brigade. Grim.

fairy1303 · 09/11/2013 21:58

what about the civilians who die in these wars?where is their poppy??

I wear a white one because I feel uncomfortable supporting those who sign up to fight, supporting a military that brainwashes the boys it takes in at 16. At least a white poppy shows respect to all those affected by war and symbolises a call for no more war.

Geckos48 · 09/11/2013 22:00

The poppy was originally about all who gave their lives in the WW's, not just the armed forces. It's been changed to ignore those people and only focus on the armed forces now.

Orangeanddemons · 09/11/2013 22:00

I wish white poppies were more easily obtainable. I always forget to send for one until it's too late.

I posted similar opinions on here about 6 years ago,and was absolutely slated for it. Funny how times change...

squoosh · 09/11/2013 22:02

I've never seen a white poppy for sale.

superstarheartbreaker · 09/11/2013 22:11

Ive never seen a whote poppy. I am a pacifist ant anti war but I shall observe the silence out of respect.

fairy1303 · 09/11/2013 22:13

White poppy

Geckos48 · 09/11/2013 22:14

I posted a similar opinion on here 6 days ago and was slated for it.

fairy1303 · 09/11/2013 22:16

That's mumsnet for you Gecko!

still smarting from AIBU kicking

trish5000 · 09/11/2013 22:29

Do people think that one of the differences between the WWs and now, is that back then, men more or less had to go because else the country could have been taken over, but now, people can choose to go or not?

But that then leads me to think that if no one chose to go, what then?

  • I realise that that stance would suit some people, and maybe they are on this thread, but I think that the majority of citizens in this country definitely want some defence of this country.
Geckos48 · 09/11/2013 22:45

Defence is different from attack. All we do at the moment (sans the navy) is attack.

badtime · 09/11/2013 23:02

Futility

Move him into the sun -
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds, -
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved - still warm - too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?

  • O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

Wilfred Owen

^
That, OP, is a poem. A poem written by someone who was killed one week before the end of the Great War (aka WWI).

The thing you posted is some absurd fantasy doggerel propaganda.

Given the sentiments expressed in 'Futility' and 'Dulce et decorum est' (posted a couple of times above), do you think Wilfred Owen would have supported wearing poppies? If not, do you think it would be appropriate to sneer at him for being part of the 'anti Poppy brigade'? Was it for this the clay grew tall?

ravenAK · 09/11/2013 23:02

I remember reading rather a good interview a few years ago with a WW2 veteran re: people not wearing poppies, & didn't he find it disgusting?

His riposte was along the lines that: Actually, obliging people - Jewish people for example - to wear badges was something the other lot did, & one of the reasons he & his comrades were fighting them was for the freedom to wear or not wear what you bloody well want.

I'm with Harry Smith - qv. the article quoted upthread. I won't be wearing a poppy.

& I'm afraid that poem stinks. Sorry.

wamabama · 09/11/2013 23:23

I wear a white poppy because I am a pacifist and to me wearing the red poppy would be hypocritical. I read the first page and all made good points, bubbles summed up how I feel about it too.

If you educate yourselves properly to not just believe anything the news tells you you will see that the recent so-called 'wars' are not wars at all. Anyone who joins the military now knows full well what they are getting themselves in for and there is no longer a societal pressure to join- it's all down to them. And so if they come back dead or injured, as horrific as that is for their families, that was a risk they chose to take. Fighting a non-war, invading a country and blowing up innocent civilians in the process.

I'd wear a red poppy if it purely only stood for lives lost in the world wars but it does not and I don't support war. We have a choice to wear one or not.

MrsWedgeAntilles · 09/11/2013 23:27

I wear a poppy now for the same reason I always have, so that I don't forget how terrible war is. I hate how since the last Gulf war it seems to have turned into some jingoistic carry on.
My grandfather was a decorated naval hero and the most anti war person I've ever met. His story made me very anti war. He signed up when he was 18 in 1939 and fought the whole whole war. He was at both Dunkirk and D-Day and the Atlantic convoys. He saw horrors none of us could imagine.
My exP's grandfather was also a decorated hero. He was a Tommy from the age of 17. What happened to him was so scarifying that he never talked about WW2 at all.

In my opinion "Lest we forget" should be lest we forget that national government sent thousands of young men to kill each other and caused untold levels of suffering across so many different countries. It should be lest we forget that their still doing today and its us the normal people of the world who bear the brunt every time.

I'm getting a bit angry now so I'm going to stop this but there's a great passage from "Sunset Song" by Lewis Grassic Gibbons where one of the character says some thing like all the leaders who want war should line up in a field and go at each other with pitchforks and all the ordinary folk could stand round and watch and make a day of it. Possibly one of the best ideas I've ever heard.

Caitlin17 · 09/11/2013 23:48

I'm not sure we can co-opt Wilfred Owen one way or other on the side of poppies.

Re white poppies, sorry ,it seems a bit silly. The blood red poppy appearing on the battle fields of Flanders is such a powerful symbol.

Yes of course call out current government policy, but I question the effectiveness of a white poppy.

Caitlin17 · 09/11/2013 23:51

And as for the objection that it's been appropriated by the EDL, well take it back, not give in to them.