To think school shouldn’t insist that everyone wears a poppy and donates £1

[moonlightholly]

It’s supposedly in a deprived area too - there are constant reminders of the high percentage of pupils with PP.

Also, I don’t think a school should insist everyone wears a poppy - or AIBU?

So if I understand this thread correctly, you remember the sacrifices made by the soldiers if you wear the poppy. If you dont it must be because you dont care... well thats a very extremist view.

I dont wear the poppy. We talk about the 2 WW a lot in my family and with my children. I have great grand parents who fought in WWI and grand parents who have been jailed by the SS and a great uncle who a resistant and killed by the Nazi during WWII.
And i will NOT wear the poppy.

So what I cant remember because i dont wear it?
I disagree with wearing the poppy.
I will never forget the atrocities of those 2 wars, i will teach my children age appropriately the concentrariom camps and the worst that people have witnessed, i will talk about having to drink your urine during the worst of the Battle of the Somme, about the rationning and about a divided France etc. I will talk about genocide in Rwanda and other places, the atrocities in syria

I will teach them tolerance and critical
Judgment. We talk a lot about what “sacrificing one’s life” mean.

But I will NOT wear the poppy. This is a fake way of remembering in my personal opinion.

Soft your final paragraph at 8.24 is perfect

The entire point is remembrance. I wear a poppy. I go to our local war memorial for the 2 minute silence. Dd3 will join the parade with the guides. I think about my grandparents generation who fought at home and abroad in ww2, my parents generation who were children and suffered hardship. I think about my 2 Great great uncles who died at 18 in a pointless war in ww1.
It's a small acknowledgement of terrible times.

Posted too soon. So if schools want to get involved, it should not cost a quid.

though though I’m surprised it’s seen as a worse war crime than the Holocaust. I’m surprised it’s seen as a worse war crime than the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was an ongoing event made up of thousands of crimes. The dropping of two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the supposed good guys, vapourised 10s of thousands of civilians in seconds, caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands and today children are still being born with birth defects because of these bombs.

They were the worst individual war crimes in human history.

Just to add the Japanese had offered to surrender, there only condition was they wanted to keep their emperor. The allies demanded an unconditional surrender and dropped a nuclear bomb. Then after they surrendered unconditionally allowed the Japanese to keep their emperor.

The Hibakusha and their children are still discriminated against today.

The bombs were not dropped on military targets, they were used to kill civilians. IMHO it is a bigger crime not because of the numbers killed but because no one has ever been punished for it except the victims.

It's costs millions of pounds a year to maintain war graves in dozens of countries that's what your donation goes towards

@DawnOfTheDeadleg

From the RBL website: www.britishlegion.org.uk/stories/11-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-poppy?seg=WPDW3B&awc=6663_1573294226_ff75e97457d91e28beec8e04ebff58d8&utm_source=Affiliate_Window&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=78888

”1. The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future

Wearing one is a show of support for the service and sacrifice of our Armed Forces, veterans and their families.

It represents all those who lost their lives on active service in all conflicts; from the beginning of the First World War right up to the present day.

It also honours the contribution of civilian services and the uniformed services which contribute to national peace and security and acknowledges innocent civilians who have lost their lives in conflict and acts of terrorism .”

(Emphasis mine).

The RBL don’t insist it just represents Armed forces any more.

My school is heavily involved in Remembering by choice. We are opposite a cemetery with Commonwealth war graves. We have adopted them as their relatives live so far away.

We do a small ceremony talking about the lives of the soldiers and we lay crosses and wreaths. Some children wear poppies some don't, I do wear one made by my sister that has a button from my Grandfather's dress uniform.

It an individuals right to choose and as a poppy is not part of school uniform surely they can't enforce it. Will they demand everyone wears a red nose.

YANBU. Of late, I'm afraid to say I think some of the rhetoric surrounding poppy-wearing has become toxic. And nothing is less likely to make me conform to a particular standard than social pressure to fall into line and conform. There are regular stories (or Twitterstorms) 'shaming' people who refuse to wear the poppy as unpatriotic and disrespectful. The 'enforced conformity' rhetoric is now so insidious that a 'PoppyWatch' moniker has been set up on Twitter to expose this: including, recently, a Bristol pub landlord who's asked his staff to refuse to serve anyone on Sunday who is not wearing a poppy. As the account holder comments: 'A wonderful way to honour those who died protecting us from fascism'.

I always donate online to the British Legion - a more generous donation than I'd be likely to stick into a money pot - but no longer wear a poppy. It's up to you if you'd like your kids to make a similar stand; I don't suppose the school can force you. You'd be teaching them about freedom of expression, basing their choices on their principles rather than someone else's, and how one person's mode of respect might not be the same as someone else's. As for 'not doing politics with the kids', I'd respectfully disagree. There are some lessons it does them no harm to learn.

the whole thing is being commandeered by a whole other agenda and frankly, it’s a move Hitler would be proud of.

Yes. "You will conform, or else"

It’s interesting that all the focus seems to be on WW2, totally ignoring the Majority of servicemen being supported must surely have been injured in Iraq/Afghanistan/etc? Is it because it’s easier to be that bit further away from the reality?

This is one of my issues. I have no problem with appreciating and respecting the sacrifices of those who volunteered or were conscripted to defend our country in WW2. I do have more of a problem in relation to later wars when the reality is that they weren't fought to defend us from anything other than, possibly, the potential loss of oil revenue.

a Bristol pub landlord who's asked his staff to refuse to serve anyone on Sunday who is not wearing a poppy. As the account holder comments: 'A wonderful way to honour those who died protecting us from fascism'.

Is even worse than I thought.

@StreetwiseHercules

They were the worst individual war crimes in human history.

Missing the point of this thread but the firebombing of Tokoyo by the United States (operation meetinghouse) was the single most destructive and deadliest attack in human history. Around 100,000 men, women and children were incinerated that night along with nearly 16 square miles of the city.

But because it was done by the good guys it was OK apparently.

It's costs millions of pounds a year to maintain war graves in dozens of countries that's what your donation goes towards

No, that's the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Given the way pubs are struggling to keep going, I must say that alienating your clientele by dictating what badges they wear seems a bit of a dick move.

I always buy a poppy if I can in honour of family who served, but I also hate the obsession with poppies and how if you don't wear them, you're an evil traitor who disrespects our war dead. Wearing one should be a choice. It seems to be a fairly recent thing - I don't remember footballers wearing them in the '90s but now every team has poppies on their kits, and James McClean - who's from Derry and is Catholic - gets tons of abuse for refusing to wear one. The poppy shouldn't be a symbol of jingoism, it defeats the point.

I wear a poppy on the march to the war memorial on Remembrance Sunday and I wear it on Armistice Day. That's it. I don't think that the weeks of poppy displaying is necessary, if anything it lessens the impact...

I think it’s wrong. That will now bring donations since the start of the year to £10. And children in need, Christmas, comic relief, still to come.

If you can't afford to or just don't want to donate then don't. They can't actually make you.

Saying all kids need to wear a poppy is ridiculous anyway. My daughter bought various things the school were selling including a poppy and a bracelet. The poppy had fallen off by the end of the day so she won't have one to wear next week despite donating. Judging by the amount on the floor around the school I don't think she'll be the only one not actually wearing one.

Schools are for education, they can't enforce stuff like this, I'd just ignore them if I didn't agree with them.

And now how people wear it is being policed:

It’s a disgrace that Suzanne Reid’s poppy is camouflaged against her poppy-red dress. I’m shocked that she would disrespect the fallen in this way. I thought you were better than that Suzanne! #poppywatch t.co/s7MW4hsxUz

Betty my post was not contradictory. The point is you would not have such freedoms if those wars had not been fought and won at great cost.
You will gladly pin Xmas brooches or birthday badges on your DC so the argument about wearing badges sucks. Every day and everywhere Pepe wear badges whether it be to support their fav popstar or whatever but come remembrance Day the same arguments are churned out. The motto to remember is ' LEST WE FORGET' we should never forget the true cost of war. That is what REMEMBERANCE is about. Not to GLORIFY war but to make sure it never happens again by remembering those that died.

Grandfather in WW1 - scarred mentally for life. Parent in WW2 also scarred. I refuse poppy wearing and think that so many wearing them have No. Fucking. Clue. what actually happened in the wars.

Apparently it's now compulsory to have a poppy in your profile:
This, tweeted to a sky news presenter:
Where's your poppy in your profile pic, you're a disgrace to our brave boys.

I've put my money in the box, ive spoken to my ds about the sacrifice of men and remembering the lessons of war and trying to not let them happen again he will walk in the beavers parade tomorrow (I can't go as solo parenting and would risk my 3yo interrupting the service). I'll observe silences and reflect however I won't be forced to wear a poppy because it's expected of me.

All of what I've said apart from the wearing of the poppy is the important stuff not wearing a poppy to telegraph to others that I Deem it to be

So because people want to wear one badge that means they can't ever object to wearing another? How completely ridiculous.

@BettysLeftTentacle those posts are pretty judgemental. Whether they take offence at others wearing them or being asked to wear them themselves the holier than thou attitude and the intentional misunderstanding comes across loud and clear. As I said, I don’t wear them out of habit but would for a second think to refuse if I were asked.