David Emery Online

Poppy Appeal

2 November 2006

At the risk of alienating my last pair of readers…

I won’t be wearing a poppy this year. I think the Poppy Appeal is wrong.

The poppy – to me at least, and in my understanding – is all about remembrance. Wearing it is a statement saying “Yes. I remember that we went to war twice, and millions lost their lives”.

What I find sad is that I can see a time – not even that far in the future – where people don’t remember the existence of the two world wars in recent history. I’m sure you could find many teenagers today that are completely ignorant about how many died and how much affect it had on modern society.

What are the odds that if you asked them what the worst event in the last 100 years was, that they’d answer 9/11?

The Poppy Appeal doesn’t seem to be about remembrance anymore, though. It’s now seems to simply be yet another charity, trying to raise money for ex-servicemen and women. I have no problem with them using the proceeds raised from the poppy appeal for ex-servicemen – it seems as good a use as any (although as we haven’t seen conscription in this country since WWII I don’t really see why they should get charity – they knew what they were getting into when they joined up).

However, as opposed to simply using the proceeds, the whole point now seems to be charity, not remembrance. They’ve taken the humble poppy, and turned into nothing more then a charity wristband.

We need to remember our past more now then ever, so we don’t make the same mistakes again.