The first cuckoo - or poppy!

[teamsaint]

I wear a white one.

Where do you buy them?

[Mary Chambers]

Where do you buy them?

I got mine online from the Peace Pledge Union (minimum of five, but you can give them to friends, or keep them). The Quakers and some bookshops have them, but they aren't as easy to find as they should be.

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html (I can think of better music they could play.)

[Serial_Apologist]

(I can think of better music they could play.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bwsv6_aQpw

[Simon]

I wear a white one.

White?

I didn't think there were white poppies (though I know there are yellow ones cos we have some in the garden!). I thought the idea of the red ones was to show some connection with the fields in the Flanders area where so many died. But I may be wrong and be mixing it up with the poem...

[John Shelton]

White?

I didn't think there were white poppies

Not in Europe, but notoriously in "China, India and Afghanistan." http://www.herbsguide.net/white-poppy.html

Grown commercially under license in the UK http://www.farmersguardian.com/medic.../19948.article

[Mary Chambers]

White?

I didn't think there were white poppies (though I know there are yellow ones cos we have some in the garden!). I thought the idea of the red ones was to show some connection with the fields in the Flanders area where so many died. But I may be wrong and be mixing it up with the poem...

There are certainly white varieties of poppy. I have some in my garden - and also the yellow ones you mention. Numerous white varieties can be seen on Google images.

I've always assumed the red Remembrance poppy was connected with the Flanders fields imagery, too. Some people wear both the red and the white one. The point of wearing a white poppy is that it represents and supports working for peace rather than just commemorating war, and also commemorates ALL victims of war, including civilians.

[gingerjon]

I buy but never wear a white one and a red one every year.

The white one is sold by the Quakers and I work near the Friends House in Euston so get from the shop there.

Remembrance should be a private act - not some trumpeted act of forced patriotism.

[Mary Chambers]

I buy but never wear a white one and a red one every year.

The white one is sold by the Quakers and I work near the Friends House in Euston so get from the shop there.

Remembrance should be a private act - not some trumpeted act of forced patriotism.

I think that's a fair point.

[MrGongGong]

White?

I didn't think there were white poppies (though I know there are yellow ones cos we have some in the garden!). I thought the idea of the red ones was to show some connection with the fields in the Flanders area where so many died. But I may be wrong and be mixing it up with the poem...

Indeed
but it has sadly been hijacked by those who want to promote the "hero" industry where it includes some of the more morally dodgy things that have been done recently in our name.

[Simon]

Forced patriotism? That sounds like some dodgy ideology form the city left. Certainly nobody has forced me to wear anything - I do it because I value and respect the sacrifices made by others that allow me to live at peace in a free country.

Our village memorial is not large - but even on such a tiny place there are names on it, and they were all someone's sons, and my grandma and grandad knew the families... It's a sad day, standing there under the November sky. But long may it continue. It's the least we can do.

:::::::

I like the idea of the white poppy remembering civilians, too, Mary. Not seen around here, though. We only see the red ones form the RBL

[gingerjon]

Forced patriotism?

Yup. As in this subtle episode which blocked everybody's path at Marylebone station for several hours last year:



But, as I say, remembrance and memorials can (and should be) very moving and it is important to remember. My elder son will be taking part in his first remembrance parade this year. He doesn't really understand what it means but he knows that young men, some startlingly close in age to him, died (and continue to die) in wars they had no choice but to fight in.

But in today's 'free country' bulletin: non religious types continue their campaign to be included in this supposedly all-inclusive act of remembrance.