Tim Hayward
Tim Hayward Wordpress
It is customary in my country, on Remembrance Day, to wear a red poppy to commemorate the fallen in war, with donations channeled to dependants and veterans. To observe remembrance is a mark of respect. For many, it is also an expression of gratitude.
Some people, however, decline to observe the tradition, on principle. They may believe that war should be lamented, not tacitly condoned. Some will stress that not only on active service are people killed or harmed in wars. Many children, women and men are innocent victims of the combatants commemorated with poppies. Celebrating the poppy could look like acquiescing in a deceptive idea of war as a noble activity allegedly in service of a free and democratic society.
As for poppy revenues to support the survivors, surely anyone who sacrifices life, limb, or family provider, for the sake of their country, is owed much more than a token donation once a year.
Although I choose not to wear a poppy for a cluster of reasons like those, I would not criticise others who do wear one, or try to persuade them not to. What does seem to me a fitting response to Remembrance Day is to seek to widen our horizons and to remember so much more.
Yet the scale and depth of the horrors of war being perpetrated around the world, and in so many places - relentlessly continuing even in the very moment you read and I write this - defy human imagination. Each and every one of the inumerable lives lost is of a person like you or me, or any of our loved ones.
In the moments of quiet reflection, as symbolised by our two minutes collective silence each year, each of us will be drawn into our own more personal remembrance.
My twentieth century forbears who suffered and died for the cause of war are remembered now as relatively distant victims of that evil racket. I feel today more keenly the pain of those whose loved ones were so lately ripped from them.
Tim Hayward Wordpress
It is customary in my country, on Remembrance Day, to wear a red poppy to commemorate the fallen in war, with donations channeled to dependants and veterans. To observe remembrance is a mark of respect. For many, it is also an expression of gratitude.
Some people, however, decline to observe the tradition, on principle. They may believe that war should be lamented, not tacitly condoned. Some will stress that not only on active service are people killed or harmed in wars. Many children, women and men are innocent victims of the combatants commemorated with poppies. Celebrating the poppy could look like acquiescing in a deceptive idea of war as a noble activity allegedly in service of a free and democratic society.
As for poppy revenues to support the survivors, surely anyone who sacrifices life, limb, or family provider, for the sake of their country, is owed much more than a token donation once a year.
Although I choose not to wear a poppy for a cluster of reasons like those, I would not criticise others who do wear one, or try to persuade them not to. What does seem to me a fitting response to Remembrance Day is to seek to widen our horizons and to remember so much more.
Yet the scale and depth of the horrors of war being perpetrated around the world, and in so many places - relentlessly continuing even in the very moment you read and I write this - defy human imagination. Each and every one of the inumerable lives lost is of a person like you or me, or any of our loved ones.
In the moments of quiet reflection, as symbolised by our two minutes collective silence each year, each of us will be drawn into our own more personal remembrance.
My twentieth century forbears who suffered and died for the cause of war are remembered now as relatively distant victims of that evil racket. I feel today more keenly the pain of those whose loved ones were so lately ripped from them.
For they shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.
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