Poppies · 5:48am Nov 2nd, 2016
Guys this is super important.
Wear a poppy now. It is November 1st and until the 12th you should be wearing a poppy.
It doesn't matter if you like or dislike the state of the country you are in right now. It doesn't matter if you support the military or not. It doesn't matter if you are with or against Trudeau. It doesn't matter if you are voting Trump or Hillary. It doesn't matter if you are Canadian, German, American, Japanese, Jewish, African, French, British, Australian or anyone else in the world or what "side" your country was in previous wars.
It certainly doesn't fucking matter if you "get poked and it is really annoying."
People who have seen my streams (especially recent ones) that I am a war history enthusiast. I have looked into and done quite a bit of research on a ton of the Second World War and thanks to Battlefield 1 I am looking more into the First World War. Guys if there is one thing you learn while researching the history of these things it is the meaning and significance of the poppy.
Wikipedia best brings the significance of "In Flanders Fields" which I will be putting at the end.
"In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.
It is one of the most popular and most quoted poems from the war. As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in propaganda efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict. The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where "In Flanders Fields" is one of the nation's best-known literary works. The poem also has wide exposure in the United States, where it is associated with Memorial Day.
If you happen to be in a country where the poppy isn't used as a symbol for those who made the ultimate sacrifice, please wear or have whatever it is that you use to honor the dead.
Tagged my most widespread story for exposure, which is totally justified.
I too am a bit of a WWII history buff. And hell, I'm a Army reservist with the Seaforth Highlanders. Yes I will be wearing my poppie.
http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html
Anthem for Doomed Youth
BY WILFRED OWEN
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.