The story behind the wearing of the red poppy for
Armistice/Veteran’s Day. I remember the American Legion and VFW giving these out when I was a child in the 1950s.
Thanks for posting this.
bttt
"So you ... "
And I thought;
So we WHAT ?
Serve up communism/socialism/liberalism ... is THAT why we lie here ?
As an exercise ... tag the poem (prayer) with ..
So you can ... or so I can ...
Always had a special fondness for Lt-Col John McCrae and his heart touching poem. He was a Canadian, this article written in a British paper leaves that out which by omission seemingly implies he is British instead of Canadian.
Now as for the wearing of poppies to remember those who died in service, no people do it up like the Canadians, it is almost a national symbol to Canadians.
It wasn't till about a year and a half ago that an aunt of mine, who has been researching the family heritage, told me that he was an ambulance driver in Argonne, France during that war.
Moina Michael was also a professor at the University of Georgia.
Ping!
Yes, they are. As the story points out, they're also nearly the only thing that would grow in the muddy, cratered morass of a WWI battlefield. Nobody really knows why.
It's a lovely custom, and when it comes up I feel like a bit of a party poop in pointing out that the rest of the original poem is, in fact, a call to "take up the torch", carry on the mission, and defeat the Germans, and not quite the lament against the overall wastage of war that it is sometimes portrayed as. It is an entirely understandable emotion given the circumstances and I don't fault McCrae one iota for expressing it. But let's not misrepresent it too much.