Great post from Tony on red and white poppies. Whilst I would support the families of those through buying a red poppy I would usually wear white in the hope of dialogue. When I was 17 at the local college this caused a real issue with the pre services course (those training for army etc but to young to enter) who didn’t hang around long enough for me to explain that I had supported the poppy appeal and ended up with me getting 7 bells knocked out of me, so I found the comment from David Cockburn who wears both a good idea, and maybe give more chance of dialogue.
SUNDAY PAPERS – THE SUPPLEMENT
A CO-OPERATIVE LOOK AT LIFE, MISSION, EMERGING CHURCH AND ALL THAT
The political act of wearing a white poppy can certainly bring the opportunity for dialogue, but I wonder if confrontation is an appropriate way to start a relationship with complete strangers who we aren’t trying to judge.
Sometimes our relationships with strangers will start with confrontation, but to choose to deliberately bring on confrontation without actually doing anything positive (and I can’t see that wearing a white poppy does anything positive for anyone) is surely debatable.
It’s not like me to have a difference with Jonathan Bartley and I must emphasize that I really don’t want to wear a red poppy and give some false impression that I support the idea of war.
If I have understood the white poppy idea properly, it want sto promote peace as well as a form of rememberance. The interesting thing about peace, is that it seems to provoke debate in itself.. Last year bought a u2 t-shirt, which had V at the top, then the peace sign, followed by the bomb sign below that. someone asked me what I thought it meant, i said that V was for vertigo the name of the tour, but the peace sign above the bob sign was because peace should come aboe fighting and war and bombs, caused a huge disagreement, the person I was talking too, i knew, but they weren’t happay about me promoting peace, interesting one that.