Wearing of Poppies - at school
Last year my 5 year old lad went off to school wearing a poppy. It was removed by a teacher 'on safety grounds' because of sharp pin (it was a small safety pin!). I spoke with the teacher and I conceded that the safety pin could have been a dangerous weapon in my son's hands. However, it transpired that the teacher had a hazy idea about the origins and purpose of the symbol, and express disquiet about 'rasing money for old men to sit in smoky clubs drinking cheap beer', and although the teacher accepted that these 'old men' were returned serviceman, that was the limit of understanding. I passed the teacher some material from Combat Stress, which outlines more contemporary cases. The teacher was appreciative of this and had 'forgotten' that UK plc had sent large numbers of troops to the Balkans in the 1990s, which inter alia had generated a need for support for troops and their families.
I suppose that the purpose of my ravings is to highlight the lack of understanding of the place of the armed services in the community (and of course, I am preaching to the converted) There is a lacuna of understanding and some deep prejudices about those who serve; the mawkish behaviour of those surrounding Ken Bigley's family is declamatory of this - the confusion of private grief with public outrage. But what about the 60-odd British troops who have died in Iraq in service of the Crown, rather than an ad eundum statum gentleman of questionable virtue, in pursuit of money?
In contrast with my experience last year on an US facility where the shop assistant - commenting on my poppy (accompanied by a full risk assessment) - commented that it was great that the Brits could join the Veterens' Day celebrations on 11 Nov. I declined to correct her lack of chronological understanding...
Cantab Crash