Originally Posted by
Pious Pilot
If they have no respect for the soldiers of the present, then they have no right to show respect to the soldiers of the past.
No politician should be wearing the Poppy, they're all a disgrace to the country.
Indeed. I live in a country which fought on the 'other side' during both both of the last wars. We have a local memorial - Das Heldenkreuz (the Heroes cross) up in the mountains.
The memorial isn't just dedicated to
German soldiers who died in the wars, but to
all soldiers who died in all wars. They are all heroes.
There's an annual remembrance ceremony for all the dead of all the wars. No 'Poppy Day', no political posturing.
No politicians, no cameras - it's up in the hills and you have to walk there. (Way too hard for politicians and few people would want to lug a news camera up a mountain just to see a bunch of ordinary people remembering the dead.) It was a moving ceremony.
I go there often - I spend a lot of time hiking in that part of our mountains. When I do go there, I tend to spend a few moments thinking about the soldiers - on all sides - who gave their lives for their countries. I note that (invariably) the area is tidy and well-kept (I haven't a clue who cuts the grass ... it's hard enough [for me] to get up there, but somebody brings a grass cutter up and keeps it neat.)
From what I've read on this forum (and elsewhere) British remembrance of our war dead has become diluted by time (understandable, perhaps - but not pardonable) and has been hijacked by politicians. That's sad.
I used to live in Belgium. There is a memorial at Mennen. I went there one evening for a 'reading of the names of the dead.'
a really moving experience.
What a pity that the Brits - and particularly the British politicians, who are supposed to lead them - have forgotten how to remember the dead.
As a child, I attended the memorial service each 11th day of the 11th month in the school hall. We observed the two minute silence and the headmaster read the names of the fallen in both wars. It was a long list and it took a long time.
Then the government decided that 'The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month' wasn't worth remembering and 'remembrance day' became 'a Sunday near that day when the Boy Scouts will do it for us.'
Nobody stopped them because nobody cared enough.
Subsequent governments cancelled other things - because nobody had really been interested before, and 'we can get away with it'.
Nobody complained, because nobody
ever complains.
I'm glad I live here ... and I don't live here because of the weather.