I have participated in many Remembrance Day ceremonies over the years and have great respect for the men and women who served our country. My grandfather was the doctor and coroner for his town and it was his job to deliver telegrams informing families of the death of a son, husband or brother in WW2. Mom used to accompany him on some of these calls. My parents were children between the ages of seven and thirteen years during this war and were old enough to be aware of the events in Europe and the losses in their community. When I was growing up there were a good number of WW1 veterans and many WW2 veterans. My best friend's father lost his arm in battle in Italy. But today, there are very few World War veterans remaining and time has distanced the personal connections to these wars.
There is no glory in war. H.G Wells coined the sardonic description of World War 1 that called it "the war to end wars". We know that there will be no war to end all wars as long as the earth exists. There is no end to the lust for power, the quest for economic resources, and the desire to dominate groups of people. Conflicts have been neverending in my lifetime. The Baby Boomer generation protested the war in Vietnam which turned out to be an unwinnable conflict, just like the more recent invasion of Afghanistan. The current war in Ukraine reminds us how civilians suffer and die as well as soldiers. The political polarization in America which is present to a lesser degree in Canada, reveals the societal fractures and power struggles that lead to armed conflicts.
I made the decision not to wear a poppy a few years ago. I memorized John McCrea's poem in school and visited his home which is now a museum in Guelph ON. McCrea would never have envisioned his Flanders Fields poppies becoming a powerful international symbol which is trademarked in Canada by the Royal Canadian Legion. Their website states it is their duty "to preserve the Poppy as a sacred symbol of Remembrance of our Veterans". The Legion is not a charity and does not have to provide a detailed accounting of how the poppy funds are used. They challenge anyone who modifies or uses the poppy symbol without their approval. Their disapproval of white poppies as a symbol of peace or the modification of the annoying straight pin is well-reported. Fewer people are wearing them each year.
Remembering must lead to reflection and change that works for peace. WW1 was a geopolitical conflict of Empires during the height of colonialism. The goals of the war were not necessarily noble yet there was an enormous loss of life. The Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression set the stage for events that led to WW2. The end of WW2 opened the stage for The Cold War and conflicts in the Middle East. Nazi Germany was defeated but peace was and continues to be elusive.
As younger generations mark Remembrance Day it is important to refocus on the world as it is today, taking lessons from the wars of the last century as a way to recognize pitfalls in our present and future experience. Canada is home to many immigrants who identify with cultures oppressed by colonialism. They are unlikely to identify with our current Remembrance Day focus. The human cost of war is incalculable and the price paid by civilians and refugees is unimaginable in my first-world experience. We are privileged to know a young family from Ukraine who arrived in Canada as refugees in Poland, sponsored by our church. Listening to their experience has been sobering and enlightening.
I respect the opinions of those who may not agree with me, but it is important to move away from the poppy as a sacred symbol, a "Gideon's ephod" so to speak, and look for ways to work for peace and unity in our homes, communities, country and world today.
Postscript: I appreciate this comment from my good friend whose father served in WW2.
"It is hard to explain to some people how one can honour those who fought in WWI and WWII without sanctioning the actual wars. I know that my pacifism is shaped by reading Virginia Woolf and others (Woolf states, in a 1940 essay, that unless we can imagine peace we will be condemned to war, and all of its senseless destruction, forever)I teach World War I poetry (by Wilfrid Owen, Sigfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg) and try to show my students how the soldier-poets condemned the very destruction for which they were responsible... Have you ever read Pat Barker's WWI trilogy? Regeneration is the first and the best volume, I think." LJH
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