poppies of death...

Today is, depending upon where you live, Armistice Day, Veterans Day, Rememberance Day, or Poppy Day. I was racking my brain about what to write when I came across Rob's brilliant piece:

Eighty-six years ago a war that need never have started, and could not then be stopped until one side was broken by sheer attrition, ended ... thus putting in place the conditions for another.
FULL STORY >>>

Poppies are associated with this day through this poem by John McCrae (1872 - 1918: In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Being a pacifist, I have a bit of a problem with the last verse.

As a day of rememberance, I have no trouble with remembering the fallen, but I have a real problem with the retro-propaganda (jingoistic distortions and outright lies) spruiked in order to glorify their deaths and thereby the wars. I find much of it offensive, hypocritical and obscene.