Barry: Remember it’s a Poppy Appeal

Nov 11 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

1
2
next

AT 11 o’clock this morning two minutes of silence will fall across the Examiner newsroom as we stop working to remember those who died for their country

Aside from fire drills, it is the only time of the year when all of us in the building on Queen Street South do the same thing at the same time.

Silence will descend across workplaces all over the country as millions pause to remember their family members who died in conflict – whether those wars were distant, recent or ongoing.

I will be wearing my poppy today in memory of my relatives who fought in both world wars – some of them paying the ultimate price.

I shall also be wearing my poppy today to show my eternal gratitude to the people who gave their lives so that this country would not be swallowed up by the Nazis in the 1940s.

Their sacrifices must not be forgotten.

And for me, that’s pretty much where it ends.

I certainly won’t be wearing my poppy today to show support for the war in Afghanistan, even less the conflict in Iraq.

Remembrance Day means different things to different people.

Some people wear their poppies with pride in an uncomplicated display of patriotism.

Others, like myself, have reservations about some of the things that the symbol represents, but still wish to wear a poppy as a mark of respect.

And some people don’t wear a poppy at all because they see it as a symbol of militarism.

To me, all of this is fair enough. I’m not in the business of judging people by their lapel adornments.

Indeed, if the people who died in the Second World War gave their lives for anything, it was so that we who came after them could be free. And that includes the freedom to make our own choices about what we put next to our hearts.

So it worries me when I see some people taking up the position of Thou Shalt Wear a Poppy.

Last week the Daily Mail ran a ferocious campaign against a small number of Premier League teams who refused to put a poppy emblem on their players’ shirts.

Last Monday there were eight hold-outs, but by Friday Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Fulham, Portsmouth and Stoke had caved in to the newspaper’s pressure and agreed to wear the red symbols on their jerseys.