Why I wear my poppy with pride.

Today at 11am, my English class stopped our conversation about artichokes, bowed our heads and thought for 120 seconds about the sacrifices millions have made for us to be here today.

Today, my whole school and the vast majority of my country stopped dead for two minutes.

It's not a long time, is it? Two minutes a year.

And I'm not saying I condone war. I'm not saying I agree with the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the Boer War, both World Wars, the Crimean War, the Opium Wars, the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses...whatever. The fact remains that there was war, and that people, millions and millions of people, gave their lives so that I could live mine.

(Warning: blant upcoming. Skip to the poppy picture if you cba)

Which is why certain acts make me sick. Okay, so you believe current wars are injust. Okay, so you believe British soldiers are going to hell.

I wish God existed so you could go to Hell. 

Private Herbert Burden, of the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, who was shot at Ypres in 1915 aged 17 for refusing to fight.

I'm silent in memory of him. Do you consider Private Herbert Burden to be burning in Hell right now? Does the memory of Herbert Burden have anything to do with your crusade? 

I thought not. Okay, so you have beef, for legitimate reasons or not, I don't care. Save your protests for a day which isn't the closest thing to sacred and holy that I will ever believe in, save your protests for a day when the world isn't mourning the sacrifice of millions, save it.

And what's more, did you have to burn the poppy? Protest, fine, but by burning the poppy you're sending a completely different message to me. You're saying, I don't want you to hold these memories sacred. I don't want to be respectful.

Well I do. I don't care how important the issue, I don't care if someone murdered your Auntie Vera, save it for another day. Think Westboro Baptist Church but for the simultaneous funeral of everyone who died (or was injured) in combat. Would you gatecrash your innocent mother's funeral like that? No.

"Asad Ullah, of Muslims Against Crusades, said: 'We are demonstrating because this day is a day of remembrance to remember every single fallen soldier, including those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
'We find it disgusting that innocent people, innocent children, have been killed in an illegal and unjust war and we are demonstrating against that.
'We want the Government to pull the troops out from these countries and to stop interfering in our affairs.'
Mr Ullah added: 'We would like to have a protest closer to the memorial but it is difficult to get access. We want to break the silence and say, "What about the silence for others that have died?'""
(Quote taken from the Daily Mail Website)
 

Dear Mr Ullah, I understand your sentiments. I can even understand why you've done this: it's certainly garnered some publicity if nothing else.

But "British soldiers will burn in hell"? Burning a sacred symbol of international remembrance and mourning? Hardly in-keeping with your oh-so-moderate words.

Anyway, back to the point.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Always.