Are we forgetting?
Being a history minor that focused primarily on the 20th century, you can kind of expect some kind of response from me when discussing the events surrounding this time of year. After the First World War, we swore: Never Again. Twenty years later, we broke that promise. After the Second World War, we swore we would never forget. But have we?
No, I don’t believe we have, not entirely anyways. There are still memorial events around Victory Square, Remembrance Day specials and war movies on TV. However, something was amiss this year. I didn’t see a single poppy stand, can or tray person anywhere. I work downtown, not that far from Gastown. My company’s office is in a building with a major tourist attraction and a campus of a major university. It’s across the street from Waterfront Station, a major transportation hub. This weekend I was at Coquitlam Centre, the biggest mall here next to Metrotown. In all of these places, no one was handing out poppies, no store even had a can to hold donations for the Legion. For a promise of “Lest we forget,” we sure as hell aren’t doing even the simplest things to fulfill it.
Every year I like to get a poppy. For one, the pins aren’t that sturdy for the most part, and, after a week’s worth of wear, I usually bend it, so a new poppy is good. Besides, it goes to supporting the Legion and the veterans. But I had to recycle last year’s poppy because no one was handing out poppies. I also hear that no one’s doing it on the main Burnaby campus of SFU either. So what the hell is going on? It’s rather disheartening to see that no stores could even take the time to call up their local Legion and dedicate a small part of their cashier/customer service counter space for a poppy can. Does it really take that much effort?
I understand that the WW2 veterans are getting fewer in numbers as the years go by. Most of them are in their 90s and really shouldn’t be out there in the cold for hours handing out poppies. But where are the rest of the veterans, the ones of later conflicts? Korea? Gulf War? Afghanistan? Why aren’t any of these guys doing poppy duty? What of the kids? Air cadets? Scouts? Where are they? I know they still exist, and it mystifies me as to why none of them have taken up the torch in this regard. Doubly so since I’ve seen them do it in years past.
It doesn’t really help my cynicism when there are always douchebags that don’t shut up during the 2 minutes of silence requested during public gatherings. What really irked me was when I saw a commercial on TV advertising a Veterans’ Day sale. In an age of political correctness up the wazoo, I’m curious as to how a marketing campaign like that got the go ahead. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given the ads for World Trade Center silver dollars and scrap metal. Mind you, 9/11 has sort of lost some significance with Rudy Giuliani uttering the phrase every second word.
Maybe this year was just an off year poppy-wise. Bad logistics or poor planning, whatever, hopefully it’s fixed for next year so this doesn’t happen again. Regardless of whether you got a poppy this year, I hope you take the time to reflect on the significance of Remembrance Day. If I may take a paraphrased page out of another chapter of history: Remember, remember the eleventh of November. We made that promise; we ought to keep it.