2003-10-07 - 2:53 a.m.

Lest We Forget

Next month is November and it will come Rememberance Day. I ran across a news article today I thought was of interest.

Seems the Canadian Legions are trying to raise awareness as well as raise some funds for the Legions themselves. They've come out with a stuffed animal. It's a puppy with poppies all over it. Seems a few legionaries are a bit upset by this different way of trying to raise awareness. I can sympathize with their anger.

The whole point of the symbolic 'Poppy' is "Lest We Forget". To remind us of what was lost (lives) for what we take for granted (freedom). War isn't pretty. War isn't cute. War is scary as hell.

Is a "Poppy Puppy" a dis-service to those former service men who took part in the World War's?

We are definitely a couple of generations removed from the era of WWII and even further removed from WWI. Are the kids that are growing up now (those under the age of 8) even remotely able to understand the "Symbolism" of the Poppy or is it just something adults make them wear each year in November?

I know that when I was a kid there were things that adults did that just bored me to tears. Trying to grasp exactly what and how bad the world war's were wasn't exactly top of my priority list back then. But Kids at that age can be inquisitive about things. You sometimes just have to give them something to spark their curiousity. To ask a question that you can explain something. Kids do tend to have a steel trap memory for things they are curious about. So, if you can get them curious about "Why the puppy has red spots all over it?" you can plant a seed of knowledge about something that happened along time ago. Something that they will understand even more as they grow older and are learning our world's history in school.

In the next decade or so the people who were involved in the war and actually survived will probably have passed on from old age and then it will be up to those of us who weren't there to carry on the tradition of remembering. How well will we do at it without the people who saw it is anybodies guess. But I think it may depend on how well we pass it on to the generations to follow or else we're going to end up with people saying things like "November 11th?! Don't you mean SEPTEMBER 11th?!" Both are huge dates in our histories as mankind and equally need to be remembered.

I think I'll be buying a "Poppy Puppy" for The Chick's 5 year old and a I'll purchase the Standard Poppy for myself.

"Lest We Forget"

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