WEAR YOUR WHITE POPPY TOMORROW

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. The sentiment expressed by a white poppy is commendable but the employment of it on Remembrance Day in lieu of the red poppy is inappropriate. In a democratic society people should have a choice and not feel vilified if they wear a white poppy. I can concur with that because democracy and that freedom of statement and choice is the outcome of lives laid down by valiant Canadians fighting to preserve it. It is advisable and preferable that a white poppy be worn on any other day of the year than Remembrance Day. It is understandable that a sensitive uproar broke out in Canada when the Royal Canadian Legion accused peace activists of hijacking their red poppy symbol by selling white poppies. Red poppies are not a defense for or justification of war, but a commemoration of the human cost to insure our peace.
The red poppy flourished on the fields of Flanders. On the battlefront on May 3, 1915, Canadian physician and Colonel John McCrae authored this now famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ It’s affecting words follow.

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

Not all Christians affirm my position. Among peace activists are those with Christian faith commitments who are opposed to war. They associate the colour white with peace and mistakenly conclude that red implies war. My father grew up in a predominantly Mennonite town of Hepburn, Saskatchewan, where the prevailing belief was nonviolence and pacifism, based upon the premise that violence is not the best answer to conflict and that Jesus taught a better way than fighting and wars, namely loving one’s enemies. I was a newborn and my father, Edward Richard Unruh enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force because he felt it was his finest response to stopping murderously aggressive bullies who didn’t sit down at a peace table. He returned from WW2 content in the knowledge that his small contribution had defended freedoms for Canada’s allies and restored the opportunity for self-governance in besieged countries of Europe. He always proudly wore a red poppy. If he were here, he would say to anyone, wear your white poppy tomorrow.

Here is an educational site with regard to FlandersFields.