Throughout my childhood when the end of October rolled in our teachers handed us all a small envelope that contained a poppy. I wasn’t aware of what it meant the first few years other than to know the money went to help the veterans of the wars in some manner. You see my parents were immigrants from Greece and to them the poppy did not specifically mean much. But every year my father or mother gave me a quarter or two to put into the envelope to bring back to school the next day.
I don’t know why, but I was always proud to wear that poppy and in the occasional year I lost the poppy in the wind or the wear and tear of being a kid I always felt bad. Like something was missing. I think this originally stemmed from the fact that I would not have a poppy to wear at the Remembrance Day ceremony our school had every year.
Why am I telling you this?
Because today on the Lowell Green Show a woman who worked for the Legion called up and told Lowell that she had worked three days for 4 hours a day at a poppy table and that not one visible minority had come up and given a donation for a poppy in the 12 hours. I wrote it off as a perception because I am the son of immigrants and I am well versed in the meaning of the poppy and I hope our schools are doing as good a job educating our children about this, because quite honestly, there are probably many parents who just don’t know what the poppy is.
Whether what this woman said is true or not, I don’t think your ethnic background should matter with respect to the show of support for our military and those who fought to defend not only our freedom, but the freedom of many other nations.
I hope that no matter what YOUR background is, that you pick up a poppy and wear it proudly from now until November 11th.
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Do they still teach history in schools?
These days kids are taught about the Iroquois instead of ancient Greece, or all that war stuff.
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We all know what the poppy means to Muslims
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Sad to say, what the Legion volunteer told you is absolutely correct.
I think it has a lot to do with the failed experiment called multiculturalism.
Immigrants of an earlier time certainly formed ‘cultural ghettos’, which is only natural. If you are new to the country, you band together with people you are naturally associated with by origin. However, the folks in those particular ‘cultural ghettos’ worked extremely hard to join into, and achieve the great benefits available to, anyone who wholeheartedly embraced the mainstream.
Since Trudeau’s trick on Canadians though, the dynamic is completely different. Multiculturalism is not much more than a state funded ‘cultural ghetto’ for all newcomers, for all time. The incentives to join, and fully benefit from the advantages provided by the mainstream are removed.
You are paid with tax dollars to maintain your culture, and therefore your integration, and the ability to participate in the general wealth of your new society are hamstrung. This drives you further from the society you have chosen to enter, and isolates you from the society at large.
So, in effect, you are separated from the traditions of your new home(displaying a poppy to honor the new country’s veterans), and paid to remain apart.
Sad for the new citizens, who never truly enter the new society, and sad for the society, because the policy divides, rather than unites, the populace.
That said, WEAR A POPPY, and SUPPORT THE TROOPS! The current crop are doing a wonderful job for freedom, as their predecessors did!
Cheers!
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I too am the child of immigrants. However, my parents were immigrants from Britain. My grandmother and father dodged bombs in the Blitz while his father served in the Navy and my mom was born at the tail end of the war.
I too remember wearing a poppy proudly at school – even when I was too young to really understand it’s significance.
Our house was always filled with poppies each year. My dad bought one every time he saw a veteran or other volunteer and we’ve carried on the tradition in our home. There were always extra poppies available to give to those who visited our home in late October or early November who arrived without one.