Wear your poppy with pride

While sitting there my eyes became focused on the war memorial. Of course this Sunday, the 13th November, is Remembrance Sunday.

At 11am services will take place at war memorials all over the country including our own memorial in the grounds of the Parish Church as well as at the Cenotaph in London.

The annual poppy appeal started in 1921 so this year marks the 90th anniversary of its founding.

Just to show how big the annual appeal is last year over 40million poppies were distributed bringing in £36m of desperately needed funds.

Over the past few days there have been numerous poppy sellers standing around the town centre with collection boxes.

To my surprise this year there were even some young people selling poppies rather than the older people who are usually seen collecting.

Of course the money raised by the poppy appeal also goes towards helping the soldiers who have been involved in more recent conflicts such as in Afghanistan and Iraq so maybe this is the reason why younger people are also involved?

In the Chilterns Center there is even a special shop dedicated to the poppy appeal.

With such a large distribution infrastructure in place I am surprised by the number of people who are not wearing poppies.

Why are so many people not walking around with poppies pinned to their clothes?

With large figures like forty million poppies distributed each year I would have thought the sight of a poppy would be more common than it is.

When I go into some of the large town centre shops in most cases not a single assistant is wearing a poppy. Surely at least one assistant would be wearing one?

Sometimes I wonder if companies try to enforce a uniform policy which prevents the wearing of poppies?

Just look at the fiasco that erupted with the England football team and the ban imposed on them having a poppy on their shirt. Thankfully this issue has now been resolved but I find it amazing that a ban was imposed in the first place.

The veterans of the first two world wars are slowly passing on and so many of today’s youngsters are growing up without ever having contact with someone who has fought for the country.

I just hope the lessons of the past and the sacrifices made by so many in the first part of the 20th Century do not get forgotten by younger generation.

Today so many of the youngsters only see the effects of war on the television or in video games. Of course these images are sanitised and do not reflect the true horrors of war.

I wonder how many people actually understand the suffering and sacrifices made by so many so we can all live in the free civilisation that we enjoy today?

One thing is for sure I will be wearing my poppy with pride this year and nobody will stop me from doing so.

What do you think?

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