ALEX KENNEDY
November 11, 2016
This is a poppy.
It’s a symbol.
It can be used to get people to remember multiple horrific events in our history, and try to talk about, unpack, and reflect upon them, and break apart our insidious myths about war.
Or it can be used to fetishize certain horrific incidents, elevate certain players with thought-terminating cliches about how “Solemn” or “Sacred” all this is…. and completely obliterate the relevance of other horrific events on our history.
Some people who wear this symbol on their chests do so in good faith.
Some people who wear this symbol on their chest do not.
Some literal properties of the poppy:
It can be used to help cope with pain.
It can be used as a drug.
Too much of it is poison.
If understood wisely it is medicine.
© Alex Kennedy 2016
Alex Kennedy is a writer, artist, artisan, activist, and former member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Related on Facts and Opinions:
- Remembrance and Refugees/ ROD MICKLEBURGH, essay November, 2015
- Far from Flanders Fields Deborah Jones, Free Range column
- Why I prefer to remember Remembrance Day. Tom Regan, Summoning Orenda column
- World and War. Deborah Jones, Free Range column
- Body counts disguise true horror of what wars do to bodies. By Tom Gregory Report
- A philosopher asks: what do we owe the dead? Janna Thompson Essay
- One Canadian Soldier: My son is readying for war. Deborah Jones, Free Range column
- 9/11: Good, Evil, and Other. Deborah Jones, Free Range column
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