What's the political statement made by wearing a poppy? Did Whole Foods make a political statement when they enacted the poppy ban?
I haven't the foggiest.
But it's a fund-raising campaign run by a non-governmental entity. I don't think it's political or controversial. But most non-governmental fund-raising campaigns will also claim they are non-controversial and non-political, so why can't they get a uniform-code exception supported by provincial and federal prime minister?
>>Did Whole Foods make a political statement when they enacted the poppy ban?
I think Whole Foods have a uniform policy that says "wear no insignia other than these things", and as such it's as a-political as things can get these days.
In principle, making an exception for this one cause is formally the political statement.
As I said, I think it's a case of damned if you do damned if you don't. I happen to agree with this particular cause and am glad it's receiving support, but I don't necessarily know what objective differentiator we can write down, agree and use that would fit the poppy campaign but not million others.
No a poppy is not inherently part of a any fund-raising.
It's a symbol of remembrance.
You can buy poppies from anywhere, or make your own, and still be using it to remember.
You can't therefore buy remembrance poppies from anywhere - they pursue people who sell them and describe them as 'fraudulent', e.g. https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/remembrance-day-2020-fake-...
It's been specifically trademarked to Royal Legion of Canada, and basically all the donation boxes you see in stores etc are from Royal Legion.
Again, nothing wrong with that, I support them, absolutely positively vast majority of Canadians do! But we also don't need to pretend it's not something that it legally and practically is.
Many people have a relative or loved one who died in combat.
I think the poppy, and Remembrance Day in general, spends far too little time examining _why_ these people were sent to die.
If Memorial Day was “celebrate the individual personal lives and accomplishments of all these people who died at war” then it’s apolitical. But that isn’t really how it goes unfortunately — I wish it did. Instead it’s about celebrating and glorifying our troops and our military which is super political.
How is it political - what party do you think it supports?
Partisan != political. (Though everything is in my opinion political.)
Without fail, all of them describe WWI as a stalwart selfless sacrifice for freedom and the motherland. Then I ask 'exactly what freedoms were at risk', and the authors of those posts start hemming and hawing and tut-tutting.
I wouldn't go as far as to claim that wearing a poppy is a statement for any of the possible interpretations of Remembrance day in particular, though.
- Carl von ClausewitzHow were Canadians aggressors in WW1 and WW2?
I think you're ignorant.
So putting a photo of my dead wife on my desk at work glorifies car crashes? Got it.
Also, victims of car crashes aren't generally used in national pageantry aimed at causing more car crashes.
Are you comparing people fighting desperately for national survival, some of whom were conscripts and had no choice, to 'engaging in risk taking behavior' such as driving your car irresponsibly?
But this is exactly my problem with veterans rarara. It's totallizing where we should have razor sharp nuance.
How about on this day we just say 'it's sad anyone had to die, no matter which side they were on or how they ended up in that situation'? That's what a poppy is.
You can rephrase as 'it's sad anyone died, no matter which side they were on or how they ended up in that situation' if you find it confusing otherwise.
My main issue is I do not get the analogy. Those two things are very different to me.
If one may wear a pin to honor war dead, may one wear a pin for those that refused to fight?
"I was basically told … if they allowed this one particular cause, then it would open up the door so that they would have to allow or consider allowing other causes," said the employee.