There is something very wrong in this
world when a single red artificial poppy that has stood as a mark of
respect for all those who have lost their lives fighting on behalf of
their country, and to raise money for those whose lives have been
affected by war, is now controversial.

The arguments against wearing a red
poppy is so ridiculous I throw my hands up in the air and cry out in
utter despair.

These are the reasons the BBC have
reported:

“Some people feel the red poppy has
become too political, and that some politicians have used the
powerful feelings it creates to justify war.”

“Others refuse to wear poppies
because they feel there is too much pressure put on people to wear
them.”

In 2018, Man United midfielder Nemanja
Matic explained why he wouldn't wear a poppy.

He says it's because it reminds him of
when his Serbian village was attacked by the NATO forces - which
includes those from the UK and the US - when he was 12.

"I recognise fully why people wear
poppies, I totally respect everyone's right to do so and I have total
sympathy for anyone who has lost loved ones due to conflict.

"However, for me it is only a
reminder of an attack that I felt personally as a young, frightened
12-year-old boy living in Vrelo, as my country was devastated by the
bombing of Serbia in 1999."

"Whilst I have done so previously,
on reflection I now don't feel it is right for me to wear the poppy
on my shirt. I do not want to undermine the poppy as a symbol of
pride within Britain or offend anyone. However, we are all a product
of our own upbringing and this is a personal choice for the reasons
outlined," he said.

Prominent Canadian ice hockey
commentator Don Cherry has been fired for making controversial
comments on new immigrants and Remembrance Day poppies.

Cherry complained on-air this weekend
that he rarely sees people he believes to be newcomers wearing the
symbol.

His remarks prompted widespread
condemnation from the hockey world.

Cherry singled out Toronto immigrants
for not wearing poppies. "At least you can pay a couple bucks
for a poppy," he said.

All of this controversy against a very
simple reason why w wear a poppy close to and including Remembrance
Day,

Poppies are used to remember those who
have given their lives in battle because they are the flowers which
grew on the battlefields after World War One ended.

This is described in the famous World
War One poem “In Flanders Fields”.

Ever since then, they have come to be a
symbol of remembering not just those who gave their lives in World
War One, but all those who have died on behalf of their country.

Poem “In Flanders Fields” By
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

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.

END

For seventeen days and seventeen nights
none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except
occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle
fire never ceased for sixty seconds ... And behind it all was the
constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the
maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way.

— McCrae

Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was
killed during the battle on May 2. McCrae performed the burial
service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew
around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he
composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance at an
Advanced Dressing Station outside Ypres. This location is today known
as the John McCrae Memorial Site.

The Royal British Legion says: "We
only ask you to wear it with pride."

But now that red poppy we wear is
controversial?

God help us all!!!