As those that have been there will tell you when the bullets start flying you forget about the lofty rhetoric echoed by armchair politicians and rather fight for you and your brother/sister in arms very survival. Armed conflict unfortunately often reduces mankind and those who fight on the front lines to a baseless level where day-to-day survival motivates those who are in harm’s way. Americans have consistently sent their men and women servicemen to the four corners of the globe where they were viewed as selfless liberators vice oppressors.
As a symbol to recognize this self-sacrifice many will be wearing red poppies as a silent tribute to those who we honor on Memorial Day. This practice pays tribute to the famous poem “In Flanders Field” written by Canadian doctor John McCrae which pays homage to the thousands of young men who died in their prime in the First World War or the “War to End all Wars” where British Generals were derisively called ““donkeys leading lions” who sent many to their untimely death while utilizing the outdated tactics of direct frontal assaults against mass machine guns and rapid firing artillery. As McCrae noted in part :
“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.”
The American Legion made the poppy its official flower in 1920 and soon thereafter the wearing of a red poppy on Memorial Day came to symbolize the sacrifice of those who fell in World War One and for subsequent conflicts where American service and women have died in combat.
On this day where we pay tribute to those who lie in perpetual repose around the four corners of the globe who have made “the ultimate sacrifice” lets us ensure that that their sacrifice was not in vain. When you see a red poppy, this Memorial Day realize that it symbolizes the sacrifice of those Americans who died for your freedom – honor their final sacrifice!
3 comments
Ros. Beautiful tribute.
Thanks for the article. The poppy was the long-time symbol of the 1918 Armistice. All the old veterans wore poppies on November 11th, even in my time. My grandma helped decorate the Civil War graves with flowers on Memorial Day in the 1880s, but she never mentioned poppies. That must be a modern adoption.
The saying all gave some, some gave all is totally appropriate. So before you start to say, “Happy Memorial Day”, don’t.