Do we really need to concern ourselves about Eastenders and Carry on actor Barbara Windsor’s comments about people who don’t wear poppies? “They can sod off for all I care,” said Babs. I suppose it’s unfortunate that she said it at a time when she was backing the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Day appeal, but so what?
My first reaction was: “How dare she? People fought through two world wars to be allowed freedoms that include not wearing the poppy. Why should she tell people who don’t want to wear poppies they should sod off?” Well, it’s for the same reason that people fought two world wars. If Babs thinks that people who don’t want to wear the poppy should sod off, then she should have the right to say it.
I have an unhappy relationship with the poppy. I usually buy one but then I misplace it, lose it or simply leave it on an item of clothing I am not wearing every single day. I believe in the poppy, the old fashioned red poppy, okay? But you are more likely to see me without one than with one. Life gets in the way sometimes. I might be dad’s taxi, ferrying one son from one place to another, hurriedly pulling on a pair to trackies and an old T shirt (most of my T shirts are old, I’m afraid). I will almost certainly forget my poppy. I am sad enough to then feel guilty about it and I feel even worse if I then walk past someone else who is selling poppies. “I’ve already bought one!” always seems such an inadequate response. I find myself half-believing that maybe I haven’t already bought one and I am making an excuse, even if I have and I am not.
The Royal British Legion exists, as do most charities, to pay for the things that we, as a society, deem not important enough to be paid for by the state. Given the debt of gratitude we owe our armed forces, I’m afraid I don’t get that and I feel ashamed that we leave the people on whom we depend for our very freedom to voluntary organisations and the generosity of the public. That’s just me though, I suspect, but I get angry, every single Remembrance Day, when politicians of all colours bow at the Cenotaph and then just forget about it until the next year.
The most important thing is to wear a poppy if you want to. I want to and sometimes I even remember. Don’t judge those who are not wearing poppies because there are all manner of reasons why they aren’t.
I’d like everyone to remember to wear the poppy, especially me, but sometimes I forget and it’s not a snub. But those who decline to wear the poppy should not be abused. We’re all in it together, right?
