Why I wear a white (instead of a red) poppy

"Remembrance is good. But peace is better."

Photo: Nankai

Every year in early November, they are back. The red poppies. On coat collars, shirt pockets, front bumpers. Worn by news presenters, politicians, teachers, the guy in the grocery store around the corner. They sell them in town, at the town hall - and at my daughter's school. You see them on huge ads in the city centre, on TV, on the front page of some of the country's major newspapers. Poppies everywhere.

Red poppies are worn in the days leading to Remembrance Day which is celebrated on 11 November. They are worn to remember the victims of war, the soldiers who have given their lives in the line of duty. Now I feel very sympathetic to every victim of war - and yes, that includes soldiers who have been injured or lost their lives fighting. I feel with them and their loved ones - even if no-one forced them to put themselves at such risk. I feel with them, because their pain is real, and a human is a human.

But I will not express my solidarity with soldiers who are fighting wars in countries I am not sure they should even be in. I will not donate for soldiers who should be taken care of by the government that made the decision to send them to these countries in the first place. I will not speak of them as "war heroes" - reality is so much more complex. I also feel that by ostentatiously remembering the soldiers, we don't give sufficient space for their victims, for the hundreds, thousands, millions of civilians that suffer from the violent conflicts they did not chose to be part of.

That is why this year I am wearing a white poppy. A white poppy that stands for peace, non-violence and for asking critical questions. In the hope that one day we will not have to remember. Or as one of the people who have asked me about the white poppy on my coat collar said: "Remembrance is good. But peace is better." (For more detailed explanations of why some prefer white poppies over the red ones, see these texts by Assed Baig, Lindsey German and Madeleine Fry.)

Now getting hold of a white poppy is not as easy as that. You get red poppies pretty much everywhere, but there is only a limited number of organisations that sell white poppies. The Peace Pledge Union is one of them. You can also buy them on Ebay. I purchased one from the Stop the War coalition. And, as I was not sure how long it would take for the white poppy to arrive, I made my own (using a red poppy I had gotten for free).

Red poppy

 Red poppy and white nail polish - ready to attack

Paint the poppy!

White poppy

 White poppy on my coat collar

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