I will be wearing a white poppy at the Spanish Civil War memorial on Menzies Street at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 11, because it commemorates the first war against fascism and is a war we seem to have forgotten.
I mean no disrespect to the members of the Armed Forces who have died since then, but uncounted civilians have died, too, and are unsung. I wear a white poppy in the tradition of the Co-op Women’s Guild in England, which said, in l933, that all victims of war should be honoured.
If that makes me a peacenik, so be it. I simply believe that the mourning does not go far enough and should be accompanied by all of us saying: “Never again!”
Also, I admit that cannon fire and guns bother me. I was a war child in the London blitz, where my father died in a shelter and my big sister became a widow at 19. (She had married a tail gunner in the Royal Air Force; their life expectancy in combat was less than a year).
Now I am 90 and a confirmed Raging Granny, though my raging is now deep inside me, rather than impelling me to action. Isn’t it enough to see the glorification of guns in the U.S. and a president threatening the world with annihilation?
So, please, can we put the guns away and try to honour Remembrance Day by working, in whatever ways we can, for peace?
Alison Acker
Victoria
