Poppies...my axeto grind
I GOT in a pickle at the M&S self-check out recently and placed a coffee cake in the bagging area without scanning. I’d left before I realised but I returned, d, redfaced, to fess up. But stores say a growing number of middle class thieves are swiping luxury items from their shelves for the sheer thrill of it. Affluent shoplifters pilfer posh goodies like booze, cheese, and Lindt OUR street looked like a scene from The Night of The Living Dead on Tuesday.
A group of 20-somethings were heading to a Halloween party – zombies and walking corpses of all shapes and size.
One had an axe through his head, another was riddled with bullet wounds – while a woman had a dead baby hanging out of her gashed belly.
The make-up was horrifically realistic and they were all having a great time.
Because horror movie death is fun. Fake gore is a laugh and Halloween is one big party to youngsters. But don’t these corpse costumes “glorify” violent death?
Sacrifices
I’ve been pondering that since hearing that a third of our 18-24 year olds will refuse to wear a poppy this year because they “glorify war”.
And I’m incredibly sad, that this generation is growing up with so little respect for the sacrifices made by previous ones.
Because the poppy does not glorify war – it reminds us of the obscenity of it.
It is not a symbol of conflict, but of respect for each life snuffed out on a battleground. It does not celebrate victories past, it reminds us of the price we still pay when peacemakers fail.
And it says thank you to the dead for giving US the freedom to make choices they never lived to make. Or, as former defence minister Gerard Howarth said in the past week: “The poppy commemorates those who made sacrifices so that others who have dissenting views have the right to express them.”
Celebrities endorsing the sale of poppies to support Forces veterans include singer and Strictly star Alexandra Burke.
And young people who believe the red poppy glorifies war could always wear the white ones promoted by pacifists and first worn by loved ones of men lost in the First World War.
Realising it hadn’t been “the war to end all wars” after all, they adopted the flower “as a pl e dge to peace that war must not happen again”.
But the young have every right NOT to wear a poppy, and should never be pressurised into doing so. As long as they understand the truth of what it represents – remembrance and gratitude for freedom.
So the dead of the Great War, and all wars since, live on in the hearts and minds of future generations. AN Asda store in Manchester banned customers under-25 from buying kiwi fruit this week – to protectct the safety of singer Harry Styles les who was performing in the e city.
Drastic action was taken n after the former One Direction star found his feet et travelling in different directions as he slipped on one of the hairy fruit during an earlier gig. Because Harry’s devoted fans have apparently taken to pelting the stage with kiwisk whenever their idol sings his hit song – Kiwi. Really?Rea I had no idea that this was a “thing”. thing I know Tom Jones used to get knickerskn thrown at him by fruity ladyla fans. But when did lobbing kiwis, bananasb or oranges at the stage becomeb an affectionate gesture – and not a message to the artist to pith off?