Remembrance...

I don't buy a poppy.

Why? Well, forget the fact that Tony Blair wears one despite committing British troops to a futile war for even more spurious reasons than many of those whose victims we commemorate today. Forget the insulting nature of of a paltry two minutes in a year to 'honour' those who 'defended a freedom' which is even more hypothetical today than it was fifty years ago, or that we should supplement the state's blood money through an 'appeal'.

Ignore the abject nature of commemoration itself - a prop for the powers-that-be and thus a substitute for real change to a status quo which requires war to invigorate itself from time to time.

The reason is simple: as a father I understand the magnitude of the loss of a child. Any child. The sanctity of life informs everything I do. I usually fail, but my effort to be non-violent is a constant one. That's why remembrance, then back to business as usual, disgusts me.