For those of you who live in Canada & get Sun News Network they've been playing a story about Pres.Obama asking PM Harper about his poppy. Is Obama unaware after at least 2 Remembrance days what the flower is for?

http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/photo/0bWlbnsaAQ7YC?q=Canada

How did you extrapolate "asks about" from "looks at"?

Sorry.Thats all I could find right now,but I know Sun News will eventually put the actual "asking" online.

It's a very important symbol of rememberence for our fallen soldiers up here in Canada....the fact that your president is an idiot....well, don't get me started...

You know andyb that was really an unnecessary comment. Americans lay poppy wreaths and crosses at memorials - they know that poppies are in honour of the fallen. The fact that Canadian and British people wear poppies on their lapels, and Obama and Americans don't have that particular tradition, doesn't make him an "idiot". Don't be so rude.

I agree it's unnecessary to insult the US C-in-C in a largely USA-oriented discussion forum, especially in view of the no politics rule of this board.

On another note, it's interesting to see how insular we can easily become, each in our own little worlds, assuming without thinking that everyone shares our customs and traditions, or at least knows about them. I feel I'm quite well informed and yet I only learned this week that it's not a US custom to wear the poppy. I had no idea! In fact, I assumed it was universal in the Western World. We can all be somewhat oblivious to even the basics. Hopefully, that doesn't make us all 'idiots'. But it's a good reminder to look around and be more observant. We just might learn something!

Neither OP nor andyb have yet to provide any proof that Obama did anything other than LOOK at the poppy; a gesture which does not necessarily indicate ignorance.

What exactly is the purpose of this thread supposed to be?

He might have said: "Oh. That's the Poppy you Commonwealth citizens wear for Remembrance Day?"

It seems he could actually be admiring the poppy compared to the cheap looking ones on a straight pin with a tacky green dot in the centre that they have here in the US.

And if he asked a question you can bet it wasn't "What is that in your lapel?" but probably asked where he could get one like it.

Helen, it pains me to have to admit that our poppy is actually kinda cheap looking, with a (not really tacky, but) black dot in the middle on a straight pin that never stays put so that I, at least, usually go through 2 or 3 of them before Remembrance Day actually arrives!

However, it's not exactly the poppy that matters, as much as the symbolism of it, so I wear mine faithfully at this time of year (and pony up for a new one every few days...)

yes,black dot in the centre.

I agree with you it's more about the symbolism but I would still like to have one like PM Harper has.

Remembrance Day, first of all, was changed in the US to "Veterans' Day," so there is no burden of remembering anything. And the remembrance is referring to WWI, a war in which Americans had no lasting or significant part. They entered so late that they didn't even serve a complete year in the war, as I remember, and their largest contribution was to bring along an influenza so bad that it killed far more than than they could have killed in battle. Veterans' Day has been reduced mostly to a federal holiday in which there is merely more barbecuing and shopping. Personally, in 21 years of military service I never saw a Veterans' Day remembrance service of the type that the Canadians and Brits have. Even Germans and Italians seem to have some sort of Remembrance Day observation.

Match this with my people's inability to remember anything. Americans just don't have a talent for remembering significant things, and I've never been sure why. There is a great tendency to use fluffy stories and object lessons rather than hard fact, and it's stuff like this that may have made Mormonism successful.

I've had two close encounters with real celebration of Remembrance Day. The first time I did a short holiday in the UK, it was over Remembrance Day. I was still LDS at the time, and was in church on 11/11/11. The bishop or branch prez stopped the meeting, and we all stood for a minute of silence. The second time was when I was serving in Germany, and on Veterans'/Remembrance Day went to the Canadian base in Lahr to shop. Unfortunately, the base facilities were closed due to Remembrance Day, and the Canadians Forces were in the middle of a rather large tattoo for the occasion, which culminated in the band stacking their drums in a sort of pile, something I was very unfamiliar with. In both cases everyone was wearing poppies. The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign War also sell poppies in front of the commissaries and exchanges on US military bases, but they are crappy and usually purple, and the guys are very unconvincing and tacky and hard-sell when they sell them. I'm always afraid that the money is just going toward stocking the beer at the AL and VFW halls.

Anyway, point is, many Americans for the life of them can't remember or separate in their minds which war is WWI and which is WWII. Many merely remember that the First War is the one that Snoopy was in, flying his dog house against the Red Baron, and the Second World War was the one that we won with nobody's help. That's the cruel truth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2011 09:30AM by cludgie.

How is this not political?

Cludgie, I hope your statement "...the Second World War was the one we won with nobody's help" was posted with irony and not really as a "cruel truth". If you meant it, it displays a painful ignorance, especially to Brits.

Hi kentish. I read those remarks as being ironic, in that apparently many Americans aren't up on the history of what went on with the world wars and the massive efforts of millions of allies. I do often hear remarks that demonstrate that. I think cludgie is just pointing that out, not agreeing with it or saying that's the way it was.

As for the "cruel truth", I read that as referring to the fact that that is indeed how uninformed many Americans are about the war/s.

I think that is a reflection of how history is taught as well as the propensity we all have to see the world from our own viewpoint.

Indeed, November is full of pain. I have been brought up with the British viewpoint on both world wars and it's close reality to me, not ancient history, especially as we do spend the month remembering the vets and honouring their service as well as reflecting with them on all those who died in warfare, in the world wars and all the others since.

The losses are staggering and I never get used to the massive numbers of casualties in single events, numbers it's difficult to even visualize.

Lest we forget, indeed.

Or rather deep sarcasm. I'm sorry if my English came out wrong or without exact resolution.

In the US military I spent 16 years abroad in both Japan and Germany--10 years in Germany alone. I got so tired of US servicemen always claiming to have "won the war"--meaning the Second War, World War II, The Great Patriotic War, or whatever else we call it. If the German government made a stink about the US military not obeying the law, the Americans would always yell, "I can't believe those Germans! Who won the war, anyhow?!"

I got into many an argument whenever they asked "who won the war." I'd say deadpan, "The Brits." Or I might say, "The Russians." Sometimes I'd ask them to qualify or quantify the question: "Well, that depends on what you mean. Do you mean who won the war because the lost the most people? That would be the Russians." Usually the conversation would erode badly, not in my favor, because I refuse to perpetuate the American belief--particularly among the military--that the US win everything. The US were merely one of the participants in a war that was won collectively by the Brits, the Canadians, the Americans, and the Russians. Victory might be said to include the French, the Poles, and even the Italians. Then there were other allies such as the Turks, who made far smaller contributions.

And just a month ago I had to explain to some dolt that the Canadians helped storm Normandy. He never did believe me. It all began when he said that the Canadian military has never done anything, so I asked about WWII, the Invasion, etc., and he claimed that they didn't fight in WWII. This behavior never ceases to gobsmack me severely.

Hmm, I dunno... to me it looks like Obama could be saying, "Yo Harper, you have some soup dibbled down your front, right here, just below the poppy, see it?"

It just says he "takes a look at" it. Where do you get him asking about it?

I spent the first 22 years of my life in Canada, and the last 18 in the U.S. While Remembrance Day is a much bigger deal in Canada than Veteran's Day in the U.S., in the U.S. there's also Memorial Day in May. On the whole, appreciation for the military and veterans seems to me to be closer to the surface in the U.S. In Canada it's just more concentrated on the one day.

If you can't shop/grill for/on the day, IT'S NOT A REAL HOLIDAY!

If there is no sale, YOU DON'T GET THE DAY OFF!

If you aren't hung over, YOU DIDN'T CELEBRATE THE RIGHT WAY!

And if you ever utter the phrase, "Actually it's a pagan tradition..." Shut up, you're missing the point of all of it, and buy something already!

as an attempt at humour.