“You should be shot.” because I wear my white poppy

The old lady at the check-out counter told me that I was the first person she ever saw wearing a white poppy. She asked me why I wear it and she said that I you should be shot. I told her that I have been wearing a white poppy proudly for a while now after I learned more about the history of war and how it seems to repeat itself.

I took the liberty of calmly telling her what I thought.

I told her that thousands of young men were sent off a hundred years ago to die in support of a lie. I told her that generations and generations of Canadians were taught that Canadians were under threat and that was a lie. I told her that Canadians were not under any threat in the First World War. I told her that I was tired of military history repeating itself. I told her that thousands of young women and families suffered grievously solely for financial gain of a select elite group of money grubbing liars. I told her that I have a lot of compassion for the military veterans and the ones who died in support of lies.

I told her that we continue those lies. I told her that we do not need as much oil as we pretend to need. I told her I will continue to wear my white poppy proudly. Then, she asked me if I wanted to pay 0.05$ extra for a plastic bag and I declined. I carried my loaf of bread out of the store in my hands instead of wasting a bloody recyclable petroleum product.

UPDATE (Wednesday, November 10th):
Last night, at the beer store, the kid at the counter asked me what the white poppy represents. I told him it means different things to different people and to me, it means that we have been taught a pack of lies concerning the First World War and that thousands of young men died for greed. His reply: “Yeah, well, we had to fight Hitler.” and shook his head. Yeah, well, I guess I missed that class in high school.

Poppies! Poppies! Poppies!

I see fewer people wearing poppies these days. Just an observation.

I still wear mine: