What does the White Poppy mean?
The white poppy is controversial as many people see it as disrespectful to war veterans. The red poppy symbolises respect and honour for dead soldiers and proceeds from their sales go towards caring for veterans of war. To therefore have a white poppy that looks down upon wars and violence seems to belittle the sacrifice made by those who were killed in wars. The Peace Pledge Union makes a distinction between glorification of war and death – which it believes is inherently wrong – and remembrance of the dead and prevention of future wars: The fate of ‘our glorious dead’ was desperately sad, but the word ‘glorious’ gave it grandeur. The idea that these British soldiers had ‘given’ their lives was sad (and misleading, considering the real events); the word ‘sacrifice’ gave the idea nobility. But there is nothing characteristically grand or noble about war. War makes everybody, living or dead, its victims. War makes people all over the world bring needless death upon themselves and the pe
