The following letter was published by The Free Press on Nov 7th 2023.
I’m starting to see more and more poppies being displayed and it’s making me fear, are these just meaningless ornaments now? Hear me out.
We talk a great deal of “Lest we forget,” but is that really so? Because it sure seems like we’ve forgotten, considering we’re so complicit through what seems to be the nascent stages of the third world war.
Innumerable innocent children continue to be killed in Palestine, yet we choose to remain silent. We put on poppies to comfort ourselves as if we’ve done our part in commemorating the past and striving for a better future. But this is merely self-deception.
True commemoration entails us doing everything in our power to ensure that the atrocities of those past world wars never occur again. It’s about time we attach authentic action to our symbolic words and collectively call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Lest we forget.
Ali Shahan Butt
London, Ont.
