I am watching CBC's coverage of the US mid-term elections because they're slightly less annoying than CNN/C-SPAN/Fox/ABC/etc. All the Canadian News people are wearing poppy pins, which led me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on how the poppy flower is a symbol for remembering military service members. It dates back to a WWI era poem, and also inspired France to do create a similar bleuet de France.

It also led me to this 2015 article in which some Canadians considered it "defacing" the symbol to use a safer pin design than an inches long stick pin. I'm just glad USians aren't the only that get mouth-frothing stupid about arbitrary symbols. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/remembrance-day-poppy-pin-that-won-t-fall-off-1.3311799

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[–] 1 point 2 days ago*

Anyone who has dealt with a small town legion understands who they're dealing with. Every legion has endless stories about infighting and power hunger boomers. One nearby legion burnt down. They raised a ton of money, built a new one and then all the volunteers quit enmass because the president became a tyrant and they closed. (they reopened eventually)

I have no doubt that the poppy pin was one person's great idea that got squashed by a cabal angry old men and women to put the upstart in their place. A tradition is anything that happened to a boomer twice and traditions are sacrosanct.

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