Remembrance Sunday in the UK

Today was Remembrance Sunday in the UK, a celebration that goes along with Remembrance Day on Tuesday (Veteran's Day in the US). I've been struck, the past few weeks, by the difference in attitude toward this national holiday here as compared to America.

I started seeing people wearing red paper poppies a few weeks ago and at first couldn't figure out why. In the States, it seemed like we might buy a poppy at a supermarket to support a veteran's group, but no one would wear them around. Here, you see them everywhere: a constant reminder of both the World Wars and the wars happening now. It's almost required that you wear one: I was told that if TV personae don't have them on by the week leading up to Remembrance Day, their station will get hundreds of angry phone calls. The celebration on Remembrance Sunday is also a big deal: there is a parade in Whitehall, with the Royal Family and members of all the Armed Forces coming to lay wreaths at The Cenotaph, a stone tomb erected after WW1 in memory of those soldiers whose remains are elsewhere.

It does make sense that people in the UK would be more conscious of the effects of war: London was completely destroyed by bombs in The Blitz during WW2, as was much of the rest of the country. Compared to that, regular US citizens didn't see much during the war. It's become a part of the public consciousness over here in a way I'm only beginning to fathom.

In America, I've heard it said that there is a public forgetfulness over what has happened in our past--that's why 9/11 was widely termed a "wakeup call." But I think it goes further than that. We aren't even very aware of the war we're in now. On Sundays, George Stephanopoulos on his show This Week lists American soldiers who have died in Iraq that week. But the media are not allowed to cover the repatriation ceremonies of soldiers' bodies, a policy that George W. Bush created so that Americans' sensibilities wouldn't be upset--or to prevent too large of a public outcry against the war, depending on how you look at it. In the UK, live coverage of every repatriation ceremony is shown on multiple television networks. The bodies are given full military honors, with attendance often including bands, high-ranking government officials, and members of the royal family. Citizens line the streets to see the coffins pass, holding minutes of silence in respect.

If I could ask one small favor of the president-elect, it would do would be to change Bush's policy. Men and woman who are willing to fight and to die for our country ought to be afforded every honor possible in gratitude for their service and sacrifice. It's the least they deserve.