Poppy > Opioid > Addiction: Why I Don’t Wear One

War is an addiction.  A most deadly addiction.

It pains me every year around this time to see so many of my fellow humans walking around sporting those red poppies, which to me represent a justification, if not a glorification of war.

I know that most of those who wear them would not see it that way, but, unfortunately, most of us don’t look beyond the surface of things.  How could you not wear a “Support your local police” button?  Don’t you support your local police (have you stopped beating your spouse?)?  How can you not support those who fought and gave their lives to defend freedom, democracy and the American way of life?

But that’s not really the question to ask here.  The question is: what do these ubiquitous red pieces of cheap material (made in China?) really represent?

We celebrate various holidays every year: we celebrate mothers, fathers, presidents, MLK, Christopher Columbus, the Easter Bunny, Spring Break, Thanksgiving, the questionable birth of a world religious leader, etc.  But on only one day do we remember the dead.  Veterans Day.  We remember soldiers and war dead (and only our own, not the ones we cause).

Does that in itself not say something?  Does that not elevate war above all else?  Do we have a day to remember those who have died of poverty?  hunger? illness and disease? automobile accidents? overdosing?  smoking? natural disasters?

No. Only WAR.

War is an addiction.  But, above all, war is a racket.  As it destroys en masse human lives and lays to waste entire cities, it creates unimaginable wealth for the very people who are responsible for war, who General Eisenhower referred to as the Military Industrial Complex.

No one said it better than another general (note that I am citing here generals, not Gandhian pacifists), the estimable General Smedley D. Butler, in his classic “War is a Racket.”

Which is my recommended reading for 11/11.