I wanted to make the Charlatan and the general public aware of a situation that really bothered me.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for Remembrance Day, which I think is a reasonable expectation to have for all members of society. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case.
As I was walking through the Unicentre Nov. 9, I passed some boys who were distributing poppies. I noted that they were from a fraternity.
Now, I know it’s never a good idea to generalize, but many people do have set opinions about “frat boys.”
For example, they can be loud, cocky, and so on. I have met some very nice fraternity members who do not fit this stereotype.
After my experience with the poppy distributors, however, I can see where these ideas come from. These boys were trying to encourage people to wear a poppy — certainly, an honourable act.
But the way in which they did this appalled me.
How would you react if someone said to you (and I quote): “You can afford pizza so you can afford a poppy; don’t be cheap,” or “Do you want soldiers to die?”
Remembrance Day is about respect and honour, neither of which these boys represented. I am ashamed to say that they are students at my school.
Their disrespectful, blatantly rude and obnoxious behaviour is not something that should ever be tolerated.
I would like to encourage students to wear a poppy, but to remember that it is a very important symbol and not one to be treated like a commodity.
—Rebecca Morse,
first-year linguistics