Children don't respect Remembrance Day silience

I was at our local cenataph service last year when a group of 14 - 15 year old lads came & stood by us and I thought they were trouble wearing hoodies, but they observed the silence and joined in (even though a couple of them were smoking during the silence and later during one of the hymns). At least they were there.

Disrispectful cow!! she needs to watch the "yesterday channel"

Dear Emily,

I defintely feel for you about people in Canada not respecting the dead at these ceremonies because the Canadians made a massive contribution in WW1. In fact, many of Britain's former colonies made a huge contribution for defending the British Empire against Germany and its allies. This is why Rememberance Day should be respected with silence. People who can't show that respect should leave. As you see it upsets many people whose relatives deserve the honour of being remembered for their bravery. My family would not have the freedom that they have now and I would not have if England was invaded by Hitler. Many of us would not be here too. This is being said by me who is half Hungarian, half Indian and is proud to be British.

Emily : Top posting. Unfortunately I am afraid that it will go straight over the heads of the people to whom it is addressed, but that is their loss, not yours or mine.

I'm not sure where you live, Poppy, but I live in Canada, and as a fifth generation Canadian it was my relatives that fought with others so that you could sit on your immature, judgmental butt and type everything that you did.
I don't think it's right for me to say that you don't deserve freedom because of what you believe, but I don't think you quite understand the difference between the freedom we have today and what could have been, had the wars not been fought. I don't know what it is like where you live, but I know that in Canada, I have the freedom to speak my mind, freedom to do what I want for the most part, and freedom of religion, among other things. I have a charter of rights that lays out what I deserve as a person living in this world, and there are people that are there to enforce it so that I can live a mostly worry-free life. In good, there is always bad. That is a fact of life. To say we are not free is wrong. Look around the world, today. As I write this, there are people scared that someone will walk into their house and shoot them and their loved ones, or that their mum or dad won't be home because they were killed for saying what they belived. As a resident of Canada, I do not have to be afraid. I do not have to live in fear that the man I love or my family will die because of their beliefs. That, my friend, is freedom. It may not be perfect, but hell, what is?
And on the matter of respecting those lost in the wars, I find in appauling when people laugh, scream, yell, or talk during moments of silence. After our anthem at school we have 30 seconds of silence, and teachers have to yell down the halls to tell people to shut up. That should not happen. It is not right.
We have an assembly every year for Remembrance Day to honour the soldiers who risked(or gave) their lives for what - and who - they cared about. People(don't want to sound racist, but they are almost ALWAYS 1st gen Canadian, or not yet a citizen) in the audience laugh, call out to others in the audience, make innapropriate sounds, have their phones on and ringing, and clapping when a performance finishes, even though the MC very clearly asks them not to clap several times. It is disgusting and outrageous that kids would disrespect all these people that fought so hard so that they could be equal and live a happy and for the most part, normal life.
Because our ancestors fought for our freedom, we are allowed to say whatever we like, which means that people can also dissagree with Remembrance Day.
However, this doesn't mean you have to be rude. All I ask is that you don't go to these ceremonies and don't disrespect the people that do want to honour the dead.
It makes me sad that you don't believe my relatives deserve honour and respect for suffering through those incredibly difficult world wars.

to be honest, it is shocking that the mother even allowed the kids to do this. not only should the kids have been punished, but the mother, because her kids were allowed to do their business without the mother telling them off, and the mother's grandad may have fought in the war, or her grandma died during a air raid. i think this is extremely disgraceful and all toddlers under 7 should not be NOT allowed to attend war memorials. keep your kids at home if you want to go!

Dear Rogue's View, I am also young like you (21 years old) and I definitely show respect for Remeberance Day silence. I am not saying that all young people have no respect for the silence but it is obviously disrespectful if they do not understand the nature of such an event. I'm glad you respect it like I do and I'm definetly sure the majority of young people do respect the silence as well. You also mention that the two women who were made to leave because they were chatting during the silence were 50-60 years old. I am quite annoyed with them for behaving this way and you did the right thing of making them leave. I think anyone of any age not respecting the silence of Remberance Day is shameful especially if they are 50-60 years old because they would have been old enough to have had parents fighting in WW2 and grandparents fighting in WW1. Are they not grateful for the freedom their parents and grandparents were fighting for so that they could live in a time of peace and safety like everyone else in this country has? As for children, OK we will not always know the exact details of why a child is seen as 'misbehaving' in public but children do need to have a certain expectation of how to behave in public places so that others are not upset by their behaviour. I also am appalled about a 19 year old uni student and a 32 year old woman who made the news for desecrating war memorials because they were drunk and had no idea of what they did. We can both agree that such behaviour is unacceptable in public, especially on such property. In conclusion, everyone of all ages should respect Rememberance Day silence as a reminder of what those lives were given up for and that it will never happen again.

Thank you Hazza for understanding what this article is about. Others who read this should understand that what I am writing about is children who think it is OK to run around screaming during a ceremony which requires people to be silent for a minute and the parents doing very little to control it. I would like to hear more comments from those who feel the same way about this as this is not acceptable behaviour in public.

in fact, get the police to arrest the mum and kids for disrespecting the dead.

The British have also committed many serious war crimes, and have never ever been brought to book about them.

I am fed to the teeth glorifying the phoney heroes of Britain's inglorious past. I no longer want to hear about the legless Douglas Bader, nor the stupid Captain Scott, nor the pirates Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, nor anyone else thank you very much.

I don't want to have the propaganda of the world wars stuffed down my throat anymore.

If we, as a nation, have to have an army, and we send those who have voluntarily signed up to war, and they come back destroyed as persons, then the state should pay. The Ministry of Defence when it wants quarter of a million soldiers must cost the full and total cost of the war, and that includes rehabilitation for the rest of these soldiers lives. The nation if it does that will soon realise war is far too expensive.

I do not want poppy merchants flogging me the poppy in November every year.

When was the last time Sweden or Switzerland went to war? Why do we have to?

Those who involuntarily went to war in WWI and WWII tough. They could have revolted en masse against it. The Russians eventually had a revolution.

It would have been morally better now for the UK to have lost all these wars. And lost them badly.

I think everyone (not just younger people) she respect the terror that went on as long as people realize that there was lives lost on both sides and that there is no upside to war. it should not be a symbol of national pride, but rather a stain on history that we must remember and make sure never happens again.

If were not for the vanity of Britain and the British to have a huge Empire which caused the first world war, because other nations were jealous. [No one was jealous of empireless Switzerland]. If it were not for this vanity no First World War, and definitely no Second World War as follow up. No dictators, no holocaust.

I refuse to give thanks. And its time the whole matter and charade were completely forgotten.

Trench warfare was wholly mad, and the people who organised it ruthless. On Nov 11th if we remember anything we should remember that mankind is utterly and totally mad and nevr eve trust kings, politicians, dictators, leaders, nobody. They will lead you all to your death for the sake of ridiculous national glory.

We remember poppies because of the madness of trench warfare in the Great War, not to glorify war but to give thanks to all soldiers who gave their lives to make our lives better.
If soldiers had not given their lives in the last century the worst dicator of all time would have massacred every jew and every muslim, every black man and every gay man, every gipsy and every handicapped person in every country of europe and probably beyond. This is why we give thanks to those who stood and fought and gave us our free country.

Yes shrivelling poppies ,there will come a time as with the Crimean War etc when we no longer remember the Great War dead. That is just the way time goes.