@kristiedegaris It would be nice to think memorializing was a means to (retain) peace, but n'yeah...

If you wander around town around Nov.11, you find commemoration displays tend to congregate around civic and church organizations - as distinct from, say, a random florist shop or swimming pool - a kind of nexus of tradition (one of my least favourite misfeatures of the human psyche).

@kristiedegaris The lip-service becomes ceremonialized (becomes misunderstood) becomes a stance in its own right becomes the next cycle of aggression and revenge.

(FWIW this is why I'm a not-even-white poppy type; nothing about the story of war, before/during/aftermath, deserves respect or amplification.)