In Flanders Fields there are NO Curly Ribbons

I’m going to sound like a calloused little monster here, but I’m tired of the little looped ribbons everyone and their dog has adopted as their symbol whenever they want to remember something or commemorate something or remind me that I should be feeling guilty about something so I’ll give them money.

You know the ribbons. Here’s one:

I’m not writing this to pick on those who use the ribbons and wear the ribbons proudly and think that they’re doing their gosh-awful best to help when the wear one or fold them or whatever. I’m just a little concerned that their ubiquity is going to make us easily ignore them, and their causes, until they find a new catchy little logo.

Our local newspaper has assaulted us with pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness Time Period. The city is now sprouting purplish-blue ribbons for Domestic Violence Awareness Time Period. And there are still plenty of those yellow Support Our Troops for an Indefinite Time Period ribbons about.

Hey, I know they’re easy to make. The shape evidently hasn’t been trademarked by anyone. They’re cheap and easy and, frankly, common as daisies.

Which reminds me: I rarely fail to give a little cash to the Veterans of Foreign Wars because of the little poppy symbols they pass out. Poppies, of course, are highly symbolic of the First World War, thanks to Lt. Col. John McRae, who wrote “In Flanders Fields.”

These folks, thanks to Moina Michael, who vowed to always wear a red poppy symbol to take up the faith mentioned in McRae’s poem, have a potent symbol, one that few have tried to copy. If one really tries, see, one can come up with something original that’s not so easily forgotten.