A Tower of Poppies

I've never been a huge traveler of foreign countries.
I've never even be out of the U.S.A,only three or four countries even interest me to visit and finances will likely keep me to seeing any of them other than Canada.

However,I would like to see the battlefields of World War I.
I've always been interested in World War I and even thought there are more scholars on World War II,I've always preferred reading about "The Great War".

Yesterday's Veterans Day in the U,S is called Armistice Day in the United Kingdom and around the Tower of London,a months long project came to its peak when the final "poppy" was planted.
Planted is kind of an odd term considering the poppies are each hand crafted and made of ceramic.
The nation made 888,246 of them-one for each member of the British Commonwealth that was killed in World War I.
The poppies are/were sold off to raise money for veterans charities and I'm sure that it is going to be quite lucrative for the charities.
The pictures of this have been so striking and attendance so great (Four million people since August) that I would think that a permanent memorial would be a good idea to continue to raise money.
Or to do this every year and then sell the poppies as an every year fundraiser.

The Poppy is used because of the famous WWI poem by Lt.Colonel John McRae "In Flanders Fields" and not for the visual aspect although I would wager that hasn't hurt things any!

For me though,It's beyond the beauty,more than the philanthropy and even above the honor of the fighting men that have died in numerous wars since the dawn of man.
It's the general senselessness of war.
I know that strength is needed and sometimes it's just unavoidable,but I still would like to think that there is a better way to do things than kill people.
Sometimes,talk just isn't enough,but I would think that someday as people evolve that we could get past this.
World War I was an historical turning point as war became more destructive and set the eventual stage for World War II,but as interesting as the cast of characters are-I'm still drawn to the reckless and extensive loss of life,
Call me naive' or say that I wish for Utopia,but I still can hope to see our world move on past things of such useless and senseless loss of lives...

For more on how the poppies were made,click here