WILL WE REMEMBER THEM?

 I went to the 2PM ANZAC Day service at the club this afternoon. To be honest it was a bit limp - something was missing.

A few years ago I wrote of how there seemed to be a resurgence in interest in ANZAC Day commemoration with a lot more younger people attending. 

WELL, WE REMEMBERED THEM

This wasn't evident today nor at the last couple I've attended.

I didn't find today's ceremony satisfying. It wasn't the fault of the bugle player. He turned up well in time and performed well.

I guess I had a comment made by Richard in my head. He said, in his blog post today:

"I'm not totally sure how I feel about ANZAC Day - I watched a documentary about World War II a few weeks back and it really put me off celebrating wars - yes, yes, I know we're supposed to be remembering the soldiers, but maybe the ceremony should focus on not letting this nonsense happen again. Still, I do my civic duty."

I felt that the ceremony could have done with a bit of anti-war sentiment and readings from those great anti-war poets rather than the hymns and references to god and religion. I didn't sing along to O God our help in ages past or the National Anthem with its unnecessary and out of date references to god and I certainly didn't recite The Lord's Prayer with its inherent nonsense. It's about time we got rid of this crap.

In that earlier post from 2015 I said:

"The repeated references to god and religion in connection with the campaigns and losses is now offensive."

I feel even stronger about this now.

It was interesting that  a female Fright  Lieutenant who gave the 'Reflections' speech only briefly touched on Gallipoli, WW1 and WW2 and spent a lot more time on New Zealand's armed forces involvement in Korea, Vietnam and other more recent conflicts. A sign of the times? I think it's  a case of following a new line from the RSA and the Armed Forces and we will see a lot more of this.

The essential function of ANZAC parades as a funeral service seemed to have been downplayed. In that 2015 post I said:

"Over the years the ANZAC day commemorations I've attended have changed seemingly with the decades. In the 50's and early 60's there was silent patriotism along with naivety and pride. The true story wasn't really known and the day was sacred and almost magical.

In the later 60's and 70's the anti-war sentiment sparred with the still-living old soldiers' commemorations.

In the 80's and 90's people seemed to forget. Attendances were down and there was a danger of the day disappearing. Perhaps this was a reflection of the dying off of the WW1 and WW2 servicemen and servicewomen."

I guess we've gone past that point now and I do wonder at the relevance of the day and the 'celebratory' events.