![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melwilYou could call me anti war. I would call myself anti war. I hate the fact we have them. I hate the fact we have had them in the past. At times, like when your country is being threatened, war is neccessary. I don't like that fact. I be perfectly happy with peace. And flowers. And bunnies.
Yet, ANZAC day is, and has always been important to me. Tomorrow, like last year, I will be up during the night so I can catch the train into the city for the dawn service. I will be rushing from church to the city to try and make the parade. I think it's important that children learn about ANZAC day - not in a ra-ra patriotic way, but in a way where they can learn that war isn't great, but some people in the past thought it might be a great adventure. That the military screws up sometimes and real people suffer. That for every hero, there's probably someone who did something we'd rather not know about. That governments tend to decide if we'll go to war, and then real people fight the fights.
Part of my opinion is formed by my family. My paternal grandfather fought in New Guinea during the second world war. He didn't talk about it when he got back, and from what I know, at times this seperated him from his wife and sons. My maternal great grandfather raced to Darwin to serve up there as an ambulance officer, if I remember correctly. Other family members served in the first world war. One ancestor, that we know of, served in the Crimean War. These are, to me, very real people. Especially my grandfather who died when I was about three, but I can still remember him bouncing me on his lap. Other soldiers who served, and are serving now, are real people too. People who write stories and obsess about the latest movie star and might even find humour in things like fandom_wank.
See, for me, ANZAC day has never been about the governments who send the men and women to war. It's about those men and women. Some of them might have though they were fighting to save the world, or their nation (Australian soldiers are not the only soldiers to march in Brisbane's parade), some of them might have been looking for an adventure, others might have been called to be soldiers through an unfair draft system. Some of them would have been good and useful, some of them were probably crap. And sure, the ANZAC day ceremonies can lean towards the patriotic - but what's wrong with patriotism as long as it isn't blind, as long as it's attached to a bit of healthy scepticism?
I've attended the ANZAC parade for the last three years now. It's funny who gets the most cheers. The remaining World War One veterans of course, because there's only a couple. The people who faught in Vietnam, often against their will - especially the bikies. The East Timor veterans when they came home. The nurses of various wars always get huge cheers.
What I'm really trying to get to is the fact that governments, no matter how hard they try will never be able to own ANZAC day.It belongs to us to make of it what we will. Some will scoff, and make the most of a long weekend because ANZAC day is just about drinking, or about the government pushing their own agenda. And others, like me, will get up to go to the dawn service because in 1915 a bunch of scared men, some of them younger than me, jumped out of a boat in the wrong place, thinking they were on a grand adventure to save their motherland. And those men probably loved their beer and their footy and their girls as much as the men I know, and that makes them a little more real to me.
Yet, ANZAC day is, and has always been important to me. Tomorrow, like last year, I will be up during the night so I can catch the train into the city for the dawn service. I will be rushing from church to the city to try and make the parade. I think it's important that children learn about ANZAC day - not in a ra-ra patriotic way, but in a way where they can learn that war isn't great, but some people in the past thought it might be a great adventure. That the military screws up sometimes and real people suffer. That for every hero, there's probably someone who did something we'd rather not know about. That governments tend to decide if we'll go to war, and then real people fight the fights.
Part of my opinion is formed by my family. My paternal grandfather fought in New Guinea during the second world war. He didn't talk about it when he got back, and from what I know, at times this seperated him from his wife and sons. My maternal great grandfather raced to Darwin to serve up there as an ambulance officer, if I remember correctly. Other family members served in the first world war. One ancestor, that we know of, served in the Crimean War. These are, to me, very real people. Especially my grandfather who died when I was about three, but I can still remember him bouncing me on his lap. Other soldiers who served, and are serving now, are real people too. People who write stories and obsess about the latest movie star and might even find humour in things like fandom_wank.
See, for me, ANZAC day has never been about the governments who send the men and women to war. It's about those men and women. Some of them might have though they were fighting to save the world, or their nation (Australian soldiers are not the only soldiers to march in Brisbane's parade), some of them might have been looking for an adventure, others might have been called to be soldiers through an unfair draft system. Some of them would have been good and useful, some of them were probably crap. And sure, the ANZAC day ceremonies can lean towards the patriotic - but what's wrong with patriotism as long as it isn't blind, as long as it's attached to a bit of healthy scepticism?
I've attended the ANZAC parade for the last three years now. It's funny who gets the most cheers. The remaining World War One veterans of course, because there's only a couple. The people who faught in Vietnam, often against their will - especially the bikies. The East Timor veterans when they came home. The nurses of various wars always get huge cheers.
What I'm really trying to get to is the fact that governments, no matter how hard they try will never be able to own ANZAC day.It belongs to us to make of it what we will. Some will scoff, and make the most of a long weekend because ANZAC day is just about drinking, or about the government pushing their own agenda. And others, like me, will get up to go to the dawn service because in 1915 a bunch of scared men, some of them younger than me, jumped out of a boat in the wrong place, thinking they were on a grand adventure to save their motherland. And those men probably loved their beer and their footy and their girls as much as the men I know, and that makes them a little more real to me.
