Honour the fallen, look after the wounded
As we roll out of another Anzac Day it is timely to ask a very poignant question. Why do we do it? Why do we give up a perfectly good public holiday to attend often multiple services and events starting before sunrise and often ending after sunset?
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This is not a rhetorical question. As any school child will tell us, we do this as an act of commemoration to honour the memory of the fallen at Gallipolli. But surely it is not just about commemoration. Surely it is not just about honouring dead Australians and New Zealanders on a foreign shore over one hundred years ago.
The very minor sacrifices we make on Anzac Day – waking early and trudging, bleary-eyed, down to a local cenotaph or standing among crowds on the roadside as men and women march past – are not, indeed, cannot be all that Anzac Day encompasses.
Commemoration is critical – the oft heard phrase “Lest we forget” is not just a throwaway line but rather, carries with it a tangible reminder that the sacrifices on foreign shores in that conflict 100 years ago and in conflicts since were not in vain.
We have an obligation, as a nation, to preserve the memories of those Australians termed in years gone by “our glorious dead”. But, in affording commemoration our efforts we cannot sacrifice the present and the future in favour of the past.
At this juncture, and in support of this contention, two figures come to mind – 41 and 26. Forty-one is the number of young Australians who lost their lives in the service of this country in our most recent conflict in Afghanistan and 26 is the number of young Australian veterans who have taken their own lives to date this year alone. These figures are undoubtedly confronting but they are figures of which the Australian people should properly be aware.
They are the sad reality of modern conflict, albeit an avoidable reality at least insofar as the latter figure goes. Australia will suffer casualties in combat operations. Indeed, military planners apply an algorithm to determine “acceptable losses” in operational scenarios. No such planning applies in terms of veteran suicides.
It is never acceptable to expect that veterans will take their own lives on their return from war. It is thus incumbent on us, as a grateful nation, to work to prevent this emerging tragedy. It is incumbent on us to support living veterans and their families as well as the families of those who did not make it home.
To properly answer the question posed at the outset - we remember the 41 but we fight like hell to prevent the 26. Lest we forget.
G. Kolomeitz, Gerringong
Respect must be taught
I am pleading to all parents to please teach your children to respect the Australian national anthem and the importance of standing up when The Last Post is played on Anzac Day. The adults were doing the right thing but leaving their children seated.
The importance of this occasion must be taught and at the very least it is just plain manners which should be not only taught at home but at school too.
T. Lobegeiger, Berserker, Qld
Peta a possible PM
So Peta Credlin has stated she will not challenge a sitting member. Well, consider this. If the polls are to be believed, Labor will win the next election and take the seat of Gilmore to boot. Peta Credlin will have if she wishes a choice of many seats that will be lost as result of the election.
Credlin should be in parliament as we speak as I believe she is capable of much better things.
Do not rule out the possibility of her becoming our second female PM further down the track. Thank God for that possibility because we will be in great need of her services.
This is one strong lady who will not be easily turned.