Time to Drop Anzac Day

I think the Anzac Day thing is over the top. It has become almost like a sort of national cult. I've heard so many cliches and platitudes about Australian values and reference to sacrifice for freedom that I can't get through the day without making comment.

For starters let me say my grandfather served in the Australian Army spending more than 1000 days overseas including the Western Front and the famous vctory at Villers Brettoneaux. He died when I was 5 or 6 years old and I have scant memory of him but he has always been revered in my family and I always felt family pride in his service particularly when I was young.

Growing up in the 1950's and 60's Anzac Day was important as the country was still quite raw following WW11. Many of my friends fathers were ex servicemen. Anzac Day was when most of these blokes got together with their old mates and marched with due solemnity for those who died in the war. My parents were teetotallers, as were both sets of of grandparents. There was a lot of boozing following the marches, and in my family it was said often it was not a day to be driving on the road as there were many drunk drivers. Anzac Day was given the respect it deserved by my family but we were not active participants. It was a public holiday, everything was closed, although I'm not sure about the pubs. I don't think there were any football matches or horse racing.

Most of those old servicemen have since passed. There's few WW11 guys remaining, a few from the Korean war, some Vietnam vets, and now of course some from Iraq, Afghanistan, and some other sortees in Timor and the Solomons and other peacekeeping. But there's nothing like the numbers of returned servicemen as there was when I was young.

This past few years we have been celebrating the Centenary of Gallipolli and Anzac Day, starting in 2015 with 100 years since Gallipolli. I think the first Anzac Day was in 1916 started as a recruitment drive for more enlistment, the war in 1916 going badly for Britain and her allies. This was war on an industrial scale with soldiers of both sides as fodder for destruction. It makes me sick to dwell on it, especially as it began with a feud between the royal rulers of European nations. It seems to me it marked the beginning of the end of European colonialism.

As I see it WW11 was really just a continuation of WW1. The allied victors of WW1 rearranged national boundaries in Europe and the Middle East largely based on economic advantage with sanctions on Germany that gave rise to such political unrest that before no time it was on again. This time on a bigger scale with improved tecnology in armaments and aviation.

But I did not start this to give my small knowledge of history. I have trouble with the notion that  these servicemen died to give us the freedom we enjoy today. In my view they died because of  bad/sad political ineptness and poor military strategy. It freaks me out thinking about it.

And I grieve equally for the soldiers of Turkey who died defending the their shores from the invading British. I have German ancestry as well as English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish. Probably my ancestors were killing each other on both sides in both wars. I grieve for all the poor bloody soldiers of every nation who died fighting probably because they had to or be branded with white feather or imprisonment. It was not their fault.

What about the freedom of the refugees we have imprisoned on Manus Island? Where is our sacrifice for their freedom?

I bought an Anzac badge for ten bucks from the man selling it the street at Emerald. I went home and had a close look at it. All proceeds go to the RSL Patriotic Fund. That worries me that word 'patriotic'. I would have preferred it said all funds go the spouses and children of killed or incapacitated servicemen/women. I googled the RSL Patriotic Fund. There was a lot of stuff that didn't say much but it did say it has assets of $640 million. I hope they use that money appropriately. I was in the post office the other day and they were selling teddy bears dressed in military uniform complete with a row of badges. I didn't check where that money was going. And there were two up coins and Anzac biscuits for sale also. It's become almost as bad as Easter eggs at Easter.

And our local MP Jason Wood sent out a glossy brochure with two photos of himself promoting Anzac Day. I agree with a letter in the local paper objecting. It said,

"My grandfather and his seven brothers, all veterans of Gallipolli and Flanders, would be turning in their graves. They would be aghast that a commemoration dedicated to them and their comrades would be used as a political drawcard in this way."

I'm sure our fallen heroes would also turn in their graves if they could hear the revelations of the Royal Commission into the banking industry. What values exist there?

I think this Anzac thing has gone way overboard. Blind patriotsm is a mindless thing. Australians are no better or worse than people of  other nations. We are blessed by good fortune to live here but that is no reason to denigrate othe nationalities by banging on about our values and how special we are.

Let's move Australia Day to April 25 and drop the Anzac. We can still celebrate our fallen heroes as part of it. And we have remembrance Day in November too.

I would be happy lose Anzac Day. It has become a festival for self aggrandisement and political mileage.

Yes, time to move on.