Exsandgroper
21-03-10, 10:23 AM
I'm not a fan of Cameron Stewart but I agree with him on this
Diggers' right to march alone Cameron Stewart From:
The Australian March 20, 2010 12:00AM
When I was younger I thought the Returned and Services League was made up of a a bunch of silly old cronies. They always seemed out of touch, with their bully-boy dress rules at RSL clubs and their seemingly eternal grudge against the Japanese for their wartime crimes.
But this month I couldn't help but feel sorry for the old soldiers when they were accused of sowing the seeds for the slow death of the Anzac Day march by relegating children and other descendants of Diggers to a lesser role.
Faced with a situation where the number of descendants swamp the dwindling number of Diggers, Queensland's RSL this year is sending relatives to the back of the march on April 25, while NSW has asked relatives to march in allocated groups and Victoria will allow only one descendant for each veteran.
To hear the outcry, you'd think the RSL had just shot Bambi.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh chimed in to score some easy political points by saying they liked to see children marching in the parade.
Blogs and media websites were also full of angry comments from the public.
"Soon there will be no World War II Diggers left to march, so what [is] the RSL going to do then, ban Anzac Day?" wrote one.
Indeed, the World War II generation is fading fast.
Between now and Anzac Day on April 25 about 1800 Diggers from that terrible war will quietly pass away. For the first time this year, less than 100,000 veterans of that war will be alive, of which only a small number are fit enough to take part in the Anzac Day march.
Which is exactly why the RSL is right to do what it can to shine the light on these old heroes while they are still with us. Anzac Day marches across the country have become a confusing rabble of real Diggers and relatives marching side by side in units with little or no explanation of where they served or what they did.
Take your children, the future keepers of the Anzac flame, along and they will be bored within minutes, and who can blame them? I wouldn't go along to cheer on an iPod-wearing second cousin of someone who once fought on the Kokoda Track.
I want to see the real Diggers march, not a bunch of pasty-faced office workers whose only experience of battle is watching a DVD of Apocalypse Now on a Friday night with pizza. And children should not march alongside the real Diggers; it's an Anzac Day march, not a Wiggles concert.
Almost every person in Australia has someone in their family tree who served in one of the world wars, but the whole country doesn't have to march to salute them. I have no problem with the notion of children and other decendants of the soldiers joining in the march, but let these family members all march as a group, far behind the Diggers, so we know who the real heroes are.
Some bloggers say that to relegate family members to the sidelines will guarantee the slow death of the march because the Diggers won't be with us forever.
Would this be such a bad thing? The Anzac Day march was born because such vast numbers of men fought in two world wars. As the World War II generation ages, many countries no longer have a march, they just hold very moving remembrance services.
Yet this is not likely to happen here. Australia has many veterans ready to take the place of the world war generation, from those who served on peacekeeping missions across the globe, in Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The march will go on for a long time yet. So let's do it properly.
Cameron Stewart is The Australian's associate editor.
Cheers
Diggers' right to march alone Cameron Stewart From:
The Australian March 20, 2010 12:00AM
When I was younger I thought the Returned and Services League was made up of a a bunch of silly old cronies. They always seemed out of touch, with their bully-boy dress rules at RSL clubs and their seemingly eternal grudge against the Japanese for their wartime crimes.
But this month I couldn't help but feel sorry for the old soldiers when they were accused of sowing the seeds for the slow death of the Anzac Day march by relegating children and other descendants of Diggers to a lesser role.
Faced with a situation where the number of descendants swamp the dwindling number of Diggers, Queensland's RSL this year is sending relatives to the back of the march on April 25, while NSW has asked relatives to march in allocated groups and Victoria will allow only one descendant for each veteran.
To hear the outcry, you'd think the RSL had just shot Bambi.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh chimed in to score some easy political points by saying they liked to see children marching in the parade.
Blogs and media websites were also full of angry comments from the public.
"Soon there will be no World War II Diggers left to march, so what [is] the RSL going to do then, ban Anzac Day?" wrote one.
Indeed, the World War II generation is fading fast.
Between now and Anzac Day on April 25 about 1800 Diggers from that terrible war will quietly pass away. For the first time this year, less than 100,000 veterans of that war will be alive, of which only a small number are fit enough to take part in the Anzac Day march.
Which is exactly why the RSL is right to do what it can to shine the light on these old heroes while they are still with us. Anzac Day marches across the country have become a confusing rabble of real Diggers and relatives marching side by side in units with little or no explanation of where they served or what they did.
Take your children, the future keepers of the Anzac flame, along and they will be bored within minutes, and who can blame them? I wouldn't go along to cheer on an iPod-wearing second cousin of someone who once fought on the Kokoda Track.
I want to see the real Diggers march, not a bunch of pasty-faced office workers whose only experience of battle is watching a DVD of Apocalypse Now on a Friday night with pizza. And children should not march alongside the real Diggers; it's an Anzac Day march, not a Wiggles concert.
Almost every person in Australia has someone in their family tree who served in one of the world wars, but the whole country doesn't have to march to salute them. I have no problem with the notion of children and other decendants of the soldiers joining in the march, but let these family members all march as a group, far behind the Diggers, so we know who the real heroes are.
Some bloggers say that to relegate family members to the sidelines will guarantee the slow death of the march because the Diggers won't be with us forever.
Would this be such a bad thing? The Anzac Day march was born because such vast numbers of men fought in two world wars. As the World War II generation ages, many countries no longer have a march, they just hold very moving remembrance services.
Yet this is not likely to happen here. Australia has many veterans ready to take the place of the world war generation, from those who served on peacekeeping missions across the globe, in Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The march will go on for a long time yet. So let's do it properly.
Cameron Stewart is The Australian's associate editor.
Cheers