I will be up early on Sunday, and like many New Zealanders will be at a number of different events marking ANZAC Day. It is a great day to honour servicemen and women and remember people who have given their lives in the service of our country. Waitangi Day is still our national day from my point of view, but it is clear ANZAC Day is providing a sense of belonging, and a time for reflection and remembrance that New Zealanders are looking for.
It was not always so for me. I can remember as a 16 year old avoiding a school ANZAC service on the grounds that I do not believe in war, and I did not want to glorify it. I was young and naive. I also think that at that point (in the mid 80s) the day had not taken on the inclusive and unifying feel it has now. It was the time of fierce debate over nuclear ships and ANZUS, not to mention the whole prospect of dying in a nuclear war thing.
I worked out over the next period of time that in fact the day was not about glorifying war, but rather remembering sacrifice. A conversation with a veteran as I was finishing school crystallised it for me. He asked me to think about my friends from school, say imagine a photo from your school ball with 20 friends in it. Then imagine within two years there were only four of you left. That was his experience.
He was not interested in glorifying war (in fact he detested it, and thought New Zealand should avoid it all costs, as I still do). But he did want to remember his mates. And I reckon that is worth getting up early for.
Good on you Grant, I feel the same way.
Grant, if you don’t believe in war, would you not want to defend New Zealand against invasion and be happy for aggressors to enslave New Zealanders? Would you just roll over, turn the other cheek and allow our country to be taken over by anyone who wanted to seize it? Because that’s what pacifism means. Do you oppose your party’s policy of funding national defence?
I have mixed feelings about ANZAC day and what it really means. My family lost a member in WWII, blown to bits at Monte Casino, and I was always encouraged to use the freedom of speech implied and needed by a democratic society, even though the family often disagreed with my union and political activity etc.
I went off the old soldiers and the RSA culture for a bit during the Muldoon years when most of them did not help defend attacks on democracy in their own country despite many having shown courage overseas on the battlefield.
They are mostly gone now, and stage managed little girls with flowers and young pissheads including Gallipoli in their overseas travel is not the sort of patriotism this country need aspire to.
@Richard McGrath: this is a phoney argument put up for decades by hawks, could you explain who exactly might be the likely “agressors” towards New Zealand, and what are their military capabilities?
@TM – “this is a phoney argument put up for decades by hawks, could you explain who exactly might be the likely “agressors” towards New Zealand, and what are their military capabilities?”
Good question!
@Richard McGrath “That’s what pacifism means.”
Further research indicated.
Yes, Richard, yes, Grant Robertson would like to see NZers enslaved Richard. That was his election platform.[/sarcasm]