ANZAC Day

As I watched the various programmes last night about NZ at war, what stuck me most was how grateful I feel that I have lived at a time when I did not have to go to war, and be put at the mercy of foreign generals and comanders who really at times should not have been in control of a tea party, let alone a large number of men. I just feel lucky and grateful that I have not had to do that, and for me ANZAC day is about remebemring all those who did. I was struck by the news calling them "fallen heroes". But were they? Or were they ordinary New Zealanders who died, frightened, fighting for there lives, and the lives of their mates around them, wondering alot of the time what it was all for. Not heroic, not glorious. I remember in a war cemetry in Singapore among all the glorious notations one that said, "sorely missed". Much more honest. We should remember them as ordinary blokes whose lives were too often wasted.

And we should also remember all those who came home, and who were scarred for life from their experiences. Saving Private Ryan drove that home for me, at then when Private Ryan is standing at the graves of those who died, and his family are standing there bewildered. We should remember what war did to those men and women as well.

Thank God I was not the right age to have to go. Let us pray that none of our children have to go to war.