Anzac Day....Attention Bombers/Magpies...

[Anton Grbac]

Apologies if this is little long winded,but it's an attempt at a serious post.

Fellow Australians,
Anzac Day is not just another public holiday.
It's a day of national pride and a day to remember and reflect how lucky we are.

Here's hopin' for a nice day and good hard contest, which is what we ALWAYS get when up against the 'Pies.

To the 80,000+ attending the 'G on Wednesday:
Support your club with all your heart and barrack hard. But remember to put aside your vitriol for a moment, raise your beers and spare a thought for each and every digger/diggerette who fought or made the ultimate sacrifice defending our wonderful country.

"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them,nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them,
Lest we forget"

Cheers everyone.
GO BOMBERS!

where's wally?

 

[Dan26]

Hear hear!

It's a great day. The two most popular clubs in Victoria doing battle in honour of our brave war heroes. Let'a hope for a great match, played in great spirit, and a Bomber win (for our sake)

[This message has been edited by Dan25 (edited 24 April 2001).]

 

[TigerTank]

Originally posted by Dan25:
here here.

I think you mean Hear! Hear!

Unless you are pretending to be James Hird trying to get a soft handball-receive?

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TT - The obligatory bad-tempered Richmond supporter

 

[Why TT?]

Originally posted by TigerTank:
I think you mean Hear! Hear!

Unless you are pretending to be James Hird trying to get a soft handball-receive?

Or Chalky Richo calling the medico with yet another SOFT injury.

 

[Even Better]

Originally posted by Why TT?:

Or Chalky Richo calling the medico with yet another SOFT injury.

Or that soft **** ben gale

 

[JUBJUB]

Originally posted by Even Better:

Or that soft **** ben gale

So your still around G4E



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"FIGHTING WITH ALL OUR MIGHT"

 

[windyhill]

Just go easy on them Essendon,very young side the piezzzz.

 

[Asgardian]

it's a pity Wally's post about Anzac Day has degenerated into a name calling exercise. To me Anzac Day is a time of reflection, of being thankful, of remembering all the people who in our country's time of need, heeded the call to arms, some died, some maimed, every single one of them scarred mentally to some degree.
Go to the footy, enjoy yourselves, but above all, be thankful that you can live the lives you now do because some Aussies, Yanks, Poms, Kiwis and all the other Allies were brave enough to die for you.

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Chris

(Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus)

 

[Joel]

Top call Asgardian!!

 

[NICK THE PIE MAN]

Great topic Wally,
I agree.
LEST WE FORGET

 

[DOC]

I enjoy going to ANZAC day as a neutral supporter the lead up with the big screens is excellent. The last post that brings a lump to my throat every year. If that doesent get a team fired up to win even if you are the underdog I dont know what will.

Go the ANZACS !!!
Go the Skull !!!
J.I.T.C
THE DOC..

 

[walshy1993]

great stuff wally and chris

to all the others who have made this a joke, you are a disgrace, you should be extremely ashamed of yourselves, you have made a joke of something that makes this country great, you have made fun of people who put there lives on the line for the great country we call home

all the best to the diggers and thoughts to all that have given there life for australia

go the bombers

 

[Michele]

Originally posted by Dan25:
Hear hear!

It's a great day. The two most popular clubs in Victoria doing battle in honour of our brave war heroes. Let'a hope for a great match, played in great spirit, and a Bomber win (for our sake)

[This message has been edited by Dan25 (edited 24 April 2001).]

Dan25,

I take great exception to you comparing "the two most popular footy clubs...doing battle in honour of our war heroes.."

1) This day is NOT about Essendon or Collingwood or a "popularity" contest.
2) Neither club has any right to claim this as a special day for their club.
3) This is a recent phenomenon (Collingwood and Essendon playing on ANZAC Day)and a myth has grown into fact.

Many Australians from all walks of life and endeavour, from all over Australia, from all sporting clubs and from all footy teams should be remembered on this truly national and special day.

I am very passionate and I love my football team, but I would never be so presumptuous as to compare my football team in a "battle" to the thousand upon thousand of young lives that were tragically lost in the REAL battle - the battle of war.

LEST WE FORGET.

Michele

NMFC 1869

 

[walshy1993]

michele must u make a fuss over every essendon related subject

you know very well that dan wasnt comparing the game on wednesday to the terrible happenings involving australians in war

grow up and get over this essendon thing, its tired and old


more importanty essendon and collingwood will be doing battle on wednesday, and they will be doing it in honour of those who fought for australia and new zealand in several wars
its a special day for both clubs because its an opportunity for them to show the gratitude to australian soldiers that they so rightly deserve

once again, grow up

 

[AlfAndrews]

LEST WE FORGET ... the stupidity of the British generals who sent the cream of Australia's youth to certain death on a God-forsaken beach at Gallipoli 86 years ago.

LEST WE FORGET ... the stupidity of this country in getting involved in Britain's war ... a war that had jack-shit to do with Australia ... and was one of the most senseless insane wastes of human life that has ever taken place on this planet.

LEST WE FORGET ... the insanity of jingoists and other patriotic scoundrels who use these occasions for their own political gain.

LEST WE FORGET ...

the old lie:
dulce et decorum est
pro patria mori

What a crock of shit.

Go Collingwood!!!!

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**floreat pica**

 

[sainter]

I agree with you Alf. Thousands of young Australians were messed around and sent like lambs to the slaughter by inept british generals. And you're right, there was no need for us to be in the war at all.

However, I think ANZAC Day is to remember all those soldiers that risked their lives for their country. It is a well used cliche and it is used by politicians to strengthen their political positions. However it is true. The vast majority of these recruits weren't to know about the political situation, and in most cases didn't know much about why they were fighting. They were just doing what they thought was right for the country and I think ANZAC Day is a great way for us to remember what they did for their country.

I think Vietnam is interesting. The treatment that these veterans received when they returned to Australia was an absolute disgrace. Regardless of whether the public thought they should have been there, the returning soldiers were not to blame. Especially as many were conscripted anyway.

Of course in hindsight, we shouldn't have fought there. But to blame the soldiers was terrible. Anyway, I'm off track. Good point you made anyway Alf.

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Fortius Quo Fidelius

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by Asgardian:
it's a pity Wally's post about Anzac Day has degenerated into a name calling exercise. To me Anzac Day is a time of reflection, of being thankful, of remembering all the people who in our country's time of need, heeded the call to arms, some died, some maimed, every single one of them scarred mentally to some degree.
Go to the footy, enjoy yourselves, but above all, be thankful that you can live the lives you now do because some Aussies, Yanks, Poms, Kiwis and all the other Allies were brave enough to die for you.

Thanks Asgardian
I had a great uncle killed in action in WW2 and another dying in a Japanese POW camp.
Another uncle served in Vietnam, Anzac Day is an important day in a lot of people's lives.
It's a shame some idiots are too stupid or ignorant show some respect.

where's wally?

 

[Grendel]

Just a couple of things Alf.

Firstly the majority of those that fought in the first world war were volunteers. They
made the choice regardless of wether the war had anything to do with Australia. At that time, many Australians still considered themselves essentially British. They went to war because to not have gone would have been an insult to their bravery (and brave they unquestionably were).

However the incompetence and disrespect that they were subjected to led directly to that very ANZAC spirt, were for the first time our nationhood as Australians truly came through.

That these choices may now appear to you jingoistic and navie but that does not lessen in any way the courage and valiant ideals by which these men fought and died.

The true tradgedy is that to many have already forgotten.

 

[AlfAndrews]

You're right, Grendel

Perhaps I should have made it clear that I was not, in any way, denying the bravery of the poor buggers that went off to fight (for whatever reasons).

But the only sense in which I can accept Anzac Day is in the sense of a national day of mourning.

But so much of the rhetoric that goes with the way this day is observed comes back to militarism. Anzac Day should have nothing whatsoever to do with armed forces and generals and 20-gun salutes.

The expression "lest we forget" is an interesting one. I think, in its original sense, it was supposed to mean that we should observe this day so that we will never forget the horror we went through and therefore will not be doomed to repeat it.

They called World War 1 the "war to end all wars".
What a tragic joke.
Human history since has shown that the war to end all wars did not, in fact, end all wars.

And Australia, which has a history so tragic it would make Footscray look like Manchester United, clearly learned nothing from Gallipoli and World War 1. We've been involving ourselves in other people's wars ever since.

Like everyone else, I will observe that eerie silence before the footy tomorrow. But when that Last Post starts up, played by a military bugler, my thoughts will be along the lines that those lives lost back then, and on battlefields ever since, were lost for jack-shit.

It seems like, whenever we make a monumental **** -up, we feel the need to find some way of justifying it ... to somehow make it all bearable. So, in the case of Gallipoli, we come up with all this baloney about nationhood, and sacrifice for the greater good.

We already had a nation. We didn't need to sacrifice a generation to cement it in place.

I don't deny that there was a sacrifice. But it was a sacrifice for the sake of jack-shit.

LEST WE FORGET ...

Well, we'll probably never be allowed to forget what happened. And we probably shouldn't be allowed to forget.
It is perhaps the "why" of it all that the authorities would rather we did forget.

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**floreat pica**