Anzac Day is the biggest day of the year on the Eurobodalla calendar, and this is a good reflection of our community.
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People say that war and killing are not worth celebrating, and this is true, but courage, sacrifice, mateship and giving everything you have for the right cause are.
The worst brought out the best our country had, and I would like to think that this is why there are good crowds at Narooma, Moruya, Batemans Bay, Tomakin, Nelligen, Tuross Head and Bergalia each April 25.
It shouldn’t be a day where we say “wasn’t it great how we kicked so and so’s arse”, rather it should be a day when we say to an old digger “sorry you had to go through what you went through, it is great you are here today, and I’m sorry that some of your mates aren’t.”
It is a day for acknowledgement and gratitude, not hate, anger or arrogance.
Waking up in the morning knowing there was a good chance you wouldn’t live to see the sunset, is unimaginable for most of us, as is seeing your mate killed beside you and having to keep fighting for your cause and your life.
Yet this was reality for so many whose names are on honour stones around the shire.
It is said that war doesn’t solve anything, but there is no doubt that the world is better place because our soldiers joined the fight against genocidal Nazism in Europe and barbaric Japanese Imperialism in Asia and the Pacific.
Australian troops were among those who raised their hands to defend our freedoms from fanatical communists and Islamists.
The value of some wars we fought in were highly questionable, such as Vietnam and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but our soldiers served in them in good faith and to do their best for their country.
Attempts to politicise Anzac Day are infuriating, and the way some lobby groups attempt to hijack it and align themselves with the diggers is disgusting, not least because they represent what the diggers fought against.
The only campaigns they are courageous enough to fight in are on social media and in chain emails, a luxury real soldiers don’t have.
Anzac Day, which will be marked on a Monday this year, belongs to those who served, and more than anyone else, those who didn’t make it back.
– Josh Gidney
