ANZAC DAY

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day and its one of those funny days off that probably has more significance than say Easter. Easter, unless you’re really religious is a 4 day weekend, but ANZAC Day seems to strike a chord with all Australians.

But even though it’s a day of remembrance it’s also a day of celebration and it is part of the tradition that people enjoy themselves and have a good time – because essentially we can because of what was done in WWI and WWII.

So, for me, we’ll be enjoying the day and the kids will be doing dancing (again!) and then Niki and I will be heading into town and having dinner and I presume we’ll head to the Rocks afterwards to have a few drinks!

But of course what would ANZAC Day be without some sort of political / protocol debate. This year we have two: firstly, the TV networks wanted to delay Dawn Service for ratings purposes. Guys, its called Dawn Service. It happens at dawn. Don’t try and deny it or move it, grow some balls and telecast it when it’s on… and it better be ad free!

The second one is the eternal debate as to whether the descendents of diggers be allowed to march. I am a bit mixed about this… I truly think that there is nothing more symbolic than seeing aging men wearing their medals very proudly walking down George St. There are now no more World War 1 diggers left and the WWII diggers are aging very quickly. If we were to ban the descendents then pretty soon it would be a very short march. Yes, we have the Vietnam Vets and they are now marching more with pride than perhaps they would have back in the 80’s but other than that, the marchers are thinning.

But if we don’t make a call, then the march will get too crowded as the branches of family trees extend and more and more people wish to remember the deeds of their family… a nice cause, but do we really need to see that?

I think there is a case to limit the numbers and once the last digger passes off his mortal coil, then all that will be left will be a banner and a bugle player. Perhaps that’s all that is required.