Forget what?

John Hebenton

2 May 2013

 

Last week we remembered ANZAC day, the day thousands of Aussie and Kiwi young men began to be sacrificed on the beaches of Gallipoli in Turkey during WWI. I so struggle with this day.
 
As the RSA chaplain I help lead the dawn service. It is a privilege to honour those who fought, who died, who came home forever changed- scarred either physically or psychologically, and the families left behind in this land. We remember them all. 
 
It is when I hear people talk about how these soldiers fought for our freedom that I struggle. WW1 was not a conflict about freedom. It was a war that should never have happened. It was simply about empires and politics. Millions of men died for very little.
 
Sadly that war to end all wars sowed the seeds for WWII, and many other conflicts. Of all the wars New Zealanders have fought in off shore, only in WWII was our freedom ever at threat. Even then we left our forces in Europe fighting for Britain's freedom, and relied mostly on American and Australians to defend ours.
 
So what did those solders fight for? Not freedom. That is a myth we need to dispel. This myth will only led to us sending more young men and women to their deaths in combats we should not be involved in and in which freedom is not at stake. Let's try being honest about this.
 
Our RSA stands on a battle ground, where New Zealanders (Maori) fought for their freedom, their land, their people against a foreign force (British) sent to strip them of all that. I look to the day we can honour them as well on ANZAC Day, as New Zealand men and women who did fight for their freedom.
 
Each ANZAC Day we pray that we will not forget them. I wonder what it is that we are not to forget really? Julian Warmington offers these thoughts:
 
Forget what?
Organized murder?
The power of media
to depict and glamorize
violence and death
glorious to the extent that generations die
for the gains of an elite other
Oh yes - the sacrifice of those who risked
and gave of life in service ... by killing
or by being killed by neighbours
described by another as the other ...
... for the sake of someone
or other's game of empire.
 
So let us remember those who fought here and those who went and fought; those who died and those who came home; and those who remained here waiting or mourning. Let us also truly remember why they fought and died, without all the "freedom" decoration, really remember the stupidity and horror Let us work hard to ensure that no others are pawns in others' disputes again.
 
John Hebenton
Longwinded Franciscan