My tribute was published this morning on http://fayhelwig.com

Lest we forget.

On Friday morning I attended the short service at the memorial in our local town park.I felt it was significant because it will be another 1000 years before another 11-11-11 comes around.

It was quite a moving ceremony but what struck me was that only about 10% of the gathering were wearing poppies. I asked one bloke where he obtained his poppy and he said some blokes from the National Service Association were selling them the day before in the main street.

After the service I went to a local shopping centre and walked the length of the main street and saw no one wearing a poppy. I finally obtained one from a branch of Westpac bank who had them for sale on the counter. Apparently the only sale outlet in town that day.

The point of this is that, in the past, High school poppy sellers used to cover the main street on Rememberance Day to raise money for Legacy. These young people used to home in on anyone not wearing a poppy. Many shop owners would buy enough for all staff.

Was this just a slip up this year or do Legacy no longer require funds? I certainly hope this is not another tradition that we have lost. That would be sad.

Rememberance day eh?

All I see is the glorification of war, and the use of this day for justifying our 'yet another war' of totally wasted effort in Afghanistan.

I 'remember' 11/11.

The day of the Ned Kelly hanging and the sacking of Whitlam.

Time to 'forget' remembering and start changing maybe?

After all, we no longer feel any need to remember Trafalgar or other equally momentous wars do we?

Why not recall the 100 Years War, or the Thiry Years War?

That way we can ponder how the scourge of religion has wasted so many lives over the ages.

Why not 'remember' the next war, before it happens, and use this process as a chance to workshop (don't you hate that silly phrase?) even more dangerous and terrible war scenes, in order to avoid them next time around.

This day, and ANZAC Day too, are days where self-important politicians preen around and glorify war and 'sacrifice' but note how very few opf them bother to sacrifice themselves.