WW2 vets, my great uncle killed over there, and his brother, my grandfather, his big bullet wound from WW2.

Its the sun, sea, sand, bar b q, s its pride in those that came before.
Its cricket even when we do not win, its pride in its service men and women.
Its waiting for winter and a return to NRL football, a chance to stir my mates.
Its the good, the bad the ugly and thank fate its my country.
Invasion day? what day is England's invasion day? it has been invaded many times.
What country in the world is not troubled as we are by differences between some of its people?
We are a better country, we are the Nation we are because people like Foxys parents came here.
We learned to eat so much better we gained so much from those folk.
Yet is it so very wrong that some have concerns that some want little to do with things like Australia day?

“Yet is it so very wrong that some have concerns that some want little to do with things like Australia day?”

Not at all Belly. I’d say that it would be very wrong for anyone to think only of the positives and just ignore the fact that this country was based on the ‘displacement’ of the previous occupiers, or the manner in which they were displaced.

There is another enormous negative aspect to the development of this nation and hence the celebration of it: massive environmental alienation.

And the third great negative is that once we realised what we had done and were continuing to do to this continent (and its indigenous people), we basically went right on doing it, right up to this day, ….and just not bothering to even try to reach a point of balance between humanity and environment. Our leaders, and most of the community, STILL have no sense at all of sustainability. We are the most woeful managers of this continent.

Foxy,
I think you're fibbing! You can't be that old you don't look a day older than... (A gentleman never reveals a ladies age) ok so I'm not… 29. You're too measured to be 21 and well …er…too Foxy to be older.
;-)

Nice sentiments and as someone with similar origins I tend to agree. However, I’m one who believes that the day we celebrate “Australia day” was poorly chosen and would prefer the more neutral day we became a nation.

Meredith,
My genetic parents were a Latvian ‘reffos’ and I didn’t know them. My dad (adopted) was a survivor of the Burma Railway an experience whose consequences eventually killed him, I was still a 16. So in effect I lost two fathers and a mother to the consequences of the WW2.
Dad taught me that “Australia day is for the living and looking to the future, a joyous day, ANZAC day is for Dwelling on and remembering past sacrifices…each in their own sacred place

Dear examinator,

Just like Benjamin Button, I keep getting younger
each year :)

Seriously though, they say a woman is as old as
she looks and a man as old as he feels.
And I look (and feel) pretty great! (see I'm
humble too).

Australia Day to me should be a Celebration.
Of where we've been, and where we're going.
Sure, we're not perfect - but we're sure as
heck better than we sometimes give ourselves
credit for being. I'm proud of this country,
and all of its achievments (within a relatively
short span of time). We're not bogged down with
old traditions. We're a young country - and
there's still so much more to achieve. What I
would like to see more of though is - for us
to stop knocking things "Australian," and get
over the complex that anything from "overseas"
is better. It's not. And we should stand tall!
We've earned that right!

Anyway, I'll now get down off my soap box -
and put a prawn on the barbie!

Let's be kind to each other...

Examinator... What nice lighthearted values.

Mine taught me about the Jews and what they endured in WW2...