Monday, June 07, 2004
LEST WE FORGET
I was taught about D-Day by my father who thought it was a pivotal moment in history and should be taught to all.
I was shocked to read in the papers on Sunday last that the majority o school kids haven't got a clue about D Day - some thought it took place in 1899, with Denzel Washington in charge of the US and Tony Bliar in the hotseat of the UK. One even named the location as being off Skegness. I assure you I am not taking the piss.
Our school never arranged any battlefield trips but i was lucky enough to visit those of the first world war with my Cadet Unit - it is something that every youngster should see, those miles of headstones and then when you look at the carving you see that many were younger than me. (I was 17 when I went). We even paraded as a unit under the Menin Gate and to see all those names as you stand under it and they play the last post as they do every evening really brings it home.
I have also visited concentration camps - Auschwitz & Birkenau in Poland. The first part with the musuem is a horrid commercial affair but to be allowed to wander around the camp at Birkenau and to reflect on the atrocities really makes you think and realise that what so many commentators over this weekend have said that the legacy these veterans have given us is that of a Europe at peace with itself.
On the idea of respecting the war veterans. I was shocked to come home to Peterborough in October and find that some yob had graffitied his name on the war memorial with 'wos 'ere'. I told my parents in November and they told me how they had seen a veteran selling poppies get so much abuse that he packed up and went home and how they had heard of a thug taking the British Legion box from a shop in Oundle. Nbody can claim to be ignorant of what those symbols mean and their lack of respect and self-respect angers me.
I was shocked to read in the papers on Sunday last that the majority o school kids haven't got a clue about D Day - some thought it took place in 1899, with Denzel Washington in charge of the US and Tony Bliar in the hotseat of the UK. One even named the location as being off Skegness. I assure you I am not taking the piss.
Our school never arranged any battlefield trips but i was lucky enough to visit those of the first world war with my Cadet Unit - it is something that every youngster should see, those miles of headstones and then when you look at the carving you see that many were younger than me. (I was 17 when I went). We even paraded as a unit under the Menin Gate and to see all those names as you stand under it and they play the last post as they do every evening really brings it home.
I have also visited concentration camps - Auschwitz & Birkenau in Poland. The first part with the musuem is a horrid commercial affair but to be allowed to wander around the camp at Birkenau and to reflect on the atrocities really makes you think and realise that what so many commentators over this weekend have said that the legacy these veterans have given us is that of a Europe at peace with itself.
On the idea of respecting the war veterans. I was shocked to come home to Peterborough in October and find that some yob had graffitied his name on the war memorial with 'wos 'ere'. I told my parents in November and they told me how they had seen a veteran selling poppies get so much abuse that he packed up and went home and how they had heard of a thug taking the British Legion box from a shop in Oundle. Nbody can claim to be ignorant of what those symbols mean and their lack of respect and self-respect angers me.
