Why do we bother to remember the dead
Of all those wars, that even in our lifetimes
Are almost forgotten?
Why do we watch mealy mouthed politicians
Lay wreaths and make speeches
While they deny the survivors a reasonable
Level of help, or treatment?
Better remember all those young men and women
As though they were alive.
What would they say about the state of the Veterans
Hospitals?
The way the injured and traumatised are treated still?
What would they say about wars still being declared
By the rich and powerful who don’t send their sons and
daughters
Into harms way?
Better remember all those executed
For cowardice or “Lack of Moral Fibre”
When they were suffering from Shell Shock!
No wonder they were traumatised
When their own country was determined to prove themselves
The real enemy that they had to fear!
Let us remember their families with nowhere to go!
What sort of countries would these young men and women
Have created had they not been thrown away
Discarded like the flowers of the forest
Before they had a chance of coming to full bloom
Would they have tolerated politicians and leaders
More interested in their own allowances
Than the welfare of veterans or serving soldiers?
If we are to remember our dead, not on one day
But on everyday. Let us dedicate ourselves
To making the sacrifice of the dead worthwhile.
Let us ensure that if we send our young men to war
It be a just war. Not to make money for the few
But to ensure the safety of the many.
So that at last we should have countries fit for Hero’s to
Live In!
Copyright © Res JFB 31st May 2010
