"Why Do We Bother To Remember The Dead?"

 

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