Tommy Doesn't Know What Day It Is

**A Very Super Market** · 11-12-2009, 06:09

Alright. You pay respect. Does everyone else? I take a look at the general ambivalence towards everything, and infer that there can be no way those faceless masses would go out of their to sincerely pay respect, any more than the respect they would give for July 4, Christmas, or whatever break off of work it is that day. Why do we do this? Why do we need a special day to remember, yet end up not doing so anyways?

**Azathoth** · 11-12-2009, 06:13

I didn't know what day it was...when you walked into the room. I said "Hallo" unnoticed; you said goodbye too soon.

**Aemilius Paulus** · 11-12-2009, 06:13

*backs AVSM*

But yes, this is already too Backroomish. I still stand by my statement regarding SFTS though.

**Strike For The South** · 11-12-2009, 06:23

Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus

How true...

I am surprised you are so brave, SFTS. I am waiting to see if this is edited and you receive an infraction/warning. I guarantee if I posted this, the punishment would be swift and harsh

. Your post violates a few rules, but the main one is that the Frontroom is entirely non-confrontational, literally a "Kingdom of Peace an Love" as it is colloquially referred to. I remember I wrote a few lightly negative posts and those were taken down, although the statements were not offensive to anyone nor harsh. Just not positive.

I am watching...

Brave is not the correct word. But if the mods warn me they warn me, I feel saying that is worth a few points.

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Alright. You pay respect. Does everyone else? I take a look at the general ambivalence towards everything, and infer that there can be no way those faceless masses would go out of their to sincerely pay respect, any more than the respect they would give for July 4, Christmas, or whatever break off of work it is that day. Why do we do this? Why do we need a special day to remember, yet end up not doing so anyways?

It's a simple acknowledgment of sacrifice most of us will never hafto make because a few have. Go play pesudo internationalist another day.

I realize you may be more intelligent than us all but please allow us half wits our day.

**Aemilius Paulus** · 11-12-2009, 06:29

Originally Posted by Strike For The South

It's a simple acknowledgment of sacrifice most of us will never hafto make because a few have. Go play pesudo internationalist another day.

AVSM is not attempting to portray himself as an internationalist. I have good reasons to believe his stance is very close, if not identical to mine on this issue. He is merely being a pessimistic realist, as I am.

Originally Posted by Strike For The South

I realize you may be more intelligent than us all but please allow us half wits our day.

Strike, this has crossed the line. AVSM is not making it personal, but you are. I find it hard to recollect myself flaming others like this in the Frontroom (Backroom is another issue), and I have pages of warnings and infractions...

**A Very Super Market** · 11-12-2009, 06:29

Don't mistake me for an intellectual, but I'm just trying to rant as far as I can.

**Strike For The South** · 11-12-2009, 06:41

Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus

AVSM is not attempting to portray himself as an internationalist. I have good reasons to believe his stance is very close, if not identical to mine on this issue. He is merely being a pessimistic realist, as I am.

Strike, this has crossed the line. AVSM is not making it personal, but you are. I find it hard to recollect myself flaming others like this in the Frontroom (Backroom is another issue), and I have pages of warnings and infractions...

And faceless masses wasn't? This isn't an issue about peoples lack of respect, nearly everyone and every buisness I know did something today.

And I'm fully aware that there is tragedy in the world but it doesn't change the fact a 19 year old kid from Snyder Texas is in Bum **** Iraq because some politicians in DC decided it would be a good idea.

Both of you are taking this sweeping veiws on the issue when it is simply a matter of looking a fellow man in the eyes and saying thank you.

The guys on the front line have no control over western bias or what the war means in the context of history some just shake there hand tell them thank you and forget about all this other crap for one day.

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Don't mistake me for an intellectual, but I'm just trying to rant as far as I can.

And you're clearly missing the point.

**miotas** · 11-12-2009, 07:13

I think people are looking too much into this, it's just a day to stop for a minute and remember the tragic loss of millions of lives on all sides. Anyone who brings nationalism into it is perverting the day away from what it is.

**Monk** · 11-12-2009, 07:34

Originally Posted by miotas

I think people are looking too much into this, it's just a day to stop for a minute and remember the tragic loss of millions of lives on all sides. Anyone who brings nationalism into it is perverting the day away from what it is.

Yes.

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Alright. You pay respect. Does everyone else? I take a look at the general ambivalence towards everything, and infer that there can be no way those faceless masses would go out of their to sincerely pay respect, any more than the respect they would give for July 4, Christmas, or whatever break off of work it is that day. Why do we do this? Why do we need a special day to remember, yet end up not doing so anyways?

I'm unsure I understand. It was very hard to miss people going out of their way to do what this day is intended for. The 'faceless masses' are much more caring than you give them credit for, of course some do not do so but that is their own troubles and not yours.

I've always thought of this day as what it means to you, not what it means to someone else. It's a personal day to take time and remember on your own time, when you can really let it soak in all the lives lost and those who serve for your nation even now. I think the question of "Why do we need it?" is rather fruitless, when more interesting questions of "What does it mean to me?" and "What will I do in light of that?" are on the table.

**Pannonian** · 11-12-2009, 07:40

Eric Bogle - And the Band played Waltzing Matilda

Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in 1915 my country said: Son,
It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they marched me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving and tears
We sailed off for Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk, he was waiting, he'd primed himself well
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us back home to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain
Well we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Oh those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I awoke in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead
Never knew there was worse things than dying

For I'll roam no more Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and free
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The the legless, armless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

But the Band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

And so now every April I sit on me porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reviving old dreams of past glories
Amd the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore
They're tired old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

**Major Robert Dump** · 11-12-2009, 08:37

While I agree with Strike that's its just a day to say thanks to certain people (I was surprised with a few today when I opened my wallet and they saw my military ID, hell, maybe I would have gotten free lunch in uniform)...the fact is that most people see it as a day off work and don't do jack.

My father goes to his dead dad's grave every veterans, memorial and birth day and drops flowers. He was 6 when he died and never knew the man. HE always cries. It perplexes me, but I guess I understand.