War memorials should be

sacred places. 

It doesn't matter which "side" you were on in a way, whether you "won" or "lost" war memorials honouring those who lost their lives should remain places we respect. My own belief is that nobody wins a war, even those who claim victory. The cost of war is too high for that.

That is why I am still feeling upset and angry that the "rent-a-mob" crowd vandalised a war memorial in the neighbouring state. They were complaining about mandatory jabs of Covid19 vaccines for workers in the construction industry.  That industry has a high rate of infection, a very high rate. It is higher there than it is in the general population. Workers there need to travel to work. They go home to their families. It spreads - and then spreads some more.  The government in that state shut the industry down for a fortnight to give everyone a chance to get at least a first jab - and made it mandatory. 

The construction industry is well known for being "militant", for not wanting to obey the rules, for going out on strike over yet another perk that others could not hope to negotiate. They have been busy leaning on their spades and resting on their trowels for years. 

The rate of vaccination among them has been far too low for people who cannot always "socially distance" themselves. But make vaccinations mandatory and they are up in arms. They are protesting and they have plenty of willing helpers from "Rent-a-Crowd" or "Rent-a-Mob". These are the same irresponsible idiots who don't want to abide by any of the measures designed to prevent the rapid spread of the virus. 

They made for that state's War Memorial this week. They rubbished it, they urinated on it. They clashed with police at a site which should be a place of reflection.

My family lived in a "soldier settlement" for four years. The Senior Cat was the head of a big school there. We were acutely aware of the many problems, all too often problems arising out of the war service of the men who were trying to farm there. We attended the Dawn Service and saw grown men weeping, we went to funerals of men who had taken their own lives because they could not live with their memories of the war. It was one school where mental issues were not laughed at. Too many children knew it could be one of their parents who would be the next one transported in the tiny aircraft for emergency help in the city.

I looked at the protestors, almost every one of them was far too young to have any first hand knowledge of any war. They were protesting against a measure designed to keep people safe. Mandatory anything will always produce some who rebel but this was something different. These people were rebelling in a place they should have respected.  They were rebelling in a place they obviously did not understand the significance of at all. 

That was frightening.