Andrew Bolt: Anzac Day is too precious to trash
The harsh voices that have previously sneered at Anzac Day have been silent so far this year. Perhaps they are beginning to realise its true value, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
Don't miss out on the headlines from Andrew Bolt. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This Anzac Day feels different — more fragile, more needed. Is that why for the first time in years, I don’t hear it being trashed?
What a change. In 2010, Professor Marilyn Lake, president of the Australian Historical Association, dismissed the original Anzacs as “convinced white supremacists”.
Comedian Catherine Deveny attacked them as thugs who’d enlisted “for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist”.
MELBOURNE ANZAC DAY MARCH AND REUNION DETAILS
WHERE TO WATCH LOCAL FOOTY ON ANZAC DAY
WHAT’S OPEN ON MELBOURNE ON ANZAC DAY 2019
In 2013, Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia mocked Anzacs as men “contracting venereal diseases in local brothels” as they fought “wars against the legitimate Muslim authority”.
In 2014, Tasmania’s then governor, Peter Underwood, gave a dawn service speech attacking Anzac Day for allegedly “glorifying war with descriptions of the mythical tall, lean, bronzed and laconic Anzac … carrying the torch of freedom”.
Academic Lindy Edwards claimed the men were instead part of “a long tradition of firing up fighting men by invoking their shared ability to sexually degrade women”.
In 2015, then SBS reporter Scott McIntyre tweeted on Anzac Day that he was “remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these ‘brave’ Anzacs”.
In 2017, identity warriors joined the assault. Yassmin Abdel-Magied, an ABC celebrity Muslim, tweeted: “Lest we forget: Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine …”, while the Canberra RSL let Aboriginal veterans march under an Aboriginal flag, rather than with their units under an Australian one.
Last year, Melbourne’s The Age newspaper marked Anzac Day with a cartoon claiming our war medals were awarded for fear, hate, anger and homicide.
But this year — so far — I’ve heard no such attacks.
Have I missed something? Or do more Australians realise Anzac Day is too needed and too threatened to keep kicking?
Consider: marchers on Thursday in Ballarat and Bendigo will the first time be protected by bollards from terrorists. Fear has made New Zealand cancel some parades and Turkey ban locals from the Gallipoli dawn service.
There’s also a growing sense that our Western civilisation is under threat. Notre Dame Cathedral burning last week was shockingly symbolic and three Sri Lankan churches being blown up at Easter was a warning.
All this, when Anzac Day is the last national day left for convincing ourselves we are one people, joined by a love of this country that compels us to defend it.
A determination not to lose it could just have hardened.
Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Anzac Day is too precious to trash
Lockdown will kill Victorians — but not from coronavirus
Politicians are destroying Australia — throwing a million people out of work, causing suicides — because they’ve fallen for two great weaknesses, both of which will extend crippling lockdowns much longer than necessary, writes Andrew Bolt.
Record day proves crude bans on freedom don’t work
Victoria’s new record of 725 infections is more evidence that the government’s hard line policies on masks and lockdowns aren’t working as planned, writes Andrew Bolt.