ONCE again, thousands have got up early, smartened themselves up, pinned on a poppy and marked Anzac Day across the Whanganui district.
Those who served and suffered in conflicts far from their homeland are rightly remembered. Gallipoli is, of course, most notably evoked, but also many other battles that, inevitably,
produced their share of dead and wounded.
Old boys fasten their medals and shuffle forth; wheelchairs abound ... it is a time for remembering. But, perhaps, also a time for contemplating the present and the future.
There has, over many years, been a maturing reflection on war. No longer is it glorified, no longer seen as action-comic heroics (though it still produces heroes) - the horrors and misery are now at the forefront of our consciousness, especially since technology has allowed the media to bring the frontline into our living rooms.
Vietnam, the first televised war, Iraq, the ongoing battles across the Middle East ... we non-combatants can get a sense of the depravity and terror.
