I was just listening to a song that literally brought tears to my eyes. It’s about a different war, and a different country, but the message is the same: War Sucks. And it’s the little guy that pays the biggest price, while the 1% profits enormously and hides those profits in tax shelters.
Nearly 100 years later, the “poverty draft” still takes our youngsters and subjects them to unspeakable horror. Very few of them come back unaffected. For some, they suffer for a very long time. A good friend of mine just succumbed to cancer resulting from Agent Orange in ‘Nam.
We must honor our veterans today. We can’t blame them. They were doing their duty. (I’m a veteran of the US Navy myself).
Here’s the song. Contemplate the words and the message:
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
by Eric Bogle
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 sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When the ship pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli
It well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk, he was ready, he primed himself well
He rained us with bullets, and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat, we were all blown to hell
He 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 it started all over again
Oh those that were living just 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, I wished I was dead
I never knew there was worse things than dying
Oh no more I’ll go Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me
They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and 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 no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away
Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask “What are they marching for?”
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, their numbers get fewer
Someday, 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
So who’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
Liam Clancy’s excellent rendition
of “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg
Liam also wrote a neat Christmas story about Brattleboro (Really!)
You can read it in “The Commons”, December 21, 2011, available here:
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site05/directory.php?issue=132&articletype=N
Click on “Download this week’s newspaper” at the upper left.
You’ll have to download the complete PDF edition and navigate to Page C4 in the “Voices” section
A beautifully sad and
A beautifully sad and poignant song. Joan Baez also does a haunting rendition of it.
"Haunting" is the word
Joan does a great job (as always):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E9Nu8JinM0
However, in this video, her voice is eclipsed by the visuals. They strikingly bring home the anti-war message of the song. I’m still crying!
Here’s another Baez classic – as timely as ever: ~ “What Have They Done To The Rain” ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhbjrPrBGe4
"Hell No We Won't Go!"
To establish blame, is the problem of war top-down or bottom-up? On a very real level, although it might not seem so, top-down is always in the weaker position. Literally, top-down can influence with and spend all of it’s wealth, but without the bottom players they have nothing. After all, the top-down class never fight their own wars.
In this scenario change can only come from the bottom players. Numerous people know that war is a perennial economic incentive that primary benefits the wealthy. Even your uniformed private generally knows that.
But should we, as many do, “honor” the soldiers? If it’s true that soldiers provide the fodder to feed the appetite of wealthy warmongers then on some level they are as guilty of making war as the profiteers.
During the Vietnam War we chanted the slogan “Hell No We Won’t Go!” In this century the Bush cabal was wise enough to sidestep the draft and reconfigure the National Guard. They were clever, indeed.
However, I wouldn’t advocate that we dishonor our troops. But neither would I support honoring them. The middle road is the path not often taken in otherwise black & white situations. But shades of gray might be useful to discourage war memorials of any kind. That means no Veteran’s Holiday, no monuments and no marching in remembrance. Silent non-acquiescence is one way of neither honoring nor dishonoring our bottom players in the military complex.