Chance to honour all victims of war

HOBART City Council has voted to include Legacy Link in the list of names for the walkway on the Domain. As a Legatee I congratulate them for giving Hobart the chance to do something special and nationally significant. The Cenotaph has the words Lest We Forget. Yet we have forgotten the thousands of families who have lived with the legacy of war and those who will do so in future, not just widows and children but grandparents and brothers and sisters. Many families, descendants of veterans, will cross the bridge linking the Cenotaph and the Soldiers Walk. At least now there is a possibility, after all the wars of the last 100 years, that families will be commemorated.

We cannot remove from families the cost they will pay on our behalf. But we can acknowledge their part in the tragedy that is war. We can acknowledge their pain. We can seek to share the legacy they will be forced to bear. In Tasmania there are over 2500 Legacy widows. Hobart Legacy receives four to five new families a month. Increasingly these are young families with children. The Legacy movement is something to inspire our young. It speaks to the volunteerism central to the Anzac spirit and the Centenary of Anzac. It provides an example of community service second to none. It reminds us all the Legacy movement started in Hobart. Legacy is something worthy of commemoration in a nationally significant memorial.