Volunteers make it work
THE comments of Mick Kaine (27/4) expressing his disappointment with aspects of the Anzac Day service at Edmonton are in themselves disappointing.
These events “happen” because of the exceptional, committed and largely voluntary work of local RSL members, their spouses and friends of the RSL.
These people do not have the benefit of the resources of the Australian War Memorial that the writer compares their efforts to – and thank goodness the sound techno was there to accommodate the booming voice of Bob Katter and the gentler deliveries of the other speakers.
I am a friend of the president of the Edmonton RSL (a Vietnam vet) and his wife and have some idea of the work they put into this community organisation throughout the whole year.
Mick, constructive criticism is always valued so get in there and volunteer your services.
In the meantime, let us be grateful for the sacrifices of the past that Anzac Day commemorates and celebrates the freedoms we all enjoy today. Val Davies, Edmonton 1789: On a return journey from Tahiti, the crew of British ship Bounty mutinies and sets Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in the South Pacific 1944: A rehearsal for D-Day ends with 750 US soldiers dead after their convoy ships are attacked by German torpedo boats off Slapton Sands, southwest England. 1945: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are summarily executed by communist partisans. 1952: Japan regains sovereignty and independence when the peace treaty signed in 1951 by the US and 47 other nations comes into effect. 1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the US Army. 1987: Australian businessman and adventurer Dick Smith (above) becomes first person to fly over the North Pole in a helicopter. 1996: Thirty-five people are murdered and many more injured by a gunman at Tasmania’s historic Port Arthur. 2008: Austrian Josef Fritzl, 73, confesses to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a windowless cell and fathering seven children.