pic: AWM
I have been watching a lot of movies on the great wars of the world lately.
Schindler's List, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and even Forest Gump. Even though these are Hollywood blockbusters, I have been learning a lot. At the end of most of these movies I have just felt sick. That's the only word I have for it all. Sick.
It's funny how at school you learn about world wars and other great world history and it just doesn't seem to sink in or interest you at all. I always appreciated Anzac day at school but never really cared to listen in history. I only chose to listen to ancient history. It is only now as I'm getting older I am learning, and appreciating this history. What these people went through, the hardships, the pain and suffering. Life just baffles me so much the more I learn about it.
One of my fave novel series is by John Marsden. The Tomorrow, When the War Began series. This is actually classified as "young adult". I love it. It just makes me imagine what it would be like in this day and age, for someone my age, whilst Australia was being invaded. Really are great reads and I've read them many times over.
I guess movies like this are a good way to reach out to younger people to visually show them the impact of what actually went on back then. I know after Schindler's List when my tears finally dried I stayed up quite late on the internet researching about WWII. My mum was telling me her grandad fought and died in WWI leaving behind his wife and five children. There was no centerlink payments for her back then. Families still suffer like this today. Not even to mention what the poor families in Iraq go through.
Anyway, I have been pondering this for a while now and cannot stress how much respect I have for everyone that had to go through that horror. Which brings me to the wars of today. The politics of if all is beyond me. Thanks to other bloggers like Abbey that make it easier for me to understand and create an opinion. I guess all I can do in my power is research the past as it is not just history, it is my history. The present? I will keep researching and create awareness.
So to all, thank you for your information and please keep it coming.
