Anzac Day 2008
- Anzacs represent the best of us: Rudd -
Friday - 25 April 2008 - Australian
KEVIN Rudd has paid tribute to the Anzac spirit, describing those who lost their
lives fighting in Australia's name as the "best of us".
As tens of thousands of Australians marked Anzac Day at marches in cities and
towns, the Prime Minister told a record crowd at the Australian War Memorial in
Canberra that the Anzac values ran “deep in the veins of young Australians”.
“We stand here today in this avenue of heroes, this avenue called Anzac, this
avenue with its monuments of steel and of stone, silent still but speaking to us
softly with the voices of 100,000 souls, each one of them with their name etched
with care on the walls of this great memorial which stands behind us, each one
of them the name of a precious life cut short through service to the nation,” Mr
Rudd said.
“For they were the best of us. What is it about their stories that wrenches us
still, fully 90 years after the armistice that ended the war to end all wars?
“I think it is this. That whatever the comforts of our modern age, whatever its
distractions, and whatever its disillusionments, there is something unique about
this land Australia and the ideals for which we Australians stand.
“That this is a place of unparalleled beauty, that we are a good people who want
for the good of others, that we stand for a deep sense of liberty for which our
forebears fought and which should never be surrendered, whatever the cost.
“That we are a people who by instinct cannot stand idly by and be indifferent to
the sufferings of others.
“A people with a sense of the fair go for all carved deep into our national
soul.
“A people also alert to the needs of our friends and out allies.”
“It is this, I believe, that touches us afresh each new Anzac morning.”
Mr Rudd had earlier attended the dawn service at Martin Place in Sydney, where
he and thousands of other ignored inclement weather to pay their respects at the
cenotaph.
In Canberra, an estimated 30,000 people attended the 93rd Anzac Day
commemoration at the war memorial.
The service opened with the stirring hymn, Oh Valiant Hearts, then wreaths were
laid on the Stone of Remembrance.
“At this hour, on this day, 93 years ago, the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps, at Gallipoli, made immortal the name of Anzac and established an
imperishable tradition of selfless service of devotion to duty, and of fighting
for all that is best in human relationships,” said Gary Brodie, president of the
Returned Services League, ACT, reading the Anzac Dedication.
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