Radio Australia Today Editorial

ANZAC Day. Another thought.

27 April 2009

There was a kerfuffle last week about ANZAC Day and whether shops should be allowed to trade on this sacred day.

There were certainly two views. One said that it was a day of remembrance that should not be sullied by commercial interests. Shops should be closed. Movies should not be shown.

The other view, put forward by a former head of the Australian defence forces, Peter Cosgrave, was that shops should be allowed to open at any time during the day. His attitude was that people can remember fallen soldiers in the morning then go about their lives and celebrate by having fun if they wish.

A scan of the shopping strips on Saturday (ANZAC Day) showed me that many proprietors were closed in the morning, with signs in their windows announcing that they were intending on opening at 1pm.

Othere of course just opened as usual. Others closed all day.

And here is the rub. It was about choice. The government kept out of the whole thing, and there was no hassle as far as I could see. There were not stories in the media yesterday about people complaining about open shops (or closed shops for that matter). Some opened and some didn’t, and in the way of Australian acceptance, society went along with whatever choice the shop-owners made.

In all, it was a pretty good example of what the soldiers were fighting for, even if we had to wait a few hours longer for our chai latte.

                                                      – Phil