The Flag

Buahrangers Revetment: Poety and Stories by Vietnam Veteran, Anthony W. Pahl and friends

Australian Flag: Bushranger's Revetment - Poetry and Stories by Vietnam Veteran, Anthony W. (Bushranger) Pahl and friends

Can you see the lonely banner signalling forlornly from Canberra’s hill?
The Empire’s setting sun makes the dark blue darker still!
As the emblems of the British Saints hide their blue blood and our red,
the white bands in the corner hide the glistening tears we’ve shed.

Amid the darkening blue background the Southern Cross gleams bright;
underscoring the vast differences and our nation’s colonial plight.
For while that foreign emblem stands between the past and now
can we ever be a nation? Can we ever truly grow?

But the Southern Cross glows proudly in the glittering southern sky
for those who wish to see it… invisible to those who would deny.

©Anthony W. Pahl
12 September 2000

How would we ever be able to create a better nation if we were unwilling, for whatever reason, to opine on our past, our present and our future?

Yes, I feel very strongly about the importance of Australia’s current flag - not for what the “jack” in the corner stands for, but because our predecessors decided that that piece of cloth with its various colours and symbols would fly as Australia’s banner. I look forward to the day when, like the British National Anthem, the current flag no longer has any place in the representation of Australia, but (and there is always a but) it is, the Australian Flag.

To see 504 glorious Australian flags flown at the “The Vietnam Veterans' Welcome Home” parade in Sydney in 1987, and then again at the dedication of the Australian Vietnam Veterans’ War Memorial in Canberra in 1992 epitomised the use of that symbol as an expression of unity for Australians.

I guess that the discussion could continue forever with the camp of each protagonist declaring its right, but I suggest that a new flag will eventually be adopted, and I shall rally to the call to defend, in however manner I am able, the country (read people) that that flag represents - and I will rally to that banner because I know that where it is proudly flying, is where I will find equal unconditional support from fellow countrymen and patriots.

May whomever or whatever your God is and, if you have no God then, may you Bless our Great Land!

©Anthony W. Pahl
11 September 2000

Page created: Tuesday, 07 May 2002

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