This is a very interesting and unique point every year, when two major powers celebrate their independence day within a day of each other. Both these countries (and Bangladesh) existed as one nation under British rule, however they ended up being partitioned in 1947, initially as two and then a third state. [read more here]
Independence is achieved thanks to the visionaries, and the freedom fighters and strugglers who help establish, and govern and stabilise a nation which is going through drastic change. Once independent, there are three groups who help remain a nation maintain its independence.
First, there are the leaders; the folk who make the laws, and make sure the nation is moving forward as smooth as possible. They run the show, and call the shots.
The second group of people, are well, the people who elect the leaders generally elect the leaders into power. Their presence is immense in determining the rise and fall of the nation as a whole.
The third group of people, are the forgotten ones; they are those for whom we see unmarked graves around the world, they give their lives at every point in a nation’s history to make sure it maintains it’s sovereignty.
Very few remember OUR soldiers when independence is celebrated – let’s take this moment to change that.
Our soldiers are the pride and joy of our nation. Their numbers are not important, their bravery IS. At this point let me clarify ‘our nation’. My family hail from India; however, my heritage extends across borders through to Afghanistan. As for me – I am British.
So, my interest in ‘our nation’ extends to all three nations (Britain, India and Pakistan), and a lot of you readers know the role which our soldiers play to maintain the well being of our nations. Our soldiers are not only helping to protect our borders, but are pushing boundaries to help protect the independence of other nations too. Their role is not to fight wars, but help spread peace in volatile regions, build infrastructures, and help the ‘locals’ develop, to govern themselves.
But it all comes at a cost. A colossal cost.
How many soldiers do we sacrifice, to give peace a chance? How many soldiers have to return in boxes, to justify a worthy cause? They battle, they lead, they protect us though land, air and sea; Their loved ones, with concerns in their hearts, in every moment that they breathe How many nations do we help build, before we look at our own? How many soldiers have to come back and live,with prosthetics to move them on? Our soldiers, our pride, our nation's joy, let us decorate their achievements for each man; Let's raise them high, for what they do, they protect us in this land; How many of you will celebrate the independence, during these two days? How many of you will think about even one soldier, and their contribution to your nation while you celebrate? The families of those who have given their lives, will celebrate these days with their grief; Knowing well, their children have done them proud, the soldiers of our nations working to protect our peace.
This post is a dedication to the Mother, Father, Wife, Husband, Daughter, Son, and family members of our soldiers who are out there protecting our sovereignty and maintaining our independence. My thoughts and prayers are with you always.
I also want to dedicate this post to a special tweeter who brightens my day, everyday – her name is Callie, and is the mother to boys who are soldiers in the making. Her efforts in tweeting the support for our soldiers has definitely raised my awareness to what they do for this nation of ours.
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I’ve enjoyed reading this post. Although I live in the United States, I believe all countries may have those groups of people you name in one form or another. Known as the classes of citizens… the upper, middle, poor and the rest falls in place. But it is good to find some sort of celebration of the origin of the country and how far it came to get where it is today. We got to look at the past, the present, and the future. Figure out what is working now and will work tomorrow. My point is that some wars are out of hands; especially if we are the typical people living the a country and the government decides to go to war and we are fighting for no reason at all once the majority of what the cause of the war is has ceased. Soldiers in any war are important. They are fighting for their country. They are in the battle for an entire group of people.. thousands in fact.
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biscuitinabasket Reply:
August 17th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
@Kelvin, Indeed Kelvin; I mean you can always argue the legitimacy of any war – that is politics, but you can never take support away from those on the front lines because they are the ones who are representing us.
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I am touched beyond words by this blog – beautifully written as always, and a subject very dear to my heart as I am “the” Callie *blush* and very proud mother to a soldier in the British Army.
In the two years since my son joined up as a baby-faced 16 year old, we have learnt a lot as an “Army family” – especially that we should never take any moment for granted. As CookieMonster knows, we’ve been devastated by the recent deaths of two of his best friends out in Afghanistan (just turned 18 yrs old) but despite our dearest wish for our guys to come home safely right now (including a very old family friend of ours), we know the Forces are doing a very important peace-keeping role in a very dangerous country.
I’d still like to give our Government a bl**dy good talking to, ‘tho!
Bless you sweetheart for such a wonderful post and very touching poem x x
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