Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.
Jane Addams
When I selected a group of quotes for future use, I had no particular thought of using them in a topical way at all, and it is purely co-incidence that this one was next on the list so quickly after H M The Queen`s Diamond Jubilee.
By the same token, I had no intention of adding any comment of my own, but planned to let them stand alone for others to interpret as they see fit.
On this one occasion, I`m going to make an exception to that rule. It`s no secret that the Queen wanted the recent jubilee to be used to promote the Commonwealth (The Commonwealth of Nations), of which she is the Head.
Slightly belatedly, I`m going to make my own contribution to that by highlighting the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
As the name implies, the CWGC commemorates the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who fell during the two world wars.
I think it`s perfectly proper that they should be commemorated, but the point I`d like to make is that, certainly for World War Two, there was no conscription in the Commonwealth, all the Commonwealth forces were volunteers.
Anyway, I like to keep these things short so without more ado, I shall just point out that the CWGC can be found at ;
www.cwgc.org
Footnote
I have previously posted items concerned with the Commonwealth both on this blog and at the Webdub blog. As it`s turned out, the ones posted on this blog have not been widely read whereas the others have done OK, so in future I`ll be confining any Commonwealth material to the other blog, which can be found at http://webdub.blogspot.com .
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