Historical vandalism

Via Guido at dodgeblogium we see that vandals have wrecked a memorial commemorating the local Fartown and Birkby servicemen who fell during the Great War.

The people who did this then added further disgrace by scrawling Die 4 no reason, long live Hittler on what was left of the monument.

I find it hard to understand how anyone could do something like this, but then again things go on every day that I find impossible to fathom and vandalism in general goes on all over the country, every day of the week. But this particular brand of vandalism goes far deeper than most for me.

It is historical vandalism that belittles the sacrifice made by so many of our men and boys. It reaches far back and wrenches at some of the very things that define our nation's place in the modern world. I don't for one minute think that the people who did this actually understand the meaning of the local monument, which is just one of thousands that stand in the villages, towns and cities of the United Kingdom, blessed and at the same time burdened with the names of the men who once lived in those communities.

They don't understand because if they did they would not have shown such disregard and disrespect. How could they?

So why don't they understand? Why can't they empathise with what the memorial stands for? Not for war, but for sacrifice.

Because these individuals have no reference within themselves, no check or failsafe that would or could have stopped them in their tracks for even contemplating such a disregarding act.

The toppling of that statue, that bronze copy of a first world war soldier, was to them a symbol of their 'struggle', their beliefs and their desires. Them, them, them. These are the very people who are completely lacking in the exact qualities represented by that statue.

It has been toppled, vandalised, and daubed with insulting remarks and it still contains in each name engraved onto its surface, more value than is contained within the hearts of the thugs that tried so hard to destroy it.