[BBC News] War memorial stolen from cemetery

[La_Dolce_Vita]

This desecration seems to be a worldwide phenomenon, with people stealing these either as collectors items, or larger plaques/statues etc. for scrap (scrap metals have reached an all time high price recently) - with mindless youths damaging or writing graffiti because these monuments tend to be in open areas where youths often hang out. I don't understand the mentality of youths that damage these things - is it some kind of 'attack' on religion, an attack on war, an attempt to try and get a public reaction, or what? It's somewhat ironic that most of the names on these memorials are probably only two or three years older than the vandals themselves.

 

Whether you're religious or not, these memorials provide a focal point for remembrance and are important to many people.

 

However, IMO, these people's memories are being desecrated every day these days in many ways, and not just by vandals. You don't just have to be a vandal to desecrate someones memory, many of our politicians recently seem so readily willing to give away much of what many of these people thought they were fighting and willing to die for, much of which is recent history, and when I see some of these politicians standing at war memorials on Nov 11, I hold some of them in just the same contempt as the vandals they decry.

 

I think your absolutely right in that. It is the government that send these men to war, though I don't think think the politicians in power in WW1 or WW2 had nobler attitudes.

[Frances]

there was an earlier TT related theft in which a TT competitors medal was prised from a memorial