Should we extend some pity towards Jack Tame? I believe so. Jack Tame is 34 years young. He is of a generation that, to be fair, doesn’t always have it easy. Trying to get on the housing ladder is no joke. But Jack has proven that he is just that, a joke. After his comments following the farmers’ protest, which showed he had no understanding of farming, he’s at it again. Agriculture may well not have been part of the curriculum at Jack’s school, Cashmere High, but it would appear history possibly wasn’t either.
Perhaps it was and Jack didn’t take it or failed to turn up to class. Maybe World War 2 wasn’t part of the history curriculum as some schools don’t include it. In England, some students learn only that Winston Churchill lost the post-war election. Whatever the reason, Jack needs to bone up on what it was like for people who lived during that time. I say this because, according to Jack on Heather du Plessis Allan’s show, the young of today have it tougher than the World War 2 generation.
A statement like that is breathtaking both in its ignorance and its stupidity. How anyone can make an utterance like that and think they’re comparing apples with apples defies belief. The reality is it’s chalk and cheese. In fact, several generations had it a damn sight harder than Jack’s privileged generation. There was World War One, 1914 to 1918, the Great Depression of the Thirties and then World War Two 1939 to 1945. Anyone living through those times had it far worse than the young of today could possibly imagine. Food was scarce, a far cry from today’s free school breakfasts and lunches. Many who returned from the war had nothing. Some were given parcels of land so they could restart their lives.
Many young men lived for years with horrific memories of what they saw and what they endured. They went to the war at a young age and grew into adults overnight. By comparison, the majority of today’s young have a lifestyle that was made possible by those servicemen who gave their lives to ensure democracy survived. It is only through their sacrifice that Jack has the freedom to make his nauseating comments. It is tempting to say we need another war to straighten today’s society out. Of course we don’t, but the young of today largely have little idea of the hardships these events imposed on people, young and old.
Jack has joined a long line of journalists in both the print and broadcast news media who choose to construct the news items to reflect their narrative rather than report objectively. Both the NZ Herald and Stuff have their fair share of them, as do Newshub and TV1, in particular their objectionable anti-Trump reporter in America. It makes one wonder what is taught in today’s schools of journalism and broadcasting. If the students haven’t graduated with a left-wing bent they’ve soon absorbed one from their colleagues. These types of journalists have the misguided view that it is their opinion of a story that matters, rather than just the facts.
Jack also seems to think it’s okay to bring back jihadi terrorists to the country. Again, if he had some appreciation of history he might think twice before he made such a comment.
I doubt Jack has had to fight for much, if anything, in his life. That is due in no small measure to those young pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain and who, by their sacrifices, turned the tide of the war. In Churchill’s memorable words: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” No free lunch for them. Each lunch could have been their last. The type of comment we heard from Jack is an insult and an abomination to the memory of those heroic young men and all others who fought and gave their lives for the freedom Jack and his generation enjoy.
A couple of verses from a poem to illustrate the point –
The sky their battlefield, a dazzling blue, It’s airy silence shattered by the noise Of fighters flown by men no longer boys, Whose youth passes in a day - the gallant ‘Few’ They fought their fear, they kept their courage still, The friends they lost must be no more than names, They put from mind the blood and death and flames, And dreamed in hope, of life, as young men will.
A somewhat different experience to that faced by the youth of today. Lest we forget.
Please share this BFD article so others can discover The BFD.
