It’s Remembrance Day today, the 11th of the 11th, and it’s a day that brings mixed feelings for many military veterans.

You may have seen this clip already. It’s a 103-year-old veteran of the Second World War, Alec Penstone, speaking on Good Morning Britain. And he’s said publicly what many of Australia’s veterans have shared with me privately.

[From video]

We are all going to be thinking about all the incredible service personnel that have served in all wars and all conflicts. What does Remembrance Sunday mean for you? What is your message? My message is I can see in my mind’s eye those rows and rows of white stones of all the hundreds of my friends and everybody else that gave their lives for what the country of today. No, I’m sorry. But the sacrifice wasn’t worth the result that it is now. Oh, well, I’m sorry. What do you mean by that, though? At this point, what we fought for, and what we fought for was our freedom. We even now is downside worse than what it was when I fought for it. Oh, Alec, I’m sorry you feel like that. [End video]

Remembrance Day is supposed to be a day where we unabashedly celebrate the people who fought and risked their lives and in some cases gave their lives for our freedom.

And I wish it were that simple. But sadly, we see in this clip and I see in the messages that some of our Australian combat veterans share with me from time to time that for them it’s not that simple at all. Because we sent them to fight for our freedom overseas, but not enough of us have been willing to fight for it right here at home. Now, I don’t have permission to share some of these messages publicly, but over the years, I’ve received more than a few emails from veterans, usually younger men in their 30s or maybe in their 40s, who proudly joined the Australian military and willingly risked their lives in the name of freedom and fighting for Australia in far away lands. Then they came home. Now they can’t seem to find this mythical freedom that they thought they were fighting for.

It’s time to face a hard truth. If on this Remembrance Day you believe that we should honor our combat veterans and our fallen, and I believe we absolutely should, then we have to start honoring them by defending here at home the very freedoms that we sent them to die for abroad. Now, I want to play you the next bit of that same clip from Good Morning Britain because the reaction of the hosts is very telling and is exactly the reason why many veterans simply don’t bother trying to explain it anymore. But before we get to that, my name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project, and this is the bit where I would normally tell you about my books and my documentary and my t-shirts and how you can buy me a coffee and all of that stuff. But you know what? The links are in the description. If you’d like to support me, I appreciate it. But this topic is too important for any of that.

Instead, can you do me a favor this Remembrance Day? And if not today, then in coming weeks and in coming months as the opportunity arises, if you know a veteran, next time you get the chance to speak with them, don’t ask them about the war. Many of them don’t want to talk about it for good reason. And let’s be honest, we wouldn’t understand what they told us in any case. Ask them instead what they think of Australia today. And then listen. And I mean really listen, because that’s not what happened on Good Morning Britain.

We’re going to watch the interaction again from that same starting point as what I played to you just a moment ago, but this time I’m going to let it keep playing a little bit longer so that you can see what I mean. There’s one host who does ask for more information, ask the veteran to keep talking. Then there’s the second host who just wants to cut him off and hear the sound of their own voice.

[From video]

We are all going to be thinking about all the incredible service personnel that have served in all wars and all confidence. What does Remembrance Sunday mean for you? What is your message? My message is I can see in my mind’s eye those rows and rows of white stones of all the hundreds of my friends and everybody else that gave their lives for what the country of today. No, I’m sorry. The sacrifice wasn’t worth the result that it is now. Oh, well, I’m sorry. What do you mean by that, though? At this point, what we fought for and what we fought for was our freedom. We father even now is downside worse than what it was when I fought for it. Oh, Alec, I’m sorry you feel like that because I want you to know that all the generations that have come since, including me and my children, are so grateful for your bravery and all that for service personnel. And it’s our job now, isn’t it? To make it the country that you fought for. You absolutely fought for. [End video]

She’s saying the right words. But she has no idea what she’s saying. All the generations are so grateful. Are we? If that were true, then we wouldn’t have thrown our freedom away like this. It’s our job now. Yes, it is. But most of us are too busy or too scared to do that job. The interview goes on and they all make nice and do all the right daytime TV things to try and kind of get out of what was a moment of true brutal honesty that the hosts were not expecting. But look at how deep his anguish is as a veteran and how shallow her assurances feel as a civilian who has no idea. She has genuinely no idea what he is talking about.

And to be fair, I can’t fully grasp the depth of his anguish either. I haven’t been there. I’ve never been in combat. I haven’t paid that price or lost those friends like he did. But I do understand what he means when he says that freedom today is a darn sight worse than what it was when he fought for it in World War II. That’s a reality that we talk about regularly here on the Topher Project. We are no longer free. Not in the sense of what our diggers were sent to fight and die for. Today in free Australia, the government is the biggest threat to our freedom. We have digital surveillance, militarized police, red and green tape tying up every single aspect of our lives. We need a permit to scratch our ass. We have government inspectors and professional finger waggers. The whole racial grievance industry divides us up and our rights divided based on what race we are. More than half of our income is lost to taxation, which is just slavery by another name. We’ve been disarmed by our government. We’re fearful to exercise our rights. And the Australia that our diggers fought for is now just a distant memory.

We sent them to fight for our freedom overseas. And then we failed to fight for it right here at home.

But all is not lost. Our diggers fought against all odds time and time again. From the Cota track to Gallipoli to the rats of Brook and the charge of the light brigade through Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other smaller conflicts and peacekeeping missions in between. Australians have a long history of rising to the occasion when the fighting is at its hardest. That is exactly what we need to do right here at home. No, I’m not talking about taking up arms. I’m talking about getting up out of our armchairs and deciding that we actually care enough about our diggers, about Remembrance Day, and about our freedom to do something about it.

Yes, that’s what I and so many others did do during Covid, but Covid’s in the past. Now, the question is, what are we doing today? Fighting for our freedom here at home requires only a fraction of the sacrifice and practically none of the risk compared to the people that we sent to fight for our freedom abroad. So, what’s our excuse? The best part is we don’t even have to follow someone else’s orders. We get to decide for ourselves what we want to do and how we’re going to do it and get involved. If you’re not a member of a political party, I’d say that’s a great place to start. Get involved and be active. Lend your skills to help with organizing things or just showing up when they need people. Support those people who are willing to take the lead and take the risk of being public and out in front.

Or if politics and political parties are just too off-putting for you, fair enough. Find a charity or an advocacy group that are working in a space that you care about. People do campaigns on all kinds of very important issues and they would love to have your support. Or failing that, just get behind a church or a men’s shed or a rotary or something. And if you won’t, ask yourself, what are we remembering today? Why bother remembering the people who fought for our freedom if we won’t lift a finger to keep and protect our freedom or to create a better Australia? Because the anguish on Alec Penstone’s face in that interview, that same anguish is being felt very sharply today in the hearts of many of our veterans Australia wide. They’ve done their bit and they’re wondering why they did it. It is up to us to make their sacrifice worthwhile. Not with empty words like that host on Good Morning Britain, but with simple and sincere actions, small sacrifices, just getting involved in first restoring and then protecting our freedoms from all enemies, foreign and domestic. We honor those who fought for us when we fight to keep what they gave us.

My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and you’ll find the links in the description if you want to support me or find out more about me. But this Remembrance Day, please make it about the veterans who fought and about protecting, preserving, and reclaiming the freedoms that they fought for.

And as always, think free.