Any Opinions On This?

[Svejk]

http://www.thelocal.fr/20160530/watch-was-children-jogging-the-wrong-way-to-commemorate-verdun

[Svejk]

Rather bad taste, imo.

[Cloverjo]

I don't like it.

[Jackdaw33]

Yes. When I took children to France and visited war cemeteries they were forbidden to step on the graves. Marine Le Pen is right. Not funny!

[ChillDoubt]

Military cemeteries are sacrosanct, places of reverence and reflection.

What next, Morris dancing in Auschwitz? The half-wit who dreamt up this 'celebration' needs a swift kick in the nads.

[stuey]

These children, their parents, and even grand parents have absolutely no conception of the horrors for both sides which happened at Verdun. I wasn't there either. However, to turn this anniversary of tremendous suffering and carnage into a touchy-feely, hands-on, interactive, run about field day is an abomination

[bunkmoreland]

I grew up beside a war cemetery which was part of an ordinary church cemetery. i was taught as a very young child to behave even more respectably around the war graves. To see people running around them is just bizarre:-(

[Hypognosis]

@Svejk

You (and many others) don't post in R&S so I should poit out that I'm speaking as an atheist but *please*, I ask of participants, do not take my views as typical of atheists.

(i) The dead are dead and are entirely unaware of what occurs in the vicinity of their remains.
(ii) If they were aware, they might actually be pleased to see modern youth free to gambol and play in a peaceful world, Germans and French no longer at each other's throats over things as trivial as territory.
(iii) Graveyards are for the benefit of the living. I'll leave the concept of veneration of the dead as something for the denizens of R&S to mull over. Is it a belief system in its own right?
(iv) The proper place to venerate the dead (particularly the war dead) is in our minds. We can do this every day, if we so wish. Or every time we enjoy ourselves and our daily freedoms.
(v) An overgrown, neglected graveyard would, I must concede, put out the wrong message so, once built, it must be properly maintaned. If running a crowd across it does visible damage, then just don't repeat the exercise.
(vi) The political right are always authoritarian. Most of their utterances are in the form of "thou shalt not"s. If you're having more fun than they are, they will want an immediate stop put to that.

[waterboatman]

HG I respect your right to have your own opinion. some of what you say is correct. The occupants may or may not worry about it, we don't know, but the living still, rightly, honour those occupants who gave their young lives defending the freedom we enjoy. As an ex-soldier and enjoying the freedom those young men died defending, I don't think allowing children to run through their resting place shows any kind of respect and reverence to those young men of all nations who gave their lives for us to enjoy that freedom.

[Old_Geezer]

It doesn't commemorate but disrespect.
Some things are inappropriate.
Can only offend those for whom this place holds emotional value.
It was ill advised and ought not have been permitted.

[youngmafbog]

Hypo, get what you are saying but I cannot agree I'm afraid.

This is about respect, and this does not show that at all.

[woofgang]

Well I never thought I’d say this. When I read the question I agreed with most posters and thought it disrespectful but.....well when I watched the video, to me it didn’t seem disrespectful, in intent, at least. The faces were serious and yes, all that brightness running through the still crosses was, to me, quite moving. A reminder of all the bright young faces who went to war.

[Cloverjo]

The kids could have done it anywhere. Why there? I am an atheist and know that the dead aren't looking down from a cloud at their graves being trodden on, but I still think it's disrespectful.

[Old_Geezer]

There was a video ? Oh flash, I see.

Ok I can see it is being done as a solemn event. Not as bad as it first seemed; but in my view not a wise idea. One I'm surprised gathered support and went ahead.

[andy-hughes]

I think it was misjudged.

The thinking behind the action - to mimic the chaos of the battle, is far too oblique a connection, and as reaction has proved, it has been utterly eclipsed by a more standard and historical attitude to respect for the dead.

[naomi24]

I understand what he was trying to achieve, but this wasn’t the place or the time to attempt it. Very poor judgement and in very poor taste.

[Svejk]

If they had come together and sang Kumbaya, maybe let off a few white doves, I could just about go along with it. But the martial drumming/mock battle, well, made a mockery, imo.

[woofgang]

Perhaps ahead of its time?