Bravery in the Field

Anyone remember Ralph McTell's song ''Streets of London''? There is something from that lyric here as an old veteran ''Tommy'' (Les Rubie) has to pawn his medals for $11 to tide him over until his pension arrives. Meantime, a trio of glue-sniffers are hassling an old lady selling poppies outside the post office. He intercedes and they flee, but now they are even more desperate as they sit in the park shivering and hungry. Next day, he has his cash and his medals back and after a small libation with his comrades in the pub he heads home. That's when he encounters these yobs again, and this time they beat him badly and steal his possessions. They don't emerge unscathed, though, and one of their number ''Lennie'' (Matt Craven) suffers a broken nose. Both end up in the hospital and that's where the younger man starts to have a bit of a crisis of conscience. He hadn't a clue about the suffering of the injured old man they assaulted either recently or during the War, but with Remembrance Day now approaching, perhaps he will learn the error of his ways? Sure, this does play a little to stereotype now and again, but it also quite potently reinforces how society - at both ends of it's spectrum, can lose sight of people whom it ought to help and respect. That he would ever have needed to pawn his bravery medal in the first place is shameful; that three young men are so destitute in what purports to be a civilised nation to have to resort to robbery to fund their habit is no less so. There is foor for thought here from both perspectives, and it's worth half an hour.