Trying to be heard
It is often hard not to get jaded about having a different point of view to the mainstream political majority and feeling as though it is ridiculed and not respected. I was thinking this as I came across this petition site. I thought of other petitions I have signed in the past, or walks I have participated in.
I am glad that I walked across Sydney Harbour bridge with friends, acquaintances and colleagues in the name of reconciliation with Australia's Aboriginal people. I've signed to say I was sorry to the stolen generation and still remember the story that one member, James, told me about his experience**. I am also glad that I walked on February 16th 2003 to protest Australia's involvement in the Iraq war. I've opened my mind by attending the Dunstan and Hawke lectures, run by Uni of Adelaide and Uni of SA respectively. I don't believe in mandatory detention, especially not for children. I signed petitions that were sent to Barnaby Joyce and attended a rally oppposing the latest changes to Industrial Relations. I also I wonder how many other of my friends feel invisible and frustrated at how little difference that this opposition, of me and my friends and quite a vibrant and larger community of Australians, is having on policy. I also wonder whether people get scared to protest, just like people were scared in Stasiland, Anna Funder's brilliant account of how East Germany was run "by a regime pathologically obsessed with knowing people's secrets". Should my blog be a secret?
I think I need to be reminded of how I, my friends and family, can maintan the pressure and debate about policies that are unfair and unworthy. These include (still) mandatory detention, unfair employment laws, maternity leave rights (even worse under the new IR) and probably not enough celebration of how much community life can be enhanced by the presence of refugees. Hobart and Adelaide would definitely be less interesting places.
**The story that James, a 50 year old survivor of the Stolen Generation told me in 2002 was a sad one. I treated him as a patient and knew he was far from home, that in itself didn't sit well with my ideas about primary health care and when secondary or tertiary health care is appropriate for rural/remote Australians. He wore a tshirt of a reunion barbecue he'd attended, and I asked him to explain the reunion. He had to write down his story with pencil and paper because surgery had affected his voice, and his writing was all in print, the way my nephew writes. He said he was taken away by the time he was 4, and grew up always getting in trouble for not behaving the way he was expected too. He said he ran away as soon as he could because he had to be free.
I am glad that I walked across Sydney Harbour bridge with friends, acquaintances and colleagues in the name of reconciliation with Australia's Aboriginal people. I've signed to say I was sorry to the stolen generation and still remember the story that one member, James, told me about his experience**. I am also glad that I walked on February 16th 2003 to protest Australia's involvement in the Iraq war. I've opened my mind by attending the Dunstan and Hawke lectures, run by Uni of Adelaide and Uni of SA respectively. I don't believe in mandatory detention, especially not for children. I signed petitions that were sent to Barnaby Joyce and attended a rally oppposing the latest changes to Industrial Relations. I also I wonder how many other of my friends feel invisible and frustrated at how little difference that this opposition, of me and my friends and quite a vibrant and larger community of Australians, is having on policy. I also wonder whether people get scared to protest, just like people were scared in Stasiland, Anna Funder's brilliant account of how East Germany was run "by a regime pathologically obsessed with knowing people's secrets". Should my blog be a secret?
I think I need to be reminded of how I, my friends and family, can maintan the pressure and debate about policies that are unfair and unworthy. These include (still) mandatory detention, unfair employment laws, maternity leave rights (even worse under the new IR) and probably not enough celebration of how much community life can be enhanced by the presence of refugees. Hobart and Adelaide would definitely be less interesting places.
**The story that James, a 50 year old survivor of the Stolen Generation told me in 2002 was a sad one. I treated him as a patient and knew he was far from home, that in itself didn't sit well with my ideas about primary health care and when secondary or tertiary health care is appropriate for rural/remote Australians. He wore a tshirt of a reunion barbecue he'd attended, and I asked him to explain the reunion. He had to write down his story with pencil and paper because surgery had affected his voice, and his writing was all in print, the way my nephew writes. He said he was taken away by the time he was 4, and grew up always getting in trouble for not behaving the way he was expected too. He said he ran away as soon as he could because he had to be free.
Comments
Oooh, your pessimism is catching. dreamt last night that the reason I hadn't heard from you and Lisa was because you were so busy making a very complicated log cake that covered your entire coffee table. How silly-if you decorated your coffee table with cake, you'd just be taunting Boswell.