Cronulla
I’d like to say something about yesterday’s riots. Those of you in Sydney, and many of you who aren’t, will probably have heard about them by now. For those of you who haven’t, yesterday, about 5,000 people ended up in Cronulla, supposedly after an SMS was circulated inciting violence. Twenty-eight people have been arrested, and thirty are in hospital, and revenge attacks are still happening in various places in Sydney.
If you want to see more about what happened, you can read about it at http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17536989-2,00.html?from=rss. I really don’t have the heart to summarise.
All I’d like to say is: It’s a terrible thing this happened. It’s terrible that anyone felt so threatened by the world around them that they’d do such a thing, and even more terrible that there were so many people there participating in it. The repercussions from this will be felt for a while to come, I think. One of the things I love about Australian society is our ability to forgive and move on, but I have a feeling it will be some time before this is allowed to drop - we are all under too much pressure and fear for this to die easily.
So I’d like to ask everyone, please, to remember to think about other people. Not just in the ‘consider the feelings of others’ sense of the phrase, but to really think about the different world views we embrace as a society. This diversity is what makes us what we are - and I love my country very deeply. I’d be truly hurt if I thought we would throw that tolerance and appreciation for others away, just because we were too threatened by events going on in the rest of the world. The surest way to bring the violence home is to create it ourselves. Please, let’s not let that happen.
Were any of you there? How has this affected you? Comment, please, and tell me about it - one of the things this brings home to me is how important it is to have a community. And since you are all part of my community, I’d really like to know how you feel.
If you want to see more about what happened, you can read about it at http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17536989-2,00.html?from=rss. I really don’t have the heart to summarise.
All I’d like to say is: It’s a terrible thing this happened. It’s terrible that anyone felt so threatened by the world around them that they’d do such a thing, and even more terrible that there were so many people there participating in it. The repercussions from this will be felt for a while to come, I think. One of the things I love about Australian society is our ability to forgive and move on, but I have a feeling it will be some time before this is allowed to drop - we are all under too much pressure and fear for this to die easily.
So I’d like to ask everyone, please, to remember to think about other people. Not just in the ‘consider the feelings of others’ sense of the phrase, but to really think about the different world views we embrace as a society. This diversity is what makes us what we are - and I love my country very deeply. I’d be truly hurt if I thought we would throw that tolerance and appreciation for others away, just because we were too threatened by events going on in the rest of the world. The surest way to bring the violence home is to create it ourselves. Please, let’s not let that happen.
Were any of you there? How has this affected you? Comment, please, and tell me about it - one of the things this brings home to me is how important it is to have a community. And since you are all part of my community, I’d really like to know how you feel.