Us

I hear you. How dare they march. How dare they protest about racism. How dare they claim black lives matter more than all lives. “They” as if “they” is something different to “us”. And the mere mention of “them” proves that you do see a difference, a deep abiding bitter enshrinement of a failure to recognise truth, and to embrace that truth, not as an ideal, but as a right and a debt we owe our ancestors.

Are you not concerned that the division in this country, the disparity in life expectancy, in health outcomes, in incarceration rates, are the shame of this country that sees “them” instead of “us”.

And some of you who read this are saying “you don’t want to get locked up then don’t do the crime.” But I ask you to think about whether the innocence of children as they set foot upon the path of life inevitably needs to lead to the bars of prison, the intergenerational poverty and domestic violence or the sad ending of youth suicide, cries in a forest where no one hears.

We claim to be a just society, one of egalitarianism, one which believes in a fair go, in mateship, in the myth of struggle of our ancestors, that those of us who live now can never truly know. And all this at a time when so many of “us” complain about “them”.

I don’t expect to change minds. I only hope that some of you will seek the Truth, and you won’t find it in the strident overly loud voices of opinion in the Murdoch Press. You may not find it in the speeches of angry people, however justified the anger, at marches and rallies where they are already preaching to the converted. You most assuredly will not find it on the tongues of politicians and others who have a vested interest in promoting division.

Listen to the voices, listen to the stories, hear the truth. Understand that there is only “us”, we should never accept the differences that divide. Should never close our hearts to suffering or the pain that endures through the years and generations.

Here is a link to Stan Grants Lecture at the University of New South Wales in 2016. It is long, far longer than the attention span required for the TikTok or Instagram generation. But if you wish to begin a journey to learn the truth and yearn like I do to get us to a place of us and not them, please listen to what he says.

One final thing I will ask is if you do get to the end and you spend the 43 minutes listening to this then please just take the time to say “Us” in a comment below. I suspect that there will be little if any response, firstly because it takes a while to read one of my posts and many may not get way down in the weeds here, and secondly, more sadly, I don’t think many will watch the lecture through to the end because Masterchef or Big Brother may be more important to them.

#blacklivesmatter