Day 251- Injustices of the Past, Injustices of the Present
Day 251- Sunday, September 2nd- Injustices of the Past, Injustices of the Present
It happens to be Father's Day here in Australia today, but just a normal day in the life of Canadians in Oz.
However, two seemingly unconnected events happened to coincide for us today (neither of them as simple as Father's Day). It was the last night of the Melbourne Writer's Festival and we had tickets for Noel Pearson's keynote closing address "The Quest for a Radical Centre." Pearson is a notable Aboriginal leader who would address the audience about finding common ground and solving the major problems in Aboriginal communities in Australia. The event started at 8 pm.
We decided to take an early train to Flinders Station and walk across the street to attend the 6 pm Choral Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral. I had never heard of the September 2nd "Feast of the New Guinea Martyrs" until today (of course, my historian son Mat briefed me on it later). During the Japanese invasion of PNG, 12 Australian missionaries, priests and nurses were executed. Their story of courage and faith was both sad and inspiring, as explained in the sermon. The choral Eucharist sung by the boy's choir was a contrast to their awful fate. We left the church to the sound of the magnificent organ.
Just up the street was the venue for the Writer's Festival. Pearson's address was a summary of an article he penned in the Griffith University Review. Although Pearson was not particularly hopeful about the plight of his own people, he did provide some insights into the politics of the problems.
Just like everywhere else, neither right nor left have a monopoly on truth, ideas and solutions to problems. While I was listening to Pearson, I began to think, "If the let or right did have rights to the truth, America would have most of its problems fixed, wouldn't it? After all, the Democrats had the White House for 8 years and now the Republicans have had their chance. Surely if both were right they could have fixed a lot of the problems. The problem lies in the polarization of ideas, and there is never common ground in the middle- the radical centre."
The problems like the ones seen in Aboriginal communities here in Australia will take some listening and compromise to address. C.S. Lewis once said, and I paraphrase, that no government can ever know what tomorrow brings and so its ideas can never be perfect. Solutions will come with recognition of the problems, the responsibilities, and listening to left and right, so that the centre action plan can be found.
We are off to the Northern Territory in a few weeks and will see for ourselves some of the problems.
It happens to be Father's Day here in Australia today, but just a normal day in the life of Canadians in Oz.
However, two seemingly unconnected events happened to coincide for us today (neither of them as simple as Father's Day). It was the last night of the Melbourne Writer's Festival and we had tickets for Noel Pearson's keynote closing address "The Quest for a Radical Centre." Pearson is a notable Aboriginal leader who would address the audience about finding common ground and solving the major problems in Aboriginal communities in Australia. The event started at 8 pm.
We decided to take an early train to Flinders Station and walk across the street to attend the 6 pm Choral Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral. I had never heard of the September 2nd "Feast of the New Guinea Martyrs" until today (of course, my historian son Mat briefed me on it later). During the Japanese invasion of PNG, 12 Australian missionaries, priests and nurses were executed. Their story of courage and faith was both sad and inspiring, as explained in the sermon. The choral Eucharist sung by the boy's choir was a contrast to their awful fate. We left the church to the sound of the magnificent organ.
Just up the street was the venue for the Writer's Festival. Pearson's address was a summary of an article he penned in the Griffith University Review. Although Pearson was not particularly hopeful about the plight of his own people, he did provide some insights into the politics of the problems.
Just like everywhere else, neither right nor left have a monopoly on truth, ideas and solutions to problems. While I was listening to Pearson, I began to think, "If the let or right did have rights to the truth, America would have most of its problems fixed, wouldn't it? After all, the Democrats had the White House for 8 years and now the Republicans have had their chance. Surely if both were right they could have fixed a lot of the problems. The problem lies in the polarization of ideas, and there is never common ground in the middle- the radical centre."
The problems like the ones seen in Aboriginal communities here in Australia will take some listening and compromise to address. C.S. Lewis once said, and I paraphrase, that no government can ever know what tomorrow brings and so its ideas can never be perfect. Solutions will come with recognition of the problems, the responsibilities, and listening to left and right, so that the centre action plan can be found.
We are off to the Northern Territory in a few weeks and will see for ourselves some of the problems.
posted by Rod Murray | 10:20 p.m.
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