Straya Day

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while there are children being held in detention centres. Not because they committed a crime but because they came looking for help. Because their parents sent them in desperation, hoping they may have a safe life.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while my fellow Strayan men are killing our womenfolk at a rate of at least one a week. Yet we were terrified of one insane gunman who used terrorism as a cover for his madness.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while we have a Government which refuses to recognise the very real threat of Climate Change. Instead they choose to promote policies which increase the effects of this Global disaster.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while we hold asylum seekers in brutal concentration camps on the pretext of “saving others from drowning”. Not while we conveniently forget that it is NOT a crime to seek asylum.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while we sing a Nation Anthem which tells us that we have “Boundless Plains to Share” and we refuse to share it with anyone. Not while our national actions are those of a scaredy-cat two year old!

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while we have a Prime Minister who cannot recognise misogyny when he looks in the mirror each morning. Yet he arrogates the Ministry of Women to himself.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while we still have barely recognised that there were human beings living on this continent before arrogant European usurpers arrived.  But not enough to recognise them in our National Constitution.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while the loudest proclaimers of our National Day are drunken bogans, yahoos and layabouts. Not while our education system is being gutted and our National Pride is in our ignorance.

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Not while those who choose to ostentatiously celebrate this day with the national flag flying from their souped up foreign car windows. Not while they wear our National Flag as underpants or cut down and defaces as bikinis. Not while they use fake Australian flags as towels or pool mattresses. And certainly not while all of those items are imported!

I won’t be celebrating Straya Day this year.

Especially as our Nation is being transformed into a poor Billionaire’s version of the American nightmare.

I will be quietly remembering.

When mateship meant something, when being an Australian was something to be proud of, when Australians strove for excellence.

I will be quietly remembering.

When we had a fair welfare system to help those down on their luck, not a punitive government office and large prisons. When we had a Nation, not an economy. When we were people, not economic units.

I will be quietly remembering.

When we were Australians.