Politicians (Language Warning!)

I was raised in cotton wool
My life was privileged and so full
The world was kind at every turn
I was dumb to your ways and had to learn.

Hidden beyond the glare so bright
Lies and deceit held in the night
Hunger and fear reigned shadows of greed
People lived/died in neglect and need

The promise lay in what was said
a promise delivered by those who led
But all those words just got burned
and the message got twisted and oh so turned
And now the ideas are just left for dead
while we are all fucked in the head

I’m older now and I can see so clear
The lies and promises we held so dear
are but a mirage on some desolate plain
in an endless drought with no promise of rain

What’s real is hidden from those who would care
while others guard the truths in their dark lair
and those who wake to open their eyes
Seek nothing but a path through a forest of lies

The promise fell under the weight of it all
And hubris and folly was left to rule
A few desperate whispers seek to atone
While others remain silent, hollow, alone
Many others shout and beat their own chest
And still we remain all fucked at best

If we could do our time again
Knowing that we inflict this unjust pain
Could we learn, show some concern
For the people and forests we forever burn?

Would courage help us take a stand
To show compassion and not be damned?
Can we resolve our need to conquer and kill?
Can we recognise our injustice is real

The promises you make with such little regard
The leadership on offer is muddied and marred 
Your words are empty and full of deceit 
And the horrors you create are stuck on repeat.
We call you out on the crap that you’ve said
‘coz we know you’re all just fucked in the head

March in May Adelaide

Highlights from March In May 18/5/2014

Why #MarchinMay to #BusttheBudget?

Why does someone choose to make a stand? Why do people remain silent?

These are questions which keep knocking on the door of my consciousness. People who know me, know that I am endlessly curious about the world and how it works. Every time I see or hear of some injustice occurring somewhere I ask ‘How can this keep happening?’ ‘Who will gain from this?’ ‘Who will lose?’

There are many quotes totted out about activism – they all state something along the lines of these I paraphrase; ‘If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything’ or ‘Terrible things happen when good people remain silent.’

Yet ‘good’ people can stand for ‘bad’ things and ‘bad’ people can stand for ‘good’ things. It’s all about perspective.

But how does a nation, a community, a group come together to achieve anything if our perspectives are so diverse, our values so seemingly different?

Well that’s what a movement like #MarchinMay is all about. It’s about finding the common thread in which we can weave our values.

In this case the Abbott Government has given this movement a focus. It’s Policies and a Budget unites it. The movement comes together not in the belief that our government will create a better Australia. Rather, it joins together in the belief that much of the government’s governance is created and directed not by the people, but by faceless, often nameless, lobby and industry groups. That it governs not for the people but for the rich and the powerful.

Community-driven movements like this seek a government which puts community at the heart of its policies. One which understands the complex problems communities face each and every day. One which seeks not to feather the pockets of a select few while leaving the rest to fend for themselves. One which has realistic, evidence-based plans for the community’s long-term good.

Community advocacy movements are on the rise all around Australia with important social and enviro-political issues at their heart.

While the mainstream media often ignore these peaceful, passionate community-centred movements, they are to be celebrated, and acknowledged as the new platform of democratic debate. Mainstream media oftentimes is too bogged down in its commercial interests to add to the debate. And some of them tend to keep important issues off their pages.

Community has found it’s new platform and formed a new kind of Fourth Estate via social media and citizen reporting. Those who think to diminish it’s importance in uniting people to a common cause do so at their own peril.

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