Shouts From Down Under

Over twelve months - thinking up dazzling, meaningful stuff

This blog has progressed through 360 odd entries and been viewed 5000 times, and I realised today, that it's been a bit over a year since I began "doing" a blog.

Here's the first entry, in case you missed such an explosion onto the world stage.

"Whether the chicken or the egg, we are all unique..." 

I wondered how I could write anything worthy. How could I keep thinking up things to startle, prickle, tickle and dilate?

Sounds sort of rashy and contagion-like.

How much have I learned about myself, and my writing, during this time? I think the biggest lesson is that I'd like to focus more thought and word on others, than myself.

Something on the world stage right now is, of course, the stuff happening in Ferguson.

What it is, where it is, and the recent shooting seem reasonably accurately recorded here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson,_Missouri

Ferguson is located in the United States of America.
Ferguson is also located in Australia, but no shooting or racial disturbance seems to have happened here. Not yet anyway.

http://www.whereis.com/wa/ferguson-6236

Racism.

Why does it persist? Why does this way of thinking still exist in our oh-so-up-to-date society of 2014?
Racism is as prevalent, if not more so, than a year ago when I started this blog.

Australian's are portrayed as racists. It seems like police are portrayed as racists too, when one of them shoots an unarmed man whose skin isn't the same colour.

There are arguments. Everyone has their own view. What is right? Who is wrong? Who is to blame?
How can all this be stopped, fixed, repaired, renewed, solved, make everyone satisfied?

Some would say, if there IS a God, why isn't he stepping in, why did he make people different from one another, and why do I always try to add another why, when I struggled to concentrate to think up even two why's?

Could it be a simple, ironic, even laughable test, except there's too much pain to be laughing.

Make people's skin a different colour, and see, with all their "smartness", "know it all ness" and greatness, if they can manage to look past this "difference".

Who will search for this blog entry, today August 20th Two Thousand and Fourteen, feeling confidence and trust in the writer, moi to provide a truthful, honest to goodness right answer?

Let's face it, whatever I say here won't make a scrap of difference. I find myself treading very carefully, as I do every blog entry (cough cough), but seriously, I'm really thinking and watching what I say here, about racism.
Because you know as well as I, that even just one, just ONE slip up, just a tiny (how do you say it in the media- GAFFE?)
one little MISTAKE, and the sky of humanity's opinion will fall on my head like a garbage truck front lift bin full of concrete.

Yes, it's an emotive, volatile place to tread, writing about racism.

The ironic thing is, I can't think of anyone less racist.
And the second ironic thing is, I probably do have a motivating factor to feel animosity towards another race.

I can remember clearly the times on our school bus, and at school. This was in the late 1970's and early 80's, when the buses were overcrowded, the school still gave naughty kids the cane, flavoured milk was doled out to the small kids in the morning, and metric was just being introduced into the curriculum.

I was bullied, harrassed and jeered at every day. I was punched and kicked. This occurred on the bus, in the playground, in the lunch sheds, in the toilets, in the library, on the sporting field and anywhere else that was unsupervised. I was too timid to complain, too proud to tell my parents, and was not aware of my rights, or who to complain to at school.

The people who did this to me were not white.

Perhaps I should hate them. Maybe it would be normal to resent what has probably been the cause of a lifetime lack of confidence, and daily anxiety to the point of being unable to hold down jobs, not have meaningful relationships with peers, and generally feeling that my early life was a complete waste of time.

But I'm here to tell you, I don't hate them. I don't resent them. And I don't feel any animosity towards any race, any colour, any whatever.

My wife is part aboriginal. My children therefore are the same. I love them more than my own life.

So, I don't think it can be upheld as an excuse, bullying or whatever other justification we could dredge up from the past few decades, or centuries for that matter, to use as a reason / reasons to feel racism. I know one or two people who do have a racist view.

I suspect in ever race, in every country, every town, even every family, there are people who are racist. Yes, even among those in Ferguson who are not white.
We are all guilty, and I stand by saying this. We all have the potential to feel racism, even though we may deny it.

The answer is in the future, not in the past. There are many "justifications" brought up by people; you can see it underlying their actions, whereby they feel it's ok to be racist. They feel it's ok to be violent against some people, but not against others doing the same crimes, or that they feel to be doing the same crimes.

What I see, how I feel, what my thoughts are, as I look at families, and groups of people of other skin colours, as I look into the demographic areas they live in, the situations they face, the struggles, the human difficulties and mistakes, the crime, the broken marriages, the goals, the desires, etc etc etc ETC, I see this.


Language Warning!




I see people who are the same. Whatever our skin colour, we are all human. We only have to think about what we struggle with in our own minds, in our own homes, in our own unemployment problems, lack of funds, broken down cars, government, intrusive laws and so it goes on.

But the biggest thing we all share, that says to me that skin colour, or race doesn't matter one iota really, is that we all have human failings.

Yes. Whatever race is on earth, whatever family and genealogy we are born into, whatever tribe and ancestry, we fail.

We fail to love. We fail to care. We fail to respect. We fail to do our chores. We fail to do unpleasant tasks. We fail to forgive. We fail!

NOT THAT SOME OTHER RACE FAILS!

WE FAIL!



We all come under the same banner of being human.

A policeman does the wrong thing and shoots dead a man. It's wrong.
Protestors and whoever go rioting, shooting and looting, raping and whatever else they did, or the media says they did. Its wrong.

Lots of things are wrong. More chaotic actions and lack of control of ourselves, WHATEVER OUR RACE, will just add more wood of wrongness to the flames of unruly chaos.

You can understand the anger and frustration. You can understand when people have had enough. No money, no jobs, no food and most of all, a skin colour that some people will automatically hate them for. More wrongness.
You can understand it.
You, (WE) can understand them doing wrong things too. They fail too. Amazing isn't it?

Did life come with instructions like a shirt tag, saying, "OH. Nearly forgot to mention - You will never fail."

No. We know we fail, and no one is exempt.

Most basically I think racism stems from fear. Like a lot of stuff we fail at.

If we could all look at others like we look at ourselves, and just see brothers, sisters, mum's, dad's and siblings. One family. One earth. Stop blaming. Stop fearing. Stop pointing fingers.

Like I said earlier though, perhaps us writers are wasting our time on this. Because everyone fails.

Lucky each day is new, and we can start again. As parents though, we owe it to future generations, that's TOMORROW future, tomorrows NEW DAY, not to push our own racist attitudes, or reasons we think justify racism, onto the next generation.

The beauty is more than what our eyes see. I'm not a Latter Day Saints person or whatever, but do like this video:



And acknowledgement has to go to the late Robert Barrett for the use of his book in the photo I took, and used in the Twitter post link to this entry. What a mouthful.

http://www.robertgbarrett.net.au/tribute.htm

I want to thank Sugar Rose Dupre and groovygirl for being the first to comment on the first entry "Whether the chicken or the egg, we are all unique..."  of my new Web Log

BOOK

Shouts From Down Under   (13+) Some of the strangest things forgotten by that Australian Blog Bloke. 2014 #1944136 by Sparky

,
Elle - on hiatus for the award for "A blog that's always entertaining", and last but not least, Andrew , and the voters, for the "2013 Quill Award for Best Blog".

This is so last year, and blowing my own trumpet, and makes a lie out of what I said earlier about writing less about myself, and more about others.

We all fail. That's the excuse.

Thanks!

Sparky