Thanks for this JB. Voted earlier this week in suburban Melbourne. It does seem rather hopeless and depressing, but all we can do is add our small “yes” to try to hold back the approaching tsunami of shit coming our way.
Thanks for that, JB. It is indeed depressing that Australians will once again fall for a stupid, racist no argument, and it can only be, at this stage in our development, because Australians are stupid and racist. Seriously thinking of relocating to NZ; my partner hails from there and it looks less than perfect, but certainly better.
We know and we've always known how the first nations were parted from their land. Our history is full of newspaper articles and books on the subject. Maybe try Clive Turnbull's "The Black War" from 1965. Or go back to articles in to our earliest newspapers. The problem is not that we don't know. We know. The problem is that we don't want to think about it. And if someone or something makes us think about it, we feel bad, become defensive, and attack. The Voice reminds us that there was a time, a very long time and not long ago, when the first nations enjoyed this land on their own terms.
This brought tears to my eyes and salted my morning coffee. I'm about to head south over the border, so I voted last week.
Here's what I've found - so many no voters with whom I've communicated don't understand the referendum. They, instead of googling the words and marvelling at the simplicity, have fallen down the rabbit-hole of the copious amounts of misinformation that's being propagated by Fair Australia, a branch of Advance on the board of which sits Tony Abbott, Captain No himself.
I really really hope that Abbott gets in your book to be taken out of it. Him wearing budgie smugglers while peddling hard on his bike but failing to outrun being ripped to shreds (like he's helping to do to the Voice) by one of the earlier sand storms would be a satisfactory scenario.
I was at a prepoll booth last week and missed the visit of Tony Abbott. Apparently one of the "Yes" volunteers just recited the Misogyny speech to him but changed the word "misogyny" to "racism".
Our votes are cast already. Big #yes23 from our family, all 5 adults. I’m remaining hopeful until the last vote is counted. The whole thing reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Is there a small minority of racists and bigots hiding behind that big curtain, that big curtain carefully bought and paid for by the usual suspects? I saw a survey of young voters that had over 5000 responses and 83% Yes. That’s sizeable and was not reported TMK by MSM. Add in all us older Yes voters - anyone here ever been surveyed??? Not moi! - so…
Call me hopelessly naive but I’m not resigning myself to No just yet.
I’m definitely older and got surveyed twice in the weeks before I left Aus on holiday a couple of weeks ago. I made sure I sounded as positive for Yes as I could.
It's ok. Most blackfellas are so completely disenfranchised and poverty stricken that they won't know or care. The fact that they couldn't vote or own land for a hundred years consigned them to the bottom of society long before well intentioned whitefellas woke up. Jacinta acting like a black, rock star Pauline Hanson has shaken me a bit. That's got to be worth a parody from a courageous author !
Bemused by the amount of attention that a valueless turncoat like Mundine can gain in his quest to get his shiny bum on a senate seat. Also by the Price woman who believes she has a career path in NT right wing politics, both are delusional and will be discarded by Dutts and his bum sniffers when this is over.
Its heartbreaking JB...Just heartbreaking. And the total irony of the No campaign's rhetoric about divisiveness (amongst other things) is thoroughly enraging.
There's some good people around. I've worn my shirt in Queensland and nothing negative said to me. I've cruised polling places and spoken to yes campaigners. The tribe is still intact mate. We'll do ok
As I stood outside the pre-poll votes on the western borders of Sydney, sun beating down; trying to stay in the shade, I was struck by a number of people walking past saying "easiest vote I ever cast". Was it yes? Was it no? I hope it's yes; but statistically it's more likely to be "no". Who knows?
When one of the voters asks me why they should vote yes because "they are on the fence and haven't made up their minds" I point out the need to do something different. It's when his mate says "If Christopher Columbus hadn't discovered Australia and brought medicine to them, they'd be worse off" I wonder whether I'm truly wasting my time and this is just him being able to say to someone that he "did consider the arguments" in the two minutes outside a Western Sydney pre-polling booth before voting.
Maybe the fact I'm standing there in the sun (wearing a hat!) in a "Yes" t-shirt might sway someone. I'll be doing it again on Saturday, with the various reasons why people should vote "yes" - and maybe I'll convince some of those truly undecided to vote yes.
But I am not looking forward to Saturday night. I am not looking forward to leaving an even bigger mess for my son's generation to deal with; because his grandparents' generation and a big chunk of his parents' generation were too gutless (or too selfish) to take the risk of change for the better.
I'll assume by 'looked' you mean looked as in seemed and that they asked politely, and that you actually spoke to them, and you found them to be reasonable people. And thus Yes voters. And didn't base that solely on their appearance. But on their words as well. I would have let them in too.
It seems to me Australians just don't do symbolism. We don't understand subtlety, we don't get culture, especially Indigenous culture. And we don't accept generosity when it is of the spirit. All we see is a proposal that most of us won't get anything out of directly. There is a profound ignorance that we can't see the indirect benefits to us all, Indigenous and non-Indogenous alike.
There’s still hope - the latest Roy Morgan poll shows Yes voters at 45% and maybe last conversations can inform and change minds to get over the line on Saturday.
Birmo, that was an emotional read. Beautiful carved. And now the result is in there are glimmers of hope. Each of the seven teal seats were a hard YES, up to or over 60%, again repudiating the Liberal in their former blue ribbon party rooms blindly dancing as Rome burned. Higgins was also over 60%.
There’s a lot of YES out there and that bodes well. Ciao Bello. Lorenzo. X
Yeah I hear ya. One thing you wrote really resonated with me and something I want to share with the other ne'er do wells, rebels and inconveinant people on this forum.
"But it means something to me, and your vote should mean something to you too, if only the
personal, moral significance of doing the right thing when so many others would not."
This is not the first time where I feel like I'm living behind enemy lines, but it is these acts of humanity, these well-thought about decisions, acts of defiance, acts of just doing the right fucking decent thing, that get me through, and when I look back I have the comfort of knowing I did the right thing the best way I could. And in remaining that person whi did that thing, I have discovered, will often eventually help out those who may have real skin in the game, even if you don't have skin in that particular round.
Thanks for this JB. Voted earlier this week in suburban Melbourne. It does seem rather hopeless and depressing, but all we can do is add our small “yes” to try to hold back the approaching tsunami of shit coming our way.
Thanks for that, JB. It is indeed depressing that Australians will once again fall for a stupid, racist no argument, and it can only be, at this stage in our development, because Australians are stupid and racist. Seriously thinking of relocating to NZ; my partner hails from there and it looks less than perfect, but certainly better.
We know and we've always known how the first nations were parted from their land. Our history is full of newspaper articles and books on the subject. Maybe try Clive Turnbull's "The Black War" from 1965. Or go back to articles in to our earliest newspapers. The problem is not that we don't know. We know. The problem is that we don't want to think about it. And if someone or something makes us think about it, we feel bad, become defensive, and attack. The Voice reminds us that there was a time, a very long time and not long ago, when the first nations enjoyed this land on their own terms.
This brought tears to my eyes and salted my morning coffee. I'm about to head south over the border, so I voted last week.
Here's what I've found - so many no voters with whom I've communicated don't understand the referendum. They, instead of googling the words and marvelling at the simplicity, have fallen down the rabbit-hole of the copious amounts of misinformation that's being propagated by Fair Australia, a branch of Advance on the board of which sits Tony Abbott, Captain No himself.
I really really hope that Abbott gets in your book to be taken out of it. Him wearing budgie smugglers while peddling hard on his bike but failing to outrun being ripped to shreds (like he's helping to do to the Voice) by one of the earlier sand storms would be a satisfactory scenario.
I was at a prepoll booth last week and missed the visit of Tony Abbott. Apparently one of the "Yes" volunteers just recited the Misogyny speech to him but changed the word "misogyny" to "racism".
Our votes are cast already. Big #yes23 from our family, all 5 adults. I’m remaining hopeful until the last vote is counted. The whole thing reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Is there a small minority of racists and bigots hiding behind that big curtain, that big curtain carefully bought and paid for by the usual suspects? I saw a survey of young voters that had over 5000 responses and 83% Yes. That’s sizeable and was not reported TMK by MSM. Add in all us older Yes voters - anyone here ever been surveyed??? Not moi! - so…
Call me hopelessly naive but I’m not resigning myself to No just yet.
Excellent piece, btw.
I’m definitely older and got surveyed twice in the weeks before I left Aus on holiday a couple of weeks ago. I made sure I sounded as positive for Yes as I could.
It's ok. Most blackfellas are so completely disenfranchised and poverty stricken that they won't know or care. The fact that they couldn't vote or own land for a hundred years consigned them to the bottom of society long before well intentioned whitefellas woke up. Jacinta acting like a black, rock star Pauline Hanson has shaken me a bit. That's got to be worth a parody from a courageous author !
Bemused by the amount of attention that a valueless turncoat like Mundine can gain in his quest to get his shiny bum on a senate seat. Also by the Price woman who believes she has a career path in NT right wing politics, both are delusional and will be discarded by Dutts and his bum sniffers when this is over.
"I fear that if and when this referendum fails, things will change, but for the worse" so to says the whispering in my heart.
We're certainly going to get a good, hard look at ourselves whichever way it goes
Its heartbreaking JB...Just heartbreaking. And the total irony of the No campaign's rhetoric about divisiveness (amongst other things) is thoroughly enraging.
There's some good people around. I've worn my shirt in Queensland and nothing negative said to me. I've cruised polling places and spoken to yes campaigners. The tribe is still intact mate. We'll do ok
As I stood outside the pre-poll votes on the western borders of Sydney, sun beating down; trying to stay in the shade, I was struck by a number of people walking past saying "easiest vote I ever cast". Was it yes? Was it no? I hope it's yes; but statistically it's more likely to be "no". Who knows?
When one of the voters asks me why they should vote yes because "they are on the fence and haven't made up their minds" I point out the need to do something different. It's when his mate says "If Christopher Columbus hadn't discovered Australia and brought medicine to them, they'd be worse off" I wonder whether I'm truly wasting my time and this is just him being able to say to someone that he "did consider the arguments" in the two minutes outside a Western Sydney pre-polling booth before voting.
Maybe the fact I'm standing there in the sun (wearing a hat!) in a "Yes" t-shirt might sway someone. I'll be doing it again on Saturday, with the various reasons why people should vote "yes" - and maybe I'll convince some of those truly undecided to vote yes.
But I am not looking forward to Saturday night. I am not looking forward to leaving an even bigger mess for my son's generation to deal with; because his grandparents' generation and a big chunk of his parents' generation were too gutless (or too selfish) to take the risk of change for the better.
I'll assume by 'looked' you mean looked as in seemed and that they asked politely, and that you actually spoke to them, and you found them to be reasonable people. And thus Yes voters. And didn't base that solely on their appearance. But on their words as well. I would have let them in too.
It seems to me Australians just don't do symbolism. We don't understand subtlety, we don't get culture, especially Indigenous culture. And we don't accept generosity when it is of the spirit. All we see is a proposal that most of us won't get anything out of directly. There is a profound ignorance that we can't see the indirect benefits to us all, Indigenous and non-Indogenous alike.
There’s still hope - the latest Roy Morgan poll shows Yes voters at 45% and maybe last conversations can inform and change minds to get over the line on Saturday.
🤞🤞
Well said. Wholeheartedly agree that Albo handled this all wrong. I voted early and battled through a sea of boomer ‘NO’ voters. Extremely depressing.
Birmo, that was an emotional read. Beautiful carved. And now the result is in there are glimmers of hope. Each of the seven teal seats were a hard YES, up to or over 60%, again repudiating the Liberal in their former blue ribbon party rooms blindly dancing as Rome burned. Higgins was also over 60%.
There’s a lot of YES out there and that bodes well. Ciao Bello. Lorenzo. X
Yeah I hear ya. One thing you wrote really resonated with me and something I want to share with the other ne'er do wells, rebels and inconveinant people on this forum.
"But it means something to me, and your vote should mean something to you too, if only the
personal, moral significance of doing the right thing when so many others would not."
This is not the first time where I feel like I'm living behind enemy lines, but it is these acts of humanity, these well-thought about decisions, acts of defiance, acts of just doing the right fucking decent thing, that get me through, and when I look back I have the comfort of knowing I did the right thing the best way I could. And in remaining that person whi did that thing, I have discovered, will often eventually help out those who may have real skin in the game, even if you don't have skin in that particular round.