I was both bemused and amused by the opinion piece by Gympie Today journalist, Arthur Gorrie, under the heading ‘ Lies no help to reconciliation’ (Gympie Today, October20).
Firstly I was amused by the hysterical opening salvo claiming that the Referendum defeat had given rise to the ‘vicious lie’ that we are a racist nation, not ready for reconciliation.’
Sadly it is not a lie.
Ironically, the Referendum result was a major step towards truth-telling.
The article was replete with the insulting names that had apparently been directed at the worthy proponents of the NO campaign.
I am not sure that the surprising allusions to the shearers’ strike and to Mussolini and the three-pronged spear had much relevance or impact – other perhaps than sending younger readers scurrying to consult Google the Historian.
And then there was the unbelievable claim that what Australians rejected was not an opportunity to advance the cause of Australia’s most marginalised and disadvantaged people, but ‘…the bullying, psychological this time.’
Australians know what they rejected and so do the vast majority of our indigenous people who have aptly described the decision as ‘resentful , mean-spirited ‘and yes, that awful epithet, ‘racist’.
But we don’t like the mirror.
And the article concludes with the old and completely discredited platitudes about getting on with the job ‘…of improving indigenous disadvantage…derived from honest conversations with those affected by them,…’
I think that was what an overwhelming majority of Australians just rejected.
It is hard to see the way forward from the back mark we have chosen, especially when we are so adept at averting our eyes from the truth.
Mervyn Welch,
The Palms.
