Newman grabs the microphone and directs a joke at the Greens “ah the reason the buses take so long is because all the bikes are blocking the roads” ....oh fuck off newman. I just want to cry. To shoot him. To call rape. Anything to bring this evil man down. The red nosed old fatty behind me is cheering him on and the very young liberal in his very old mans suit laughts along. suddenly i find myself hating them too. Hating all of them. Hating myself for flying all the way from Melbourne to try and make a positive impact in this fucked up world. Newman will win and I”ll be hating some other newman like devil running for premier in some other unfortunate part of the world. This is my life as a campaigner. And occasionally I wonder if I’m just as brainwashed as the man taking bribes from the ‘manipulative –best mate of the guy who has ‘nothing’ to do with anything bad’.
This though passes quickly as I look at the people around who are supporting me who radiate kindness, selflessness and passion for equality and acting out for what’s right. They work seven days a week for minimum wage just because they know its what’s right.
How do we know? Because we’re not being bribed and I personally have nothing to gain. We do it for love. We do it because its right to stand up for lives that can’t speak for themselves. Rivers. Plants. Ecosystems. Anybody who’s ever stood in the middle of one of the worlds old growth forests will know what I mean when I say those trees are worth more than you or I. That smell, the smell of tranquillity and oneness with the nature can’t be found anywhere else. The sound of hundreds of years of progression, everyday working hard to capture light, water and nutrients to become the home of so many animals and the backbone of the ecosystems that enable life on earth.
This is why I’m in Brisbane defending wild rivers.
This is why you should put your hand up for that which is bigger and more important than you, because without it, there is no you, me, us or them.
There’s only the silence of despair.
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