5 years ago today
@DanielAndrewsMP declared a State of Emergency over Victoria, and so began the worst human rights abuses in modern Australian history.
Those of us who stood up to him were attacked by the media, assaulted by police, betrayed by family and friends.
Tear gassed, pepper sprayed, assaulted with battons, shot with rubber bullets, herded like cats (because we kept getting away!), arrested en-mass, police in our homes, criminal charges to our names.
They were the worst of times. But the were, truly, the best of times.
We found our voice.
We found our strength.
We found each other.
But more than anything we found ourselves.
We. Know. Who. We. Are.
It would be easy to focus on what was lost.
I lost a multi-million dollar business start up that I'd poured my heart and soul into for years.
I lost myself to alcohol for two years.
I lost my mental health.
And there were times I nearly lost my hope.
I know you can say similar things about yourself.
But look at what we won.
We stood strong against the largest propaganda campaign in history.
We defied the worst human rights abuser our nation has seen in our lifetimes.
We proved our courage against a violent and fearf-driven standing army.
And we found a tribe of people that's united not by blood or mere friendship, but by belief, by courage, and by history.
We won a place in history.
We proved ourselves in the worst of times.
We passed the test when many around us failed it.
We proved the beauty and the truth of Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings in one of the most poiniant moments from the movies when Frido was at the point of giving up:
FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.
SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.
FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?
SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for
5 years on I want to say thankyou to you. Thankyou for seeing the good in this world.
Thankyou for BEING the good in this world.
Thankyou for taking your place in history.
Here's to 5 years.