Australia Day attended by growing controversy

[LewisM]

Dragons can fly, can't they?

[Sol-Skysailor (Sol)]

Thank you for sharing this, Rom. Please excuse extracting bits which I don't think changes the meaning.

Originally Posted by el_draco

---- takes the time to understand their perspective and treat them with --- basic respect

----- to speak in derogatory terms belittles us more than them.

I feel incredibly fortunate to live on the same continent as the First people. We have an awful lot to learn from them and an obligation to help them deal with the consequences of -----

Anyone ---- should place themselves in the others footsteps ---

I think 'basic respect' applies for all.
Yes, words of insults reflect on the speakers!
Easy to check whether an expression is with kindness? towards peace or towards conflict? superior or equal or inferior?

It's freedom of respectful, rational, towards-peace speech.
Nothing PC about this, nothing for any political gains.
Have we been through education by television, that promotes putdowns and cutting remarks?
We can't blame the media entirely, we consume.

Empathy can take less than 5 minutes, would you reckon...
how easy to close eyes from distraction, in calm, imagine born as one of ‘the’...

If a minority bunch of claimed-superior keep hitting another minority bunch of chosen targets,
the majority in the middle are the ones who can be effective in insisting on kindness and peace.
Let's not leave the targets to fight off alone.

We may need to quit categorising people as 'the'... or getting so attached to cattle-branding people.
You know... if we feel superior because of our skin, we didn't contribute, we just got born it. No colour is a superior colour anyway; if I could choose I'd choose one with plenty melanin. If we feel superior because we were born in a place, well... we didn't contribute either, our nurturing mothers were there.

[Sol-Skysailor (Sol)]

Calm time is the best time to confer
to prepare for better Days. IMO

One specific relevance here may be some threads and activities in
astronomy embracing the First Culture.

I used to not get involved on social issues.
I used to just head down focus on engineering/science, work, family.
A lawyer acquaintance was passionate about our First People
I have always been interested but still I did not hear, did not listen,
did not register ‘someone else, somewhere else’.

As others have also expressed, sadder and more destructive world now.
My ‘doing something about it’
got escalated, when an astronomy friend I had hardly known died suddenly.
I did not know why I grieved so much
but I learnt too late that he was passionate about social issues
including as faced by our First People

My 1st positive step is this thread. Previously I hardly read this general sub-forum.

Rom, I do not have the experience you’ve had with your blood brother,
so for my 2nd positive step I intend to participate at a community group event.

Please propose and discuss what we can do towards respectful friendship and cohesive peace.
Thank You

[Sol-Skysailor (Sol)]

++++ As to what date:

A proposal, towards solution, not controversy…. some date with a notion more of universal significance,
or local livelihood, not necessarily ‘nationalistic’,
nor even about the one species homo sapiens, but have it if we must.

Below is for a celebration day, for all.

1. The year’s Friday closet to SH Spring Equinox (looking to energy and growth?
   –hopefully not for bad effects in different parts of the country) or
   
   
2. the year’s Friday closest to SH June Solstice (turning the corner,
   not December that's too date-crowded) or
   
   
3. 21st March (today!!) as it is also the UN Harmony Day
   
   
4. To TREASURE and to LOVE our inheritance or heritage if we may claim so. What date…
   membe when the emu in the sky transits at midnight Uluru. (Or the galactic centre…nah. Or Alpha Cen.) We could tell the emu story, or another oldest most historical and astronomical story of this land.
   
   The more I think of it…. why, we could have that as our National Anthem. Awesome beautiful with-nature Music!

[clive milne]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Dragons can fly, can't they?

Ny ex-wife gets invited to perform at air shows... the barrel rolls she can do on her broom are a crowd favourite.

[Sol-Skysailor (Sol)]

Pleased to hear about community consultation,

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-0...ia-day/8412874
4-Apr-2017

Hobart City Council discussing and consulting
"about how we celebrate and when we celebrate".

Cheers