As Brendan (Jones) reminds us, The Age's online poll last week shows 63 per cent of Australians are in favour of change. He argues forcefully that
A flag that so clearly divides the nation is failing in its primary purpose.Australia Day, which triggered the debate, might have been a week ago, but Age readers sure aren't going to let this issue be swept under the carpet.
Shamefully, I don't think I've heard anyone else talk about or write about the flag since about 1998.
Well I don’t know what water coolers you’re standing around James. In my workplace we usually kick off the day loudly decrying Aboriginal gencocide; which segues nicely into an examination of our general racism and xenophobia as a nation…
ReplyDeleteWhich of course is a hangover of our British imperialist past. Naturally that would bring any right-thinking, compassionate human being to the urgent need to change our flag.
But then I wouldn’t expect priviliged, white, Anglo-Saxon, heteronormative males such as yourself to understand that.
BTW, my friends are also concerned the current flag completely ignores our richly diverse GLBTI community – surely there’s room for a wee rainbow motif in there somwhere?