Hello all,
I've been feeling a million miles from poetry - this is the most depressing
election I've experienced - '75 I just felt bloody angry but this is
different - depressed by the Coalition (even more than usual - I keep
thinking of Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil", and there's Howard on
Friday dodging the issue of whether or no some refugees threw their children
overboard - clearly bullshit - clutching his umbrella the while, looking
querulous, cranky, almost harmless in his foolishness and you could almost
overlook the malignance of what he's set in train - am I over-reacting? -
this poisonous imp), depressed equally by Labor - at least they could have
lost with honour, integrity, but that seemed to disappear round about the
time the Silver Bodgie got in. And finally, depressed by all those
Australians who jumped on the racist bandwagon.
I saw a great bit of graffitti circa 1975 (somewhere near White Bay, I
think) - Australians are a mob of bloody minded sheep - they got that right
- but now it's even worse - I saw a letter in the Herald on Friday in
response to the previous day's front page where 18 religious leaders, former
politicans, diplomats condemned the Coalition and Labor for the treatment of
refugees - the letter-writer's response? - he/she had been unsure how to
vote but now was definitely voting for the Coalition!
I could hold forth for ages but really meant to remind those living in
Melbourne that I will be launching Duty this Friday at Collected Works, 6.30
for 7. I should be looking forward to it, and sort of am, though convinced
it'll be raining. Sigh.
See you if you can make it and lets hope that the Labor Party can recover
some sense of idealism/vision and we can salvage something from the mess.
best wishes to all,
Geraldine
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
|