Tuesday, January 30, 2007
FLAG NOT LIKED
The Age’s Traceeee Hutchison is concerned about Australia’s flag:
Sydney’s Big Day Out passed without incident despite huge numbers of patrons defying the leave-the-flags-at-home urgings of organisers, but imagine the outcry had a bunch of flag-clad idiots done some real damage? Imagine if someone was badly injured in a flag-induced frenzy?
Imagine if someone was badly injured in a Traceeee-induced frenzy. Imagine the outcry had a bunch of Indymedia-reading idiots done some real damage. Imagine anything you like, because nothing bad happened at Sydney’s Big Day Out concert. Despite that ...
Perhaps the time has finally arrived to come up with a flag that unites, not divides, us. To be reminded of a country that welcomes not rejects. A country that makes peace with its past and looks to its future with self-determined optimism and hope. A country we can all feel proud to be part of.
Go ahead, Hutchison, and design that flag. The flag of unity. We’d love to see it. Over at the Bulletin, Adam Shand was of similar anti-flag mind prior to last week’s concert:
There is no doubt the Australian flag has been used to divide our people ... There is no deep love here for our flag.
If there’s no deep love for the flag, how does it generate the passion to “divide us”? Are we being ripped apart by something we don’t care about?