#1369 - a list of things the NO camp doesn’t need to worry about in order to win

 

 

1369

1.x.23

4.275

a list of things the NO camp doesn’t need to worry about in order to win

or

why it’s harder for us

 

a little essay on false equivalence

 

preambling

 

being rather viciously abused for my YESshirt by Nostirs walking through Redfern Station yesterday

 

place where in the very distant passed, in my ancient already-then Beetle, I missed the opportunity to run down The Skull on a pedestrian crossing

 

and just round the corner from Caroline St (just off Esperanto Lawson), which is still there, where my brother first attempted squalor, and the koori kids would come down the street and piss through the letterflap in the front door for a lark, which seems funny now, but didn’t at the time

 

and where, once, visiting, two cops leapt out, grabbed me, pushed me up against the side of their car, searched my bag and, satisfied, leapt back into the car, not a word said till I asked ‘what was that about?’ and they said, out the window, speeding off, ‘you didn’t have a gun’ … they were quit right too

 

but back to yesterday and the abuse

of course I just kept walking

and it struck me

first

that these thugs had probably come to Redfern specially, thinking this would be a good place to snarl at blackfellas and shout racist abuse

but secondly that

if you weren’t already voting YES then this scene probably would not inspire you to think that those NO people are thugs and we YES people are angels … it would probably just make you think ‘I don’t want to know about this’

and then it occurred to me that there is Dutton’s underslogan – it’s not really

if you don’t know, vote no

it’s

if you don’t WANT to know, vote NO

and that, my friends, is a lot harder to fight

and that is why they are winning

a lot of people don’t want to know

and they don’t like being preached at

 

takes me back to Russell Ward’s idea in The Australian Legend, if I remember correctly, that the difference between the American and the Australian idea of freedom is the difference between freedom to and  freedom from … e.g. freedom to have gun versus freedom to not be threatened by someone with a gun …

 

so the problem with any referendum is Australia is that it involves a government wanting us to consider something … and people don’t like being made to think… it carries some unpleasant implications for them

 

disturb  a dog at its dinner and you’ll always get a snarl

 

 

you see how our job is so much harder in this ‘debate’

 

 

the no side don’t need

crowds

unity

friends

optimism

truth

logic

goodwill

spark

talent

creativity

imagination

decency

respect

empathy

sense of proportion

civility

democratic instincts

understanding of history

capacity to stand in someone else’s shoes

to be able to acknowledge past present wrongs

commitment to a better and fairer world

regret

remorse

permission

anyone’s consent

to be able to spell or make grammatical sentences

courtesy

good humour

fellow feeling

a sense that fellow creatures (not their family) may require love and care

interest

 

we’re the ones who need these things

and the big positive for us is that the exercise of these things makes us better, stronger, more united, determined … whether we win or not

 

but back to the racist thugs at Redfern

and they spouting their racist filth as they went along

these lowlifes kept saying the word CUNT, it was and is their favourite word I guess… and this inspired me to draft the following poem

 

 

I love cunt

 

it’s where I’m from

(call it a rite of passage)

spent a lot of my life trying to get in

and still, after all these years

the idea remains appealing

 

cunt is very attractive

to many, with and without

 

if you’re thinking to shock or impress me

please don’t say anything bad about cunt

 

don’t compare anyone or anything with cunt

unless in a favorable light

 

cunts are wondrous goodly

compared with those who’ve been called after them

 

cunts are lovable laudable lovely

 

wild thyme and the sea in this conch

so every voyage begins!

 

secret treasure!

 

in taste and texture – many, various

elegant, if not baroque

secret, self enfolding

 

noble for all they have through ages done

 

toil through the forest too

 

sometimes take the needy in

perfect as any flower ever

 

objectify as much as you please

 

every cunt

lest we forget

has its person

with every other person part

and personality

volition!

 

what’s not to love?

and where’s a better place for it?

(feel free with your suggestions)

 

anyway it’s fully the half of us have

however shy, proud

wet or dry, languid, longing to fulfill

yours, mine and much as merge here –  

such solemn precious pleasure scene

 

here is a palace for feeling

miracle place!

 

wonderful cunt

 

all should celebrate

 

a very phallus Eden

nor is a cock required

 

shall we not sing cunt anthems then?

let us salute all cunts

and have a cunt day

international year of the cunt

and why stop there

 

where would we be without?

 

give thanks and praise for cunt

 

and where is it then – please remind me –

where is it you come from?