Letter to the Editor: time to respond to change

DEAR News Of The Area

THERE has been much to digest in the events of this year’s Australia Day celebration, some of it giving little cause for joy.

Watching the flag hijacked by Australia First, white supremacists and similar groups, was a depressing experience.

I would love to celebrate wearing a silly hat and beach towel sporting the national flag at a barbie at the beach, but I cannot do this when we all know that January 26 ushered in untold suffering for First Nations people, the effects of which continue to this day.

This date has not only become a running sore for the whole country but I genuinely fear it has also become a ticking time bomb for real violence.

We have had our warning in the homemade bomb landing in the Invasion Day rally crowds.

It was just luck and ineptitude which [prevented] large numbers of deaths on that day.

While we have time, we need to think seriously about a date and a flag that reflect all of modern Australia.

While I acknowledge that this idea is not popular in all quarters, it could go a long way towards diffusing a volatile situation, which promises to become worse as time goes on.

Times have changed and we must respond to the change appropriately.

It is not good enough to proceed as though all is fine while closing our eyes to potential disaster.

Margaret England

Toormina