Only Together can we make a Change.

We are almost at the end of 2022 and still we cannot seem to get it right. More than 2000 years since the birth of Christ and we still struggle. No matter what religious belief you follow, or don’t follow the mere fact that there are so many people filled with hatred of others who are different should have us all questioning humanity as a whole. When a 15-year-old innocent indigenous youth, Cassius Turvey, is chased and beaten with a metal pipe, later dying in hospital, do not tell me that it was not racially motivated. The media can say that it was a case of mistaken identity, that the boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and maybe both of those facts are true. However, if the white man who committed this murder in broad daylight was not racially biased then would he have been so brutal, or would his friends have stood by and allowed him to beat the boy in the first place? I believe it would not have ended the way it did.

This, along with a history of indigenous youth in Australia losing their lives in extremely questionable circumstances, breaks me to my core. It saddens and maddens me that in 2022 Australia, like other countries such as the U.S.A. and Cananda among others, still struggles with racism and bigotry and inexcusable treatment of their indigenous people. Every race has a tragic history, but indigenous people and those of color have suffered more than most and continue to struggle when there is absolutely no valid reason they do so. I do not look at a person and see their color or their race, I see them as a fellow human. Sure, I notice the beautiful color of their skin, the glowing dark eyes and the brightness of their smile but all of that is about their beauty not their race. As a mother of a mixed-race child color and race are not important only the quality of the human, the beauty from within, the integrity of the person is.

I will not pretend to understand the pain and suffering indigenous people and those of color have had to endure in their lives or the tragic history of their people. All I can do is express my sorrow and anger for what has transpired and what inexplicably continues to happen and use my writing to keep the discussion going in the hope that it won’t take another 2000 years before it stops.

Life is for living, no matter your race

You should not be punished because of your face

There is sadness and hatred wherever you go

With racism and bigotry always on show

Why is the white man so filled with hate

I hope we can change it, or is it too late?

History will tell us the struggle’s ongoing

But it should not stop our children from growing.

How many more young lives must be lost?

Losing their future, it’s too greater cost.

It is up to us all to change what we can

To speak up against it, to stand hand in hand.

It is only together will we have a chance

To end senseless killings, we must take a stance

So no other family will feel the same pain

And those that have died have not died in vain.