22/2/2003

Howard is very wrong and I can prove it.
Howard, have you ever lived with the oppressed?
Howard, do you even understand what it is to be oppressed?

Having over 30 years involvement with Australia's indigenous people (Living Treasures) I have seen first hand what happens to oppressed people after 200 years of being oppressed.

I have seen first hand why threats, punishment and revenge don't work and can prove it doesn't work.

If you don't try to solve what is causing the problem - the problem just continues accelerating out of control.

I have watched the effect of being oppressed has on a persons life. I have seen how they react, showing violence not on a person who become their target - but violence to a system that is oppressing them, the innocent person injured just happens to be in their firing line at the time.

The penalty for this, is punishment, which just makes the oppressed fight back with what ever they have at hand next time - probably a bigger weapon.

America proves this point very well. Their biggest growth industry is building of prisons and weapons. Do they think this is working, if they do they are kidding themselves. They need to get to the bottom of why this is happening?

I have also seen how a hand of friendship does work. Take Reconciliation and what it has achieved in Australia. We as a nation have finally recognised there has been wrong done in the past. We are working together to help the oppressed indigenous race, on one hand try to come to terms mentally with what has happened and secondly try to rectify the wrong.

The question must be asked here and now, did we only start Reconciliation because the oppressed where starting to commit too many violent crimes against us and not on themselves??

On the world scene it is no different just a bigger scale.

Some of us have thought we had it so good and that we are entitled to live the way we do. Never lifting the sheets to see who we are lying on while being so comfortable.

It is only when the ones we have been lying on start to say "enough is enough I can't breath under here" and flex their muscles fighting to get out from under us - do we start to take notice. As is the case with Bin Ladin and the terrorist threat. They have reacted with violence - so we start to say enough is enough and bring out the big bat to bash them over the head and say just lie done I want to be comfortable again. What do we expect that they should lie and die quietly - while we eat grapes, sip champagne and make love on top of them.

Who are we kidding?

The oppressed are flexing their muscles of survival, the only way they know how to get out from under us. I am not interested in who is right or wrong, we need to go back 10,000 for that - just like the Indigenous situation in Australia.

I am not directly responsible for what has happened - but I am part of the problem, part of the bigger picture.

I am interested in getting to the bottom of what the problem is and how we as members of the Family of Humanity can together start to find solutions.

The problem is we have been complacent and have not cared enough about our fellow human beings. They were hidden under the mattress cover so we didn't have to look at their faces and see the pain our heavy bodies caused. We have continued to rape, plunder and destroy this bed (Planet,) we call our OWN, like there was no tomorrow.

Where do we all go from here?

The first step must come from the Western world and believe me it is not that hard

a very simple motto we should all be starting to adopt.

Like I said about reconciliation - the same applies to the whole world.

The walks over the bridges are great and a step in the right direction, but until we walk through Redfern, Cherbourg etc ( indigenous communities) - It means nothing.

So until the western world is game to walk in the shoes of the oppressed, we can never understand the problem. Until we are game to lift the mattress, we won't see our own dust and dirt.

I have also learnt that people no matter who they are all want the same things.

A simple kindness or show of understanding can break down more barriers then a threat, punishment or revenge, as has been so clearly illustrated by Saddam Hussein. The threat of war didn't achieve this the people who care did.

Howard that is what you are missing. Howard, if you want proof, I can show you first hand that love and understanding worked where your prison did not.

Howard, you show me - how your way of fighting fire with fire or terrorism with terrorism works. Israel/ Palestine is a good example of this and if this is the road you are taking Australia down - we don't want to go with you.

Howard, if you are right, show me how closing down terrorist cell and jailing them will stop others? I notice it hasn't stopped Bin Ladin or frightened him? I don't thing this method has been a deterrent for anyone in the past, why do you thing it would work now? If anything the violence will continue to just get worse.

Never have I seen a country or a people crying out in pain more then America, their drug and violence problems continue to spiral them somewhere they can't see an answer to - other then building more prisons.

Maybe just maybe a country from the East might be able to show them how they don't have these problems?

We can learn so much from each other and at this point in time we need to all walk down the same rocky road together, first in reconciliation which means sharing our bed. Second we have to help the wounds caused by our lying on them, heal. Then we need to plan how we will all survive the damage we have done, not to ourselves but to Mother Earth (Planet)

It only takes a hand to start lifting the sheets and it can't be the oppressed as they are the ones trapped below the mattress.

Kerry Bowden
Global Strategic Alliance for the New Humanity,
One Mind One Voice.
A Famility of Humanity
PS: Caitlin say