Alright, so you know those days when you feel a pain in your back and it feels like its from a hole bored right through your chest via the heart? One of those days? One of those mornings.

The weather holds heavy, the vehicles outside are quiet. Everything is moving to a stillness. Fuel prices are increasing and people are more concerned about that than they are about so many other things to be concerned about. But hey, that’s life.

I get to sit here. I get to sit and relax. Who am I to complain? Who am I to argue that we should do more about the needless suffering of millions, and we don’t as they’re out of sight and out of mind. Who am I to argue that we should help others? I’m merely one other person. I’m just someone who gets to live in comfort and embrace all that that comes with. I shouldn’t get a say in these things, because why would I? I don’t matter.

But I do think it’s important that we look after others and we start asking tough questions about who we are, what we participate in and what we allow.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about issues in Sydney. I’ve spent a lot of my life raising concerns and I’ve had quite a few people tell me that we have it better than other places in the world. I’ve had people tell me that there are other countries to go to. And yeah, we do, but – and I’ve said this before – we could have it so much better than we do. We don’t get to have it better if we don’t work for it, and we do not work enough for it. Hell, we don’t work enough for people overseas, either.

People are willing to shut down grievances and concerns about increasing discrimination and suffering rather than inquire and look further. They’re not willing to entertain the possibility that things are getting bad with the rise of problematic views, the gradual erosion of rights and a perceived governmental leaning away from care for citizenry, and I think a lot of that has to do with comfort. People don’t want to question enough because everything is fine for them. They’re not directly impacted, so it’s not an issue. Oh, these vociferous racists are increasingly confident. They’re more willing to be seen and heard and they don’t care. But they’ll never get a foothold, that’ll never happen in Australia. Couldn’t happen here. You know, those neo-Nazis in The Grampians, that was a small thing. These Reclaim Australia protests, small thing. Will go nowhere.

And so on it goes and I have to ask if anyone on this continent has seen what has happened in places overseas. Well, I guess racist people have. A bunch of highly conservative people have, because they’re doing the same things and it seems they’re gaining traction simply because so many people are sleepwalking, and willingly.

I can’t help but think about what lies ahead in Australia’s future. We keep regressing, so much changes for the worse and anything that seems like it could be progress is a minor distraction at best. Nothing changes unless enough people are willing to be better.