Flags can unite and also divide
The populist media is too ready to condemn middle-eastern immigrants for failing to “integrate” while failing to strongly condemn those who would wrap themselves in an Australian flag saying “get out we were here first.”
Well they weren’t – the Aboriginal people were here first. And do those waving our flag really know or care about the protocol of respecting the flag? That it should not touch the ground, and should be carefully put away after sundown?
When I grew up the Australian flag was raised at school and it flew on the flagpoles of public buildings. That’s where I think it belongs.
Flags can unite and also divide. Let’s not have our flag commandeered by those who would use it to provoke confrontation.
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Personally I have no interest whatsoever in any flag that separates one group of people from another. We are all human beings. Thus the only flag I would support is the UN flag, and that should be flown on buildings or poles, not people.
It’s a growing trend - people who claim that they support Australian values, and yet at the same time spit in the face of the same values. It is frightening and worrying. The flag is an important symbol, and one which I respect, but not when it is wrapped around, or in any other way adorning, a person using it for small-minded, racist and ignorant reasons. That is un-Australian.
Our flag should be treated with respect, not dishonoured by people who misuse it to promote prejudice.
Sadly, I’ve observed another aspect in the current, divisive nationalistic application of the flag first hand. A friend of mine, who is of foreign birth, but adopted into an Anglo-saxon Australian family since then, was herself displaying an Australian flag tattoo on Australia day just passed. A couple of young men saw this, and aggressively - threateningly - demanded what gave her the “right” to wear the flag - calling her an offensive racial slur.
This to someone who speaks no other language but English, and knows and loves no other country but this one. It seems that even integration isn’t enough for bigots - one wonders, what is?
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