Everybody seems to have an opinion about January 26 now. Perhaps it is safe to offer mine – though I did only think it up a few minutes ago.
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I should play my cards on the debate though – I’m thoroughly non-patriotic. I don’t hate Australia, but I just don’t have feelings about it.
Back to the Clean Up merge. We could give Australians a public holiday to work at beautifying Australia. And while we’re at it, we could merge it with Neighbour Day from March as well and make sure we’re doing some good alongside our neighbours.
Nobody likes losing public holidays so let’s just have three identical days, only spread throughout the year. Maybe Clean Up Australia Day, Clean up with Neighbours Day, and Clean Up your Culture Day?
What’s my point? These debates would mean a whole lot more if there was actually civic will to bridge our many barriers of hurt in our history and multicultural community.
Whatever we do or don’t do in a few days should be a minor tone in this discussion – what instead would it take to actually love our neighbour – no matter skin or country of origin? Then we’d have something to celebrate.