All for One and One for All

The idea of community, so entrenched in the legend of the Three Musketeers, is globally appealing and may be the reason for so many film adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' novel. Like all good narratives the baddie is rich and powerful, a bit sleazy and has some great, teeth grinding lines - 'All for one and more for me'. Cardinal Richelieu gets his comeuppance in the end at the hands of the young King with heroic support from his handsome Musketeers. Of course according to the book and the films, every one lives happily ever-after.

If only our problems were so easy to recognise and finish off in real life. 

The big news in Australia this week was the death of Hazel Hawke.  Damien Murphy wrote a piece for The Sydney Morning Herald that demonstrated how a woman who had chosen abortion to allow her boyfriend the freedom of overseas study and multiple cosmetic surgery to maintain an acceptable appearance for the wife of a Rhodes scholar climbing the political ladder to its zenith, was steely in her resolve to do the right thing by the people in her mostly absent husband's electorate. 

Order of Australia 2001
Image from abc.net.au

This biography was new to me, the divorce for a younger woman blasted across the front pages of greedy magazines and the onset of dementia were all I had been previously aware of.  I am fascinated by the juxtaposition that this woman's life became. Her appeasing choices and lack of self esteem in her early years is in total contrast with the strong family ties she held together through humiliating headlines, and the amount of plaques bearing her name chosen by everyday people in everyday places because of their respect for her hard work and dedication to their improved communities.  It is inspiring how such strength developed from such meekness. 

I am assuming that her early decisions were the result of pressure from an ambitious partner but it is possible that she was just as ambitious and chose for herself; what's the old saying about behind every good man?  Perhaps she always had the steely resolve to do what 'needed' to be done. Or perhaps she was bullied into it and hindsight drove her to fight for others in later years.

Also in the news this week are the results of a study about rising numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody. It was announced and quickly passed over for the next headline in the TV news I watched. The article in the SMH was hard to find and didn't tout the name of a reporter or even the name of the lead researcher.  The report was cloaked in anonymity, AAP was listed as the source and the Australian Institute of Criminology as the researcher. Why does no one want to stand up and be noticed about this sick and sad issue in our community?

Death in Custody
Trevor Nicholls 1990
treatyrepublic.net

The study showed that these deaths are not caused by police brutality where bad cops can be sacked, they are not caused by hangings where cells can be changed but by 'natural' causes: the effects of poverty and alcohol abuse. Ultimately they result from lifestyle choices but what lack of community makes these choices so common?

In the same week the lead vocalist of 'Power and the Passion' and 'Dead Heart' is desperately trying to drum up support from the states who have not signed up to the Gonski report driven changes for needs based funding of Aussie schools. "Education is the passport out of poverty for many indigenous students, yet we are still leaving thousands of kids behind,'' Mr Garrett said. "NSW has shown the way by signing up to our plan and delivering a better deal for almost 54,000 Aboriginal students in that state." in smh.com.au by Michael Gordon.  Isolation, loss of culture, substance abuse, poor nutrition and financial ignorance could be reduced by education which in turn will reduce the numbers of indigenous criminals and deaths in their communities whether behind bars or not.

photo:Glenn Campbell in theage.com.au

Why do some individuals in our community appear to be worth so much more than hundreds of others.  Why do we want to read and talk about one but strive to ignore many?

 At least  Dumas gives us food for thought and a little hope with the words "The merit of all things lies through their difficulty."  Perhaps he meant that the worth of something may be measured in how hard we are prepared to fight for it.  

Swords out - protect the defenseless and honour those with the strength to hold to what is true.

Reading:
Peace at Last - article from The Age by Lindsay Murdoch 2007
"TWO years ago gang violence made the Aboriginal community of Wadeye look like a Third World refugee camp.

"My tears are never dry," indigenous elder Theodora Narndu said at the time.

Elders say few solutions proposed for Wadeye addressed the complex problems that arose from having 23 combative clan groups brought together in one community, when a Catholic mission was set up in the then Port Keats in the 1930s.
"Things are pretty good here at the moment … there's not the trouble like before, the kids are going to school, there's less problems with drinking. Buildings are going up. Looking out from here, I feel as if I know more and am ready to deal with the issues," Mrs Narndu said."