Thank you. And thanks for the reminder to credit the artist of the cover shot. It’s Judith Baca. I just edited the blog post and added a link to her work.

I’ll pray for your son. Thanks for being such a great father and role model to him.

Thanks for these reflections and for the courage that you and the others at the PM’s Sydney residence showed.

Your action and a prayer vigil that I and one of your ‘Kirribili Five’ were a part of last week outside our Federal member’s office prompted great conversations with my 13 year old son.

He too is asking similar questions to those you asked in the hot sun yesterday … “Dad is it going to work? Will it make a difference?”

The conclusion I’ve reached, which I try to convey to my son, is that whilst there will always be exceptions, I think history is on the side of NvDA. I continue to be inspired by Dr. King and his leadership in the civil rights movement. Moreover, I’m inspired by the life of Jesus who was “led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

I appreciate your article and look forward to sharing your insights with my son.

Peace

Love your work, David. Great stuff.

I have been rallying friends and family to write letters and to phone the PM, MP Dutton and local MP’s.. it’s hard to tell whether I’m just “preaching to the converted” but the response and action following has been reassuring…

I hope that our politicians will take notice.
Below is the letter that I wrote:

“Dear Prime Minister Turnbull,

I called your office earlier to register my extreme concern regarding the escalating situation on Manus Island pertaining to the remaining asylum seekers who are housed there.

I am calling strongly on the Australian Government to step in and and bring the remaining asylum seekers to Australia for processing under our responsibilities as a signatory to UN Refugee Convention.

The situation is dire, and I am horrified that the Australian Government is continuing the barbaric treatment of this small number of men – I really can’t bear to think that this is being done in our name.

Every sector from medical professionals, eduction professionals, religious groups and so on have been vocal in raising the vast problems that the system is causing for fellow human beings. Furthermore, there have been numerous economic cases made for how the issue of asylum seekers can be handled in a humane way; one that maintains peoples dignity and basic human rights, and saves Australian tax payers billions of dollars and the heartache of having this horror on our conscience.

To see this situation now worsening, and having it all done under the auspices of “border protection” is obscene.

As a committed Christian and a voting member of Australia, a business owner/Director, paying taxes and contributing to the well being of our society, I cannot and will not stand for this. My faith, my own families immigrant history and my basic humanity will not allow me to do so.

In a recent opinion piece article by Robert Manne, he highlighted the idea of “the banality of evil” – explaining “how evil acts might be perpetrated by conventional individuals because of their blindness, their loss of the capacity to see what it was that they were doing” . It is a perfect explanation of what is happening in Australia right now, and worsening by the moment.
History will judge you, and all Australian people, harshly if we do not rid ourselves of this blindness and commit our country to the values of basic human dignity, acceptance and a fair go for everyone.

Thank you for your time – I look forward to the news reports about Australia changing it’s policy and bringing these poor men here.

I will be praying for you and your work, as well as the refugees stuck on Manus Island who desperately need and deserve our help.”