Day 18 – Bus To The Heart Of Denial

A kind but tough journey

Charlie Perkins did not whisper
as he demanded his nation
Examine its heart.

He showed racism is an aggressive animal.
You can’t make a pet of it,
because it will consume you and your children.

Charlies long journey began with a bus and fellow students.
His freedom ride through towns
that gave no free rides to blacks.

Newspapers, tv screens shared the story,
and for the first time ordinary Australians
saw the depravity of white man’s hatred.

Blacks unable to swim in municipal pools.
Blacks welcomed to fight courageously in the military,
but not welcome to gather in peace with white comrades.

Blacks with no recognition in their own land, and no vote.

And so the aggressive animal raises its head again.
No place for Blacks, Muslims or people of any difference.
Everyone must look the same to have place in our nation.

Charlie Perkins, highly educated aborigine.
Lecturer, writer, advocate, warrior for equality,
We celebrate his spirit alive among us.

Kindness is a Freedom Ride,

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