Traveling light through life

The first tragedy to strike our tight knit community this past week was the passage by the upper house of the pulp mill fast track legislation that had been approved by the lower house the previous week. The bill is so bad that it does not allow any prosecution of proven criminal intent by Gunns (the pulp mill builder) to be permissible. There is no public input allowed into the assessment process and no scientist other than the appointed government consultant can make any recommendations or point out any flaws in the environmental material submitted by Gunns.

The Australian Medical Association is aghast by the legislation and most legal scholars are astounded by its blatant denial of democratic process. Yet, it gets passed.

The second tragedy was on Saturday when a father had to bury his son; a mother her child.

Too young, too young, were the words most often heard floating across the muffled hush of 300 or so mourners come to give their last respects to Tom and to offer heartfelt, if ineffective, support to the grieving parents, Pete and Anna.

Part of Pete’s eulogy spoke of his son wanting to live an “authentic life” and not be consumed with the accumulation of material things. Aside from a massive collection of books, Tom wanted to travel light and to devote himself to honest work. Work that would be for the betterment of all.

While sitting in the funeral home’s chapel, I noticed to the right of me was Christine Milne, the Green’s federal Senator. To the left was Duncan Kerr, federal Labor parliamentarian. The one has been outspoken in her condemnation of the scandalous ethics of the state Labor party; the other totally silent. Duncan Kerr, although a federal politician and the former attorney general of Australia, would know that what his state Labor party mates were doing was totally unethical, yet, to date, he has not defended the rule of good governance with even one spoken or written word.

In the hospital, just before his death, Tom wrote something along the lines of:  “A good architect can look at the foundation of a building and imagine what the completed structure will be. I hope my family and friends can look at my life to date, my foundation so to speak, and see that I would have been a decent person who would have done good.”

Tom’s brief life fell as ashes on the one politician and as feathered kisses on the other.

Driving home, I will have to admit to feeling a surge of anger towards those politicians who would desecrate, not only the state’s environmental wonders, but the basis of democratic law. What sort of role models to our young are our politicians when they tear up the rule book on political transparency and sell their souls publicly and blatantly to deceit and political grovelling.
In the town of Sorrell, I passed the state Labor office and felt an urge to get a can of paint and spray, in red, SHAME across the names of the five politicians posted in the windows.

By Dunally, I wanted to take out full page advertisements in the newspaper denouncing the actions of our Labor and Liberal politicians.

By Eaglehawk Neck, I wanted to use the billboards across the city of Hobart to effectively keep the issue alive.

In the end, I did none of the above. The spray painting seemed too violent a reaction while the ads and billboard signage proved too costly.

But I have and will continue to do what I can through letter writing and engaging in dialogue with as many as will listen. In no small way this honours Tom’s memory by offering Pete and Anna and us older folk a path of committed hope for the future.

For you see, the natural cycle of passing on to a younger generation issues of responsibility was broken somewhat with Tom’s untimely death. The baton of social justice issues he had been preparing to carry has been passed back to us. It might be that us oldies have to carry the flag of protest a little longer. Breath in deeply and keep on truckin’.

Tom is now on the other side of the song, but if we talk up our walk while walking our talk, our collective voices will be sweet music to him.
And the meaning of the top photo?

Mike, a true “journeyman” carpenter from a German wood guild passed through Windgrove last week carrying nothing save for a walking stick and a small bundle of clothes. For a minimum of three years and one day, he told me he has to “do good and bring happiness to others through his woodworking skills”.

Tom travelled light. Mike travels light. May we all travel light.