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Maree O'Halloran speech, Oct 19 2003 - Don't Be Bush Wacked!Maree O'Halloran is the President of the NSW Teachers Federation. Thanks comrades and friends, and thanks to the Sydney Peace & Justice Coalition for this magnificent day, this day when we say to Bush: you are not wanted here, we give you the big W. Teachers are here today to say that we support you in saying we are not supporters of Bush II. Thirty-seven years to the day on Wednesday to the day on October 27 when another American President, Lyndon B, arrived to tell Australians that he loved them, to tell Australians that he would choose them to go to the well, another American comes to say that he loves Australians, professing that he loves the country, and yet enmeshing the world in war. He says that our leader and Australia is the 'Sheriff of South East Asia'. Well we should turn our attention to our leaders, to Howard - to those unlike Canada and New Zealand who chose to take an independent stand - turn our attention to those who enmeshed us in a war on the people of Iraq. We don't have a 'Sheriff', we have here Australia's own 'bonsai', here to do exactly what Bush tells him. Teachers are opposed to this war on the people of Iraq, and opposed to the legacy of that war. We had our young people on the streets protesting against that war, and the cacophony of radio talk-back commentators and political commentators who said those young people should not be on the streets. At a time when children and youth in Iraq were dying and facing severe deprivation - and they still do - they were saying that our young people, our future, were not entitled to protest. Teachers also say to you that in our schools and TAFE colleges there is the legacy here in Australia, and I'm sure it is true in other countries to a larger extent, where teachers are attempting to deal with the difference between what they see in the political domain and what they see in schools. Peace is teachers' business. We teach about the rule of law. We teach about recognition and acceptance of cultural and religious differences. We teach about peaceful resolution. But while we teach that, exactly the opposite pertains in the political sphere. That legacy will remain for us. The 'Bushisms' that we hear every day from the big W may be the subject of ridicule, they may be a joke, but they are also a deliberate dumbing down of the debate in the political arena. Karl Rove, one of Bush's advisors, has said that as people become better off they start to vote like Republicans, unless they have too much education, when they start to vote like Democrats, and that shows there can be too much of a good thing. That quote tells us that there is an antidote to being Bush Wacked - that's public education, our students and our future. Thank you. |
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© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
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