Racism and militarism

I had a disturbing incident today. Someone I occasionally work with described Acknowledgement of Country as "bunkum" - in this day and age, with all that is going on!

The dinosaur has shown tendencies of being paternalistic and patronising, so I shouldn't be surprised - bigotries tend to be grouped together.

There is a tendency on my part to note he has been reasonable to date, and start to justify this as being due to the stress of the lockdown. However, other people under the same stress have not reverted to such problematic behaviour - some are even shining, their better aspects coming to the fore.

I managed to calmly point out that the person was breaching company policy, and took his behaviour up with his manager. I'll also be letting our inclusion and diversity committee know.

(I have subsequently received a retraction. That's OK as far as work goes, but from a spiritual/moral/personal growth perspective, that person still has some work to do.)

Black Lives Matter! 

I am also gravely disturbed that soldiers, presumably in uniform and hopefully not with weapons, will be accompanying health officers doing checks on people who have been tested.  I've know quite a few military personnel over the years, and the vast majority of those have been extremely homophobic, transphobic, racist and misogynistic (many still are, but some have changed for the better - demonstrating that the others could change for the better as well). Will the personnel on this exercise be instructed to be polite, respectful and inclusive?

The trigger for this will be not answering a phone call. I trust that if a phone call goes to an answering service, staff at DHHS will leave a message. I know a few people who will not answer unknown phone numbers - and some have problems with hearing, for instance, and thus rely on people leaving a message to be converted to text or using the national relay service.

Our emergency services workers are probably exhausted, and need help. Soldiers, in this society, are not a good way to do that.Action needs to be undertaken - we've just had a record 7 COVID-19 deaths in a day, but the army is not the answer. The long term damage any authoritarian bigots amongst them - and the police, for that matter - can do is incalculable.

As the problem seems to be idiots who are looking for loopholes in the regulations, engage with people on social media - which will take a stack of people, but it is likely, in the long term, to be more constructive.Social pressure from peers will eventually get the ***wits back in line.