The almost dead, the dead and the undead … Mark Kenny’s article “Naive campaign against marriage equality plebiscite…”
Focuses very much on the diversity of motivations in the political sherwood that brought down the plebiscite ,talks up the resilience of those effected and describes the net outcome of their efforts in terms of backfire and delay .
The far more sinister subplot swinging from the trees concerns the motivations of those resisting change and the naive society riding merrily underneath them .
The plebiscite is dead ,and all but buried ,but old prejudices are rising from the ashes and already dancing new partners off their feet .
It is extraordinary that intelligent politicians across the board fail to recognise the smiling intolerance that seeks not just to tread on the toes of equal matrimony but stamp out the lives of gay people .
When alternative points of view deliver professional capital punishment from the Anglican Church in Sydney,When the CEO of the national airline sounds more like Jesus than any Australian archbishop, when we advocating marriage equality are challenged in supermarkets next to the frozen peas , we know that the lack of personal courage and conviction from our politicians have unleashed something familiar and ugly .
The headline might be marriage but the community column is really about existence .Commentators who imagine that Australians can have a respectful conversation are living in fairyland .The plebiscite is actually about live baiting ,the rabbits are nervous ,the dogs are keen but our political owners and those with vested interests assure us that no one will really get bitten .
Archdeacon Peter MacLeod-Miller St Matthews Albury NSW
