Respect

RESPONS E TO ‘LAWS A LICENCE FOR VIOLENCE’ PAGE 1 THE AGE SATURDAY APRIL 25TH 2009

No one under 60 should be allowed to have a drink, smoke, be able to cuss in public or go out with loose persons of the opposite gender. Otherwise, fear capital resolution by big brother.
Please.
How can people be so wrong about the reasons we have a degree of violence on our streets? If I may be so blunt, alcohol is not the problem, it is merely the catalyst! I am 61 and admit to having been mildly whacked on a few occasions in my life [as have most other brain dead boys] but I have never hit anyone nor lost my cool nor done anything except lie down and become vaguely incoherent. Booze has never been the ugly demon which incited me against my will to carve my initials into someone else’s head.
Most people have a drink or lots with no harm to anyone. However, with some people, their inherent life problems surface with the consumption of perhaps just a couple of anti-inhibiting drinks. Likewise there are groups of sad people for whom going out to create trouble is seen as a valid night out; and they may not have even had a drink! Indeed, prohibition in America proved that controlling the ‘catalyst’ was a failure.
What’s left? We could shoot all people accused of heinous alcohol fuelled crimes, but then who decides heinous and who’s going to shoot them? We could close down Melbourne and turn it into a fourth world city with machine guns and arm police with portable small range nuclear weapons? We could put up checkpoints on the city fringe where you have to show positive psychological profiling results to be able to party? We could put up pictures of Brumby and Kennett at the city entrances so that people could expel their anger by throwing a few missiles at their politician of choice?
But on the other hand, we could teach our society to respect everyone and really enjoy the diversity. Enjoy the yobbo, enjoy the bogun, enjoy the poonce, enjoy the bum, enjoy the bigoted argumentative dropkick, enjoy the ‘my poo don’t smell’ silver spoon irrelevant and, hardest of all, enjoy the accountant [just kidding].
It all starts from respect. Everyone has a different trigger to fire off that ‘ah ha’ moment wherein we realise just how important it is to respect everyone.
Mine happened when I was playing golf with a slow old codger about 40 years ago. Being young, fit, angry, pushy and without patience I somewhat less than subtly urged him to move his ass a little quicker. Sometime later I found out that he had ‘no’ legs but played on tin equivalents. In an instant, I learned respect.
The key is to recognise and enjoy respect. It’s nice to be humble.