We need to respond with our own gesture of goodwill if we want to finally accomplish reconciliation
mong the friends of my youth, how few remain my friends today. One of those few traces the bonds between us to an episode that sticks more clearly in his memory than mine: according to him, I stood up for him in the schoolyard when a gang of kids heavied him because he was Jewish.
So if indeed I stood up for my schoolmate, it must have been something I said. Being verbally quick on the draw has got me out of nearly as many scrapes as it’s got me into. But lately he has been putting this tolerance under great strain.
My original intention had been not to broach the subject with him at all. His, like mine, is only one vote. Neither of us would have expected to convince the other his position was right. Perhaps the argument I should have used with my friend was this. Australia, in common with most nations, was, when foreigners arrived in force and – with force – colonised and conquered the land as their own.
They present an open hand. If we truly want peace, not the prolongation of an unequal status quo, how can we say no?
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