Harlots' Sauce Radio

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This Month's Contents

Podcast Interview................................. "My Illness Was a Blessing"

News and Politics.........  Tony Hoffart
Current Issues..............  Lindsey Kay
Technology...................  Natasha Stillman
Humor...........................  Vicola England, Kirk Starr
Science.........................  Paxton Daryl Branson
World Events................  Ilias Kountoupis, Peter McCarthy
Sports...........................  Patricia Volonakis Davis
Religion.........................  Mr. Snowy
Women's Issues............  Charlotte Steggs
Leading a Good Life......  Tom Hames,  Miranda Krebbs
On Growing Older.......... Cyd Madsen, Michelle Solange
Motherhood...................  Grace Bon, Amy Flanigan

This Month's Guest Writer................  Amber Burke

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Just lately I'm seeing a lot of the Aussie flag. But not where it should
be, which is, up the pole.  Aussies were always nervous about flag
wavers in days gone by. Sure, we’re proud of where we live, but
overt gestures were rightly regarded with mistrust. A pollie wrapping
themselves in the flag was always political death. A fact that Pauline
Hanson can attest to, though I'm not sure she realises it even now.
Just about any nutter seems to make a grab for the flag in an effort
to prove their "loyalty" but it is usually regarded as (or was) as a
cover for a lack of something.

The racist group in Cronulla is another case in point. Got a weak
argument? Stand in front of a big flag. Or even better. Make it two.
I first started getting nervous when I went to a Speedway Race at
Warnambool on the long weekend. There was a kid wearing the
Aussie flag as a cape, and with him was a bloke doing the same with
the American flag. Now I had no problem with that happening with
the U.S. flag. The Yanks make a habit of it, and when you see the
futile wars they’re locked into, you can understand the result of blind
loyalty. From where I'm sitting, when the flag comes out, the brain
gets switched off. Kind of the same reaction to a holy book.

What have we done to our kids to dumb them down so far? And why
are we not sticking to those "traditional values" we presume to
value? We have always been pretty arrogant when dealing with our
U.S. cousins. Always prided ourselves on being a bit less excitable
and a bit more circumspect. Now we seem to be rushing along to
become a budget version of the United States. Realistically we can't
match them. The things the U.S. does well, no one can better, and
the things they get wrong… you wouldn't want to.

When you watch the cricket, you see them wearing the flag too, and
they are usually the biggest drop kicks, as well. In one respect there
is a saving grace at the cricket. The boxing kangaroo is more
common than the national flag, and that's as it should be. As much
as I enjoy cricket, it's still pretty mindless. The mob rule and the
boxing kanga fit well together.

One more point I'd like to make is about Australia Day. The fact that
the government has to advertise and promote the day to Australians
speaks volumes for the plastic nature of the event. You don't see a
government campaign to encourage Aussies to get out for ANZAC
Day. That's the real day that Aussies understand despite recent
attempts to turn it into a celebration of war.

So let’s leave the flag up the flag pole and stick with cautious pride.
Don't let pollies of any persuasion dumb you down with a flag
campaign. The reward is that it might just save you sacrificing your
kids lives to a jingoistic campaign designed to let a pollie get his
jollies.
       ----May 2008
Leave My Flag on the Mast

Peter McCarthy