I had been writing an article on the tragic Victorian Bushfires, but Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has sent through a piece he has penned, that beautifully sums it up.
Barnaby suggests to the Agmates community members that want to help to do so through the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal:
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Australia today speaks as one in sympathy, in support and in prayer for those who have perished, for those in the burns units, for the doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and paramedics, and for the unrelenting dedication to duty of fire fighting units, police, charity organisations and neighbours.
It is impossible to fathom the pain and range of emotions that leave those afflicted bewildered by the ferocity of nature.
A ferocity that has descended on our fellow Australians in which the forces are beyond our comprehension.
The forces of destruction, pain and destitution have taken their toll and now all of us here must do what is human but ultimately more powerful, noting that we can not remove, but can mitigate the pain with our compassion.
The evidence of that compassion will be in the blood given, the money donated, the bed given to the neighbour, the capacity to put aside the minimal and parochial to concentrate on the task at hand.
Most importantly compassion will be seen in the durability of our attention to see the issue through to the best conclusion we can attain for those afflicted, knowing other distractions will quickly become apparent before we have all finished the task at hand.
While the south burns the north floods and we are all the sinew that must make sure that the sentiment which is so uniquely Australian becomes the prevailing strength to bring all of us through.
What can we offer these victims of nature and most disturbingly in some instances of the criminal and disgusting actions of those who knowingly and maliciously designed a course that would burn children, kill in the most horrific way, destroy families.
We can pray that the weather works in the favour of putting the fires out, we can pray that those in hospital pull through, we can deliver ourselves to a hospital and give blood, we can put our hands in our pocket and give what we can. We can promise to learn from our mistakes and make sure that we do not get ourselves in this position again. We must make sure that the victims of burns are given the best chance and that those who have lost all are given a leg up to get going again.
What makes a nation is not a government, it is a reflection of the people but it is not the centre.
The centre is that definitive spirit that you hear in our Australian accent, our peculiar self deprecating sense of humour, our strong belief in opportunity for the underdog, our belief in our own capacity to quietly work hard without want of laurels and most importantly the Australian ability to time and time again rally under a single banner when a crisis is before us putting aside our self and concentrating on the communal task that our Nation will be the reflection of the higher aspiration of that wonderful goodness that is so seminally what makes us who we are.
Marysville, Murrindindi, Kinglake, Kinglake West, Bendigo, Bunyip, St Andrews, Churchill, Steels Creek, Humevale, Flowerdale are towns that maybe have not been noted much in the past in the further corners of our vast nation but all of Australia’s eyes are now turned towards them.
At the same time we do not forget the paradox that the pain in our north with floods have also delivered tragedy to families and we will not be forgetting Ingham and other north Queensland towns as they battle with another side of the destructive force that can be rent by nature’s fury.
The tragedy of loss is always immense and should not be belittled by numbers as if it is some discerner of effect. The family that loses one member through the course of what are almost apocalyptic scenes is one member that nothing can replace and the vacancy is a hole in their lives forever.
When the role of the community is overwhelmed it is only just that the state be called to assist. In these fires the capacity of the community is reduced in its ability to deliver because the extent of the destruction within it. But we all turn on the TV and who we see is ourselves in another part of our country, we see who we are and from within us we know we have to act, an implore those in the appropriate positions to act on our behalf.
I do not know the adult in Kinglake with the remains of four children who all perished together. But I pray that they are with our Lord. I do not know them, but I with all here can not bear the thought of the terror as we think of our own children. What burden do we shoulder and what pain can we possibly take away. We feel sadness with no repose, we feel anger with no direction, we feel desolate and search for a path that leads those most afflicted out of their pain.
The only resolve is that the compassion of Australians is hard at work, it is at work today, it will be at work tomorrow, and whilst the memories are there the compassion of Australians for their fellow Australians shall be the sign that we are a Nation at its best when our fellow is in their greatest need.
Condolences are with the families, unbounded gratitude is with those hard at work in the hospitals and in the field, and our prayers are with the injured and deceased.
END
Click On The Red Cross logo to go to their appeal site and make an online donation.
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