Tolerance for less fortunate next step
12.06.2004
THERE are moments in your life when you are forced to consider the courage of others who are confronting problems the magnitude of which most of us could not conceive, cocooned as we so often are in selfish introspection.
This was brought home to me last week on two very different occasions.
One was the funeral of a young man with schizophrenia, who ended his own torment.
The other concerned an address by Aboriginal firebrand Murrandoo Yanner on Queensland laws which provide for homeless and impecunious people to be charged with a variety of criminal offences.
On Wednesday, the day after Murrandoo's address, I attended the funeral of a man, 23. I had never met him, but knew of him through his mother, a wonderful, gentle person who works with us.
Right through until his high school years, the man was a high-achiever.
Then his mood and demeanour changed. His parents spared no effort in getting medical authorities to identify his problem, and finally he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
At the funeral, his father spoke of the life they had shared with their much-loved son.
He told of the challenges that were put to the family in coping with this illness, and of the wonderful memories they would all hold.
His two sisters and younger brother told how they understood how their brother had spent every day fighting the demons in his head.
The pastor reminded the congregation -- many of them young people -- that the pain they were enduring was the price paid for love.
The father and the children told of the unqualified love the mother had demonstrated for her son who was fighting that dreadful, invisible battle against mental illness.
They related stories of how she would go out several times a week at 2am or 3am to pick him up from somewhere in the city or suburbs. How she stood by him always, no matter how erratic his behaviour .
He was obviously an intelligent, thoughtful man who was suffering an illness that many people have to cope with and which those of us who do not have contact, could not possibly understand.
It brought on reflection of just how much we really understand about this dreadful illness, and whether we are doing enough to combat it, and to assist those involved in the battle.
To that end, the previous night's reminders by Murrandoo left no doubt that an attitude of meanness exists in the case of the less privileged and the homeless.
Just consider the facts outlined at the conference staged by the Caxton Legal Service: The Vagrants Act identifies a person as a vagrant if he or she is an habitual drunkard. It criminalises the status of alcoholism.
The legislation sets a penalty of a fine up to $750 to a person who is found to be a ``public nuisance'' -- that is if they behave in a disorderly, offensive, threatening or violent way including the use of offensive, indecent, abusive or threatening language.
Murrandoo, with his typical machine-gun delivery, spoke of how white-man's laws had failed indigenous Australians.
He said the public order laws made it a crime to be poor, to be homeless -- a ``parkie'' -- and questioned whether this made for a ``just'' society.
Then, surprising to everybody, he invoked Jesus and the Bible.
This slim, passionate Aboriginal man didn't claim any great connection with Jesus.
THE real point he made was uncomfortably poignant. ``Read the Bible because at the end of the day it all boils back to a basic touch of humanity.
``Despite what they say about our communities, the bad publicity we get on violence, there are no homeless in Doomadgee or Palm Island.
``Jesus is the greatest advocate that ever lived. If he came back today, he would be taking on the State Government for the parkies, for the blackfellas, for poor whites. Pick up the Bible and see what your mate Jesus says about it. I am sure he would take a very aggressive view towards those moving laws against the impoverished and homeless people if he came alive and walked among us today.''
Perhaps if the rest of us walked a time in the shoes of people like the family who lost their son and brother -- or those of Murrandoo Yanner and his people in far-off Burketown and Doomadgee -- we would be a more tolerant and understanding society.
We should be courageous enough to be ourselves, and not remain prisoners of other people's perceptions of us.
Would anybody be game to challenge Murrandoo's theory were Jesus to return?
And no one who attended last Wednesday's celebration of a short but courageous life could ever question a mother's commitment to her children.
And when her sadness wanes, Julie will appreciate that we all love her for being just that -- a wonderful mother.
