So too is the view of convoys of trucks hauling the breadth and width of this vast land to support our drought stricken farmers in NSW and Queensland. Suddenly we are reminded of the depth of the Australian spirit as people everywhere find a way to give and help our Aussie brothers and sisters in distress. It touches a generosity of spirit that runs deep in the Australian psyche.
The stories are hard to hear. Just yesterday I heard an employee of an electricity supplier share his fury that a farmer he was sent to visit had to choose between buying hay for his cattle or paying his electricity bill. He chose to feed his animals and the employee had no choice but to turn off the farmer’s electricity supply. It is unthinkable in this affluent land that those who are the mainstay of this country have to make such choices.
Politics seems to have a way of corrupting even the best of us.
For eighteen years we have seen instability amongst those elected to govern this country. On both sides of politics we’ve witnessed power, greed and self-interest override justice, compassion and working for the common good, the very attributes required by those who stand for such high office. We witness the power, manipulation and hypocrisy of the media, the corruption and cruelty of the banking system and big business, and we ache for a better way.
Politicians who can understand the despair that leaves no other option but suicide … who can feel for a farm family surviving without electricity or enough food on the table … who can move beyond their own petty squabbles and self-centredness to put the good of the country first. To stop 'selling off the farm' and allowing mining to undermine the farmers livelihood, and in the end, ours. Where are the men and women of integrity and compassion?
They are the ones driving hay across the country, putting together hampers to keep farm families in food. They are the ones feeding the homeless or finding them a place to call home … or rescuing victims of domestic violence … people who lead with their heart.
Crisis brings out the best and the worst in humanity ... war, cave rescues, bushfires, flood, drought, and broken political systems. Right now we have both the latter. What a contrast to see the ordinary mums, dads and children (10 year-old Jack Berne began A Fiver for a Farmer which has so far raised close on $500,000), pouring out their hearts in love and compassion while those elected to care for our country are otherwise occupied.
One of the greatest minds of our time, Albert Einstein, suggests there is a better way.
In a letter to his daughter, Lieserl, he said, “There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others. This universal force is LOVE. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfisness. Love is God and God is Love.
If we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer. When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.”
Take a moment to read this thought provoking letter: Farmer's poem