Australia Day: It's time to salute patriotism and achievement
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
25 Jan 2004
Tomorrow is Australia Day, a welcome holiday and this year a welcome long weekend. Should it be anything more than this?
Australia Day means more in Sydney than it does in many distant parts of the country, but we are not good at celebrating national days, with the exception of Anzac Day.
Few Australians are tempted to proclaim “my country right or wrong”, as we can be very sceptical of governments, our leaders, all authority figures. An apocryphal story from the Korean War fifty years ago illustrates this.
It is alleged that a wounded Australian soldier was visited in hospital by one of our generals, who asked “what happened to you?” “Wave after wave of Communist soldiers were attacking, chanting slogans such as ‘Long live Chairman Mao’ replied the soldier. “I then heard a bloke shouting through the fog ‘Down with Bob Menzies’ (Australian Prime Minister). I raced out to shake his hand and the so-and-so stabbed me in the guts”.
An earlier generation of Australians enjoyed this story, even many of Menzies’ admirers.
Patriotism is a good thing, like love of our parents, respect for our ancestors, loyalty to our extended family, but it sits best with a pinch of salt and a dose of humour.
Patriotism might prompt a person to protest strongly and publicly against some government policy. We don’t have to be “yes men”, or women to be patriotic. A few protesters hate society, especially those who damage property or injure police, but these are a minority in Australia.
Patriotism means that we know the essentials of our Australian story, the struggles and triumphs, how we have arrived at our present situation.
All youngsters too should be introduced to this story, so that they feel they belong, they know who are their people.
Patriotism means that we are prepared to respect the rights of other Australians, make room for them, give and take in the democratic process, encourage the government to look after those on the bottom of the pile. In the last 103 years hundreds of thousands of Australian men and women have volunteered for our armed services, fought and died.
The opening of the Adelaide-Darwin railway is another national achievement; late, but better late than never.
After the Second World War the Snowy Mountains Scheme was a great nation-building project and it remains the duty of governments to encourage such national development.
The North of Australia is still underpopulated, but there are vast areas of rich soil with plentiful rainfall, all much closer to huge Asian markets than Sydney or Melbourne. In times past in the U.S.A. men and women of enterprise were urged to “go west”. Perhaps the Australian slogan of the future will be “go north”.
A nation needs goals other than money making and sporting achievement to remain good and healthy. Australians need spiritual challenges, nationally and personally. What are they?
