Wake Up Australia

[Dianaa]

Originally Posted by Little Jo

Hi Guys

I am not one for change just for the sake of change and would not like to see our flag changed from what it is now. I served under this flag for 10 years and it does not matter where you go in the world you will feel a tug at your heart strings when you see our flag flying. Ok it has the Union Jack in the corner which is British but we have the stars of the southern cross below it which is Australian. If you look at the official flag of Hawaii you will see they still have the Union Jack in the top left corner.

I was disgusted to see Aboriginals burn and trample our flag the day after Australia Day. I know they have grievances, but we are all Australian so do not dishonour our flag it is an insult to the Aboriginal soldiers who served, fought and died under our flag.

LEAVE THE FLAG ALONE AND BE A PROUD AUSTRALIAN.

Cheers

Tony

OK Guys I seem to be in the minority here, its just to me like many others including Ted Egan I want to see the Union flag removed from our flag's canton.

Tony's comment about the flag pulling heart strings is true, but after a period away from Australia seeing a red Qantas tail at some far off airport does the same for me even if I may be flying United or KLM at the time.

To me the Union Flag represents suppression and subjugation. I think about the Scots at Culloden, the banning of their national cloth and the stealing of their lands and gifting them to English Aristocracy. So we start with the flag of England's St George flying on top of Scotland's flag of St Andrew to form the Queen Anne Flag. The Scottish independance movement is still alive and well.

Then the English take the Queen Anne Flag and suppress and subjugate the Irish and similar to happenings in Scotland, the Irish lands are stolen and gifted to English aristocracy. During the "potatoe famine" the English landlords were exporting Irish grown produce for sale in England while the Irish were starving.* The Irish flag of St Patrick is then added underneath the Queen Anne Flag to form the Union Flag, and notice only the cross of St George of England remains untruncated, the other two crosses are reduced in half. The independence movement of Northern Ireland is alive and well.

We then come to Australia, each night we can look skyward and see the Southern Cross as represented in our flag against a blue background of our sky, unfortunatly a quarter of our view is obliterated by the Union Flag flying under our unbounded sky. I remember the Irish political prisoners transported to Australia for nothing more that demonstrating for the independance of their homeland, never to see Ireland again.

* Back the potatoe famine, our Government would do well to learn the lesson of the Irish as they allow the Chinese to buy up huge swathes of our prime agricultural land in an unregulated manner.

[Little Jo]

Hi Guys

I am impressed with the good debate going on here and the true feelings expressed by members from the commonwealth countries, we all have the same heritage and gripes. I was 7 years old when my family immigrated from Holland after WW2 for a better life. In those days as migrants we HAD TO PAY to come to Australia, As a new immigrant family in a country town in 1950 we were not welcomed by many who were still racist towards us at first. But they soon realized we were hard working and my parents made a good life for the family and I must say we have all turned out well, Australia has been good to us and we became Australian in all ways. I have never thought of myself as anything other than Australian and I am sure this goes for all other immigrants from Europe as well. Though I still fly the Dutch Flag on the 5th May to celebrate the liberation of out town by Canadian forces.

TRUE BLUE AUSSIE.

Cheers

Tony