May Rev Raphael Warlock stay safe and live long enough to help to implement his mentor, Martin Luther King's dream and vision, that we come to esteem one another not by the colour of our skin but by our character.

Andris Hicks,

I'm amazed your sherry soaked driver was able to drive you from Alice Springs to Darwin in just several hours.

I though it would have taken 5-6 hours.

Or did I read it wrongly?

1500 km at 100 km/hr plus a few stops, more like 18 hours.
Something doesn't gel here.

VKU3AUU. Yeah, seems the author is using lots of poetic licence in his alleged recollection of distant events?

Perhaps the bit that seems missing is the hours of drunken sleep, the result of the sharing that flagon?

The other explanation leaves one wondering if the author is D Trump? Or at least his Aussie doppelganger? And has no idea of the actual distance?

Or maybe the car was a blown V8? And the fearless driver pushing the engine to its limits the whole way? 1500 @ 150 = 10 hours? And given road conditions back then? Airbourne most of the way?

Yeehah! Oops, can we go back and pick up my testicles? I think they flew out with that last load of vomit? I always get airsick when I fly!
Alan B.

After Cyclone Tracy one of my mates who was a radio Tech took 11 hours non stop (except for a fuel stop) because he knew his expertise would be needed. He wasn't driving a clapped out Holden either.

David.

Response to the comments about distance: I did take a poetic licence as the lift only took us part of the way to Darwin. But the point of the story was not the distance. It was my experience of the tragic brotherhood through alcoholism and how this motivated me to study the situation and trying to help. And the contrast with the possibility of an emerging mutually uplifting siblighood amongst people irrespective of their skin colour...If you read my articles on Trump below, you'll realise what my actual attitude to him is, as distinct from your presumptions. https://startsat60.com/author/andris-heks

A comment from Leona Kieren :
Thank you for this really interesting article which pulls together your own lasting experience in 1973 with the wonderful result of the Georgia runoff Senate elections.
From Michael Childs:
I enjoyed your story about the black and white brothers giving you and Robyn a ride to Darwin. The Trump saga is not yet over. So we live to see some sanity from sober God - fearing people.
God is not the author of confusion.
From Pat Drummond: That article is wonderful. I had never heard about that hitch-hiking trip before. I love the way the experience of the past and the hopes for the future are presented as a journey within the frame of a journey from your own history. Well Done! We all do hope for better times to come given these political developments. If I may, I will share it on my Facebook page and I will also spend some time going through some of your other online articles.

I recall some kind acts by people who were later convicted of serious crimes ! A one-off is not a benchmark !

Can't see the sense in this peace. The discussion about driving times says others feel the same way.

And don't forget that when they got to Darwin at 2 o'clock in the morning there were thousands of people lying along Smith Street drunk and clutching a flagon of sherry and singing "I Wish I Was In Alice Springs".

Can't see the sense in this peace,
ttbn,
ANY kind of peace is welcome ! ;-)

There will never be any kind of peace in the NT whilst it is awash with alcohol. Local customs are not much help either, but the dogooders down south can't see that either.

David

By Andris Heks, published 15/1/2021
When I heard the new senators introduce each other at Biden's election rally as 'black and white brothers', tears came to my eyes as I had a flashback to my experience with a very different pair of 'black and white brothers' in Australia a long time ago!

Hey Andris - I respect your post. I ask the question, What about ALL Aussies who continually have been seeking the following for DECADES for Indigenous Australians - who don't class - as you say - "black and white brothers" -

We need =

1. ALL Indigenous children attend school on a DAILY basis.

2. All Indigenous children grow up within a family unity of safety.

3. All Indigenous children grow up within a society "risk-free" of domestic violence.

4. Why do Indigenous women who are domestically violated - continue to be violated......with no action.

5. Why are children/infants violated ..... of course Aussies who care for the welfare of ALL children can't comment, as we are called "racist".... if we seek information.

Andris - Aussies are completely OVER the Black or white or the them or us.

But activists still want to segregate Australia.

What do Aussies want -

All children to attend school, attain education and look to the future.

Children didn't ask to be born - however, these children should be able to attain their dream within our society and education systems.

Oh now - of course - by posters I'll be labelled as a "racist" for this post.....which I will wear with "pride" in standing up for Indigenous Aussies and the children of our future society.

individual,

I'm not sure if that we me or the Google spellcheck. I don't think that 'peace' has a lot to do with the aboriginal question, which is more an adversary operation rather than an attempt to solve problems.

I note the author worked as Production Assistant and reporter on This Day Tonight ABC TV, Current Affairs Programme and Four Corners from 1970 t0 1972.

So I - and millions of Aussies - are asking where were you and network ABC in not seeking/investigations into continual, generational abuse of (our Aussie) children within Indigenous communities.

You state about Biden and bringing "tears to your eyes"....US lore.

What have you done during your time at ABC from 1970 to 1972?

What brings tears to Aussies eyes - in 2021 and decades prior.

1. Indigenous Children being abused.

2. Indigenous children not attending school.

3. Indigenous Domestic violence within family homes.

4. Indigenous Children - who should be at home - running around the streets. In "their words" - it's safer than being at home.

5. Why?

But hey - who am I - a voice amidst the noise of Activists - who don't wish for Indigenous children to go to school and achieve their dreams.

Australians say "hold our hands and we'll take you there".

Activists say - play the "victim" game.

Hi David you wrote - There will never be any kind of peace in the NT whilst it is awash with alcohol. Local customs are not much help either, but the dogooders down south can't see that either.

Response - you are correct, however since the Banking Royal Commission much has been exposed.

I note also with latest response to Reconciliation document to Government the person speaking on same, I didn't get her name (bummer that I didn't) a journalist asked the question basically what in this document addresses child abuse (great question from journalist).

Her response being - fluff, fluff, fluff it will be addressed later.

So Aussies DEMAND - Any document forwarded to Government regarding Indigenous Affairs (adults and children) must contain legal rights regarding any Abuse to Aboriginal women/and their rights.

In Australia we have ONE LAW - Indigenous Culture - (abuse, rape, criminal enterprise) being under ONE LAW - criminal. No exceptions.

I advise I am currently investigating same with many others in order to protect ALL indigenous Aussie children, against any abuse.

Oh - of course - my post will be sanctioned as "racist".

I continue to "stand up" for Indigenous Aussie kids - their dreams, their aspirations, in living in a "safe family environment".

Well said, SAINTS! There is not a white way or a black way just a right way! Culture is often just noise and or, brainwashed from birth (flat earther) belief.

And compounded by gutless pollies, brown-nosing to semi-white segregationists and or gormless greenies seeking to use folk and our colonial history to foment discord here?

Yes, there was a history that no amount of fruitless hand wringing or apologies will ever change! What SAINTS has proposed, will do more for our black "brotherhood" than all the hand wringing or fruitless (colour coded) soul searching

And all the stimulus over there, aimed at setting that particular ship right along with the disgraced trickle-down economics that from a democratic who, one might conclude? Has sold out to corporate America?

For Biden to talk of a black and white brotherhood is just words that are meaningless coming from a corporate Dem?

At the end of the day, will judge on results, the minimum wage and a more humane immigration/refugee policy, electoral reform!

And economic reform that resembles the depression era new deal! And a similar period of unprecedented prosperity it created! And will again if bold enough!

Let me conclude with the following observation. Can't ever hit the stumps if you're not bowling at them! Need to focus on outcomes!

Not prose, pretty words and emotive evocation!
Alan B.

Alan B.,

Going from the way you write I get the impression that you are an engineer.

Culture is often just noise and or, brainwashed from birth (flat earther) belief.
Alan B,
In the past 50 years 'Culture' has been an excuse to divert from many wrongs !

SAINTS & Others.
If my memory serves me correctly, that is what "The Intervention" was designed to do, but all the cultural dogooders had it stopped before it could have any practical effect. Meanwhile the kids keep getting raped and the women bashed and killed and the culprits virtually escape unpunished because the magistrates are taken in by all the cultural BS.

David

Darrell Patrick Arnold
January 15, 2021 at 7:16 am

I enjoyed the piece, Andris! One of the remarkable things about Ossoff’s and Warnock’s characterization of themselves as “black and white brothers” is that it comes in a period of increased racial animus in the US. Trump came into the White House stoking racist fears with the birtherism lie. Not only were tens of millions receptive to the birtherist lie, they were also receptive to talk of Mexicans as “murderers and rapists” and talk of very different kinds of Muslim and Chinese threats. Precisely this worked with many of the white Americans who are living in the most precarious situations in the country. Of the ten poorest states in the US even in 2020 Trump won all but New Mexico.

Your story relates how those down and out whites in Australia were able to find some common sensibilities with the Aborigines, no matter how sad or broken the context. That sometimes can happen spontaneously. But that is also something that can be politically forged or politically broken. Trump never ceased to invoke divisive rhetoric. But he did so while acknowledging the pain, frustration and insecurity of white America. His appeal was and is populist. Of the Democrats, only Sanders has had a similar populist appeal. I hope our junior senators, Warnock and Ossoff, are able to affect a sensibility of unity that speaks to widespread concerns of African Americans, whites, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans. I hope Biden is able to make some populist appeal by speaking to the needs of all these groups.

The US needs unity — just not the unity that the Republicans are calling for, not the unity that amounts to a call for clemency. It needs the unity of political purpose that acknowledges the common struggles of the many diverse races in this country, now affected by covid deaths, economic worries and heightened concerns not just of violence, but of politically motivated and racist violence. Here’s to our opportunity to meet those challenges! Here’s to the opportunity for acknowledging our brother- and sisterhood!

Perry Kinkaide
January 16, 2021 at 5:45 am

Please please advise Biden NOT to throw cash at the problems of “social and economic” inequities. If we have learned anything over the last century, is that laws and cash, wars and riots, are only cosmetic. To achieve social justice we need less authoritarianism and more embracing of the issue at birth, in family, at community. We need to personalize not nationalize the issues.
Al Brooks
January 18, 2021 at 1:44 pm

The administration to be sworn in, only two days from now, can only do better, in the matter of race relations.

Plus, the new administration could set an example for the nations Down Under, and elsewhere. A small improvement could be made during the next few years.

I shall respond to most comments to my article BLACK AND WHITE BROTHERS above soon. Thank you for your comments; keep them coming. Thanking you, Andris Heks