Some people may argue that our democracies don’t need healing because they are working well.
It takes a great deal of courage to admit when there is a problem and it takes even more courage to do something about it. Sadly, there are few people or organizations today that will stand up and admit that everything is not well but even fewer who have the courage of their beliefs to do something about it.
Courage is one of those important intangibles of life. It is not a physical thing that can be touched, smelt, heard, tasted or seen but when it is absent, it is felt.
Courage is something that comes in degrees. Most of us have a bit of courage that gets us through each and every day. Other’s among us put their lives at risk every day so the rest of us can decide how much or how little courage we want to exercise or need to live our lives peacefully.
Courage is not something that is age-related. There have been bravery awards given to small children who acted courageously in times of trouble and saved the lives of those they loved.
Bravery is courageously doing what is necessary to achieve a desired outcome at the time it is needed. No one can predict how they will act under these extreme conditions and even those who consider themselves very courageous in some situations will balk at others. Bravery is stepping up to remedy a situation at great risk to their own lives or their own well-being.
One recent and well publicized event of extreme bravery last century was the lone figure in Tiananmen Square in China who walked in front of the Chinese Army Tanks and stopped a massacre.
Yesterday’s bravery award would have to go to the rescuers on Christmas Island who saved the lives of 30 people when their boat was shipwrecked while trying to reach Australian shores. These boat people were seeking asylum in our country. The seas pounded their small boat into matchstick size and people were hurled against razor sharp rocks. Christmas Island people risked their own safety and lives to throw life jackets into the ferocious waves which were crashing over them on the cliff face and trying to wash them into the broiling sea. That is bravery.
Courage for a better life for themselves and their families is what drove the asylum seekers to such a tragic end on Australian shores.
Courage to declare and live their lives ‘out of the mainstream’ happens every day by homosexual people. Equal rights may exists to some degree but homophobia is alive and well in our societies. It takes courage to live a life different to everyone else.
Courage is exercised on a daily basis for those who are hurt and disabled and in great pain yet refuse to stop living for fear of the pain. Courage is facing and overcoming fear.
Differences are what real democracies are based on. That is why people vote so that the biggest number of a difference can rule for a set time. Tragically, today that is not the case.
