Quote of the month!
December 2005
Sad state of the union
John Howard's industrial relations changes could go further...
"If John Howard abolished the "union" in rugby union it could set an ugly precedent. Next thing you'd know he'd probably flick the word from the flag and we'd be left with jack."
Joe Dwyer, Rose Bay
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 December 2005.
November 2005
Stirring lines
"So we must fly a rebel flag
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus
We'll make the tyrants feel the sting
O' those that they would throttle;
They needn't say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle!
There was a time when Australia could at least legally tolerate those most famous lines of an impassioned Henry Lawson, who was the defining poet of the Australian character. Now, under John Howard's hysteria-induced redefinition of this country's character, Lawson would be hounded and jailed for sedition."
Cornelis Van Eyk, Castlemaine, Victoria
Letters to the Editor, The Age, 18 October 2005.
October 2005
A not-so-United Kingdom
"Removing the Union Jack from your flag won't help the grieving process, Alex Hyman (see below). The Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are feeling your pain too. I would just remind the English that Wales claimed the rugby grand slam, Northern Ireland won the soccer and an 18-year-old Scot lasted longer than Tim Henman at Wimbledon – who's crying now?"
Ally Ferguson, Harbord
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 2005.
September 2005
Oh no! We lost the Ashes! Now to lose that Union Jack...
"With the loss of the Ashes can we please get that pesky Union Jack off our lovely Southern Cross. It just rubs salt into the wound."
Alex Hyman, Mount Lawley (WA)
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 2005.
August 2005
Don't forget to take your medicine...
The latest Flag Society email shows that while "defenders" of the current flag portray themselves as the gentle good guys, the President (how ironic) of the Flag Society, Nigel Morris, clearly takes himself, and this debate, far too seriously.
"I am leading the popular resistance to proposals to change our Australian national flag! I am the first line of defence and the last line of defence: put your trust in me patriots - I will turn defeat into victory.
Our culture is under siege, but the long march back could start with you. Our argument is a reasonable one, I say fix bayonets, come down off the high ground and clash with the republicans hand to hand in the open. I see no useful alternative, we must commit ourselves totally."
July 2005
Now that's a different way of looking at it...
"Asterisks annoy me, especially when they follow advertised prices for products. That insignificant little symbol causes a $24,990* car to cost closer to $30,000. A car-hire deal at $35* a day will never cost $35. A $69* air fare sounds too good to be true, and you read the fine print and find exactly that.
And, by the way, who put that asterisk in the top left-hand corner of our national flag?"
John Berthold, Eleebana
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2005.
June 2005
We don't blame them one bit
Australian troops were recently sent to Al Muthanna in Iraq. And how do they make sure the Iraqis know where they are from? By not using the Australian flag, that's how. It says it all...
"The Australian commander of the Al Muthanna task group, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Noble, says Australian soldiers are making sure their vehicles are recognised by people in the southern Iraqi province. In the first week of deployment in the region, Australian troops have painted large red kangaroos on the side of their armoured vehicles.
'When they look at ours they look up and see a big red kangaroo, which is pretty much a universal symbol for Australia and they know who were are and what we are,' he said."
Red roos mark out Aussie troops in Iraq, ABC News Online, 3 May 2005.
May 2005
The Rising Sun? You be the judge...
"Anzac Day is an iconologist's heaven. For two weeks we are visually delighted by images of Australia's most powerful icon: the rising sun on the diggers' slouch hat. A shame the image is not on more of Australia's prime symbols, such as the coat of arms and the national flag."
George Poulos, Dover Heights
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2005.
April 2005
News travels fast!
One of our opponents in the flag debate, the Flag Society, is now spamming people with emails that they take very seriously but we find very funny. The latest proves how buried in the past these people are. It takes only two years for "breaking" news to reach them!
"Flag Breaking News – March 2005
ALP to change WA state flag
Platform of West Australian Branch Australian Labor Party Adopted June 2003."
Flag Society Newsletter, 22 March 2005.
March 2005
The Poms know it, even if our Monarchists don't
Sometimes it takes someone from Britain to explain what Australian Monarchists refuse to understand - we have a colonial flag.
"We in Britain don't have a National Flag! We've used the Royal Navy's Jack since Victorian times because it was the only obvious alternative. The Union Jack, or Union Flag, as people here have begun to call it in the last twenty years, is a State Flag; a government flag dating from a time when flags were things only ever used at sea to identify a ship's nationality. The Victorians and Edwardians who designed British colonial flags knew this; the 'ensign' type design they usually adopted was intended to symbolise the 'One Empire' concept that they were so attached to."
Kevin Taylor, Member, The Flag Institute.
Letter to Ausflag, 2 March 2005.
February 2005
Flag still flies against an independent nation
"David Rofe (Letters, January 26) is wrong to claim that the Governor-General is our head of state. Despite the efforts of the monarchists to prove otherwise, the British monarch continues to hold that position, as is clearly indicated in the constitution. Governors-general, governors and prime ministers (particularly John Howard) defer to her, visiting heads of state toast her in her absence, and a profile of her head adorns our coins.
Our flag remains as British as ever, as is evident on the front page of the Australia Day Herald, where the Union Jack dominates the hats worn by the children of the admirable Dr Fiona Wood.
Australia Day? Colony Day, more likely."
S.B. Murphy, Rushcutters Bay
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2005.
January 2005
Flagging a change
"When we really get ourselves organised and ditch our ties to England may we please nominate the Eureka flag for our national flag. It's a beauty."
Christine Shaw, Woronora
Letters to the Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 December 2004.
Previous Quotes of the Month
2007 – 2006 – 2005 – 2004 – 2003 – 2002 – 2001 – 2000 – 1999 – 1998 – 1997 – 1996
|
