Rob Hulls makes a Joke

Two small party candidates were beaten by what they termed "labor thugs" during the last campaign to prevent them from campaigning. The story was one of the sidebars in the Herald Sun. The Age didn't touch it. Wonder why?

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls fills three columns in today's Herald Sun with an essay about the plight of David Hicks. The essay was quoted in The Age under "Ruddock accused of being 'gutless, toadlike'":

"It is clear beyond argument that Australia has abandoned him to his fate. It is one of the most disgraceful things in this nation's recent history that the country's chief law officer is willing to adopt the insouciant attitude which he has to the fate of David Hicks."

Rob Hulls, who has sat - gutless, toadlike - along with his whole Justice Department while men and families have been demeaned and destroyed for years by the tens of thousands across Victoria is very brave about attacking Philip Ruddock from afar. His voice is already years too late to matter, of course, although it politically anticipates the resolution of the Hicks affair - and attempts to take some credibility from it.

Philip Ruddock has proven himself an effective and courageous federal Attorney-General who has stepped forward to deal with difficult and complex matters within Australia and around the world.
Hulls should attend to matters within his own purview first. His time as Gaming Minister was appalling. Few Caribbean contortionists could have bent so far under the bar repeatedly to please special interests. He has taken that same talent to Justice, where it can only do much greater long-term harm.
Hulls has done nothing to make Victoria proud of its current Justice Department. It has become a tool of denial and obfuscation for the political advancement of Steve Bracks, and nothing more.

David Hicks is a festering wart
There is little in the David Hicks affair for anyone to take pride in. He was found, armed and guarding a tank in Afghanistan for the Taliban, still an Australian citizen. - If he had shot a few Australians, would the public still chant for his release? One has to wonder.
As an Australian citizen bearing arms against his own countrymen and the Commonwealth, he should be a traitor. But Australia has no laws to govern such treason. Perhaps the most significant reason he has to be tried in the US is that there are no grounds to charge or try him here. If anything, he could be tried under British law - since he is now a British citizen - and simply hung.

As a person, one cannot help but feel for his father who saw his foolish child run off to an 'adventure' and become enbroiled in a war. The measure of a father's love for his child is shown in this man's face. He has not relented in any way.

But you will not find Hulls applauding any father, that might put him in an awkward position with his political constituencies. Hulls has created a state court system where the father is not just blamed for all the problems of a breakup, but is condemned as a criminal for even trying to defend himself - verbally, in court, or any other way.
In Hulls' Justice system, if a man responds to abuse or assault, the man is arrested.
Rob Hulls wouldn't know decency or justice if it came in name brands.

One can only assume that Mr Hulls was seized the opportunity to do a satire, to make a joke of the whole affair and himself, by publishing such a diatribe. But that might be giving Mr Hulls credit where it is not due.

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A Talent for Denial

The Herald Sun reports today that there is a mental health crisis in Australia.

In 1994, just after years of crippling economic depression, 4.7% of Australians had a mental health problem. In 2004, it had reached an alarming 10.4% !

Genetics and reality in human beings indicate that between 1 in 6 to 1 in 5 people will have a mental health problem at any given time. That is a home truth, Australia.

Until the mental health system finds, and deals, with those figures - between 16% and 20%, there is no mental health system. Home truth.
Having a list of educated political hacks who will misinform the public about their health to make politicians look good is criminal, not responsible. Did the Herald Sun get these unidentified figures from the Australian Psychological Society?

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Manufactured Issues

It was a source of bitter, ironic laughter to see Rob Hulls speaking out on the David Hicks affair, calling for Hicks' civil and human rights to be respected. Hulls does not attend to the civil and human rights of those within his own jurisdiction. As Attorney General of Victoria, his Justice Department is mandated only to avoid representing the rights of Victorians, or those who reside in this state.

I understand that politicians must manufacture issues in order to project commitment and belief in principles they have no real interest in. It is part of the job description.
It is the degree of hypocrisy that sometimes highlights the reality.
The Hicks affair has taken on a moralistic tone that is highly hypocritical. This aspect would attract a politician like Hulls, I'm sure.
Hicks was caught in a war zone, armed and ready to attack his fellow Australians if he had found the chance. Instead of being given British citizenship, he should have been sent back to Afghanistan and left there. - Or simply hung as a traitor.
Because that is what he is.


My ex manufactured issues, too, between her children and family and myself. I've often wondered how many such issues she attempted, since such efforts usually involve many failures to make the shit stick on the wall.
I'll never know, of course - and I suppose that's a good thing.
From my intuition, I realize that such efforts were not so much a matter of malicious intent towards me as they were simply habitual on her part. I heard some of her issues with her ex husband, dismissing most as either having no substance or excusing her on the grounds that I did not know the whole story.

To this day I don't know what issues she manufactured to cause her daughter to be afraid of me. Realistically, I don't think her daughter ever was. My ex simply built no the normal tensions between a step-daughter and step-father. First cutting off any attempts to overcome these tensions - by threats, abuse and arguments which only fuel the bad feelings between all family members -, then exacerbating them to cause her daughter and her sons to believe there was some threat.
It is impossible for me to believe that all of them knew there was none not far beneath the surface of their acting out.
Her actions were not uncommon. In fact, they are very common.

That is an aspect of many relationships that is not well discussed or dealt with. Long before the condemning label of PAS can be applied, a great deal of harm can be done by manipulating the normal tensions between people.
It is a form of child abuse most often performed by the mother.
To drive a child to fears that are unfounded, and consciously build on those fantastic fears to manipulate other children, family members and friends by abusing their love and trust is a bitter cruelty.
And in Victoria, such base behavior is given the force of law.
If legislation, police and the courts are determined to extend themselves into these matters, then they must all take on all aspects of these matters. A feudalistic perspective will illustrate the ignorance and inadequacy of the law and the courts, as has become apparent.

Before Rob Hulls should be commenting on the rights of Australians overseas, he should attend to his own duties in his own jurisdiction.

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Memories

Sometimes, memories can be bittersweet, reminiscent of good times past, or of places too far away. There is a certain joy to such memories, a sense of wistfulness, that in the strange logic of human feelings evokes a hope for a time like that to come.
These are memories that share events with the feelings. Events that anchor and contain the feelings, however deep or powerful.
Usually the mind simply blocks from view the bad times and lets the joy of these memories work their strange magic.

When the memories have no events to hang on; when the memory is just feeling, the memory has no containment. The memory bleeds into your life like internal bleeding: no outward wound to see and discuss with friends or loved ones. Feelings that bind the heart but do not decrease thoughts or actions. These memories are those shared by victims of emotional and physical trauma combined. Like those who endured bitter cruelty for years in wartime concentration camps.
I have searched all day for these words to describe my feelings. I'm not sure that the words are adequate, but they are the best I can muster.


These emotional flashbacks are horrible. I have no reason for them now. They come unbidden into my day. They come because of the time of year and the dates.
It is a bitter irony that I once loved Christmas and all that it stood for; and now, thanks the experience with a self-righteous, vindictive group, the joy of Christmas is a thought that makes me physically ill.

I do not lack physical energy. In fact, there is more than has been there for at least 4 years. I do not lack mental focus or thought. My mind is trained to think and analyze. It may even be simply genetic.
But when I let my mind clear of focused thoughts, my heart feels like it is torn from my chest; my eyes water and stream; my throat clenches. The sadness has no reason. In fact, there are many reasons for me to be happy and proud of my situation. But it is there, and the mental force to resist it only makes me tremble - which in turn reminds me of that time even more.
My body knotted, wrenched and tore at itself in those days. My hands shook. My eyes streamed all day. The only peace I found was in studying or sleeping, and that did not last.

The feelings make me hate what should otherwise be a better life, if not what I would call a good life. Friends surround me, believe in me, and are willing to share their lives with me. I have returned their faith and support with faith and support for them.
It has been a long two years of struggle, - And it is not done. - but a worthwhile struggle.

This morning I sang Christmas carols to myself - Fideste Adoramus in Latin. The smiles that greeted me made the day light and joyful, moment by moment.
But all of friends and smiles cannot replace the fearful memories. Just feelings that I have relived now for two years at this time.
This was the time of year that my ex started her campaign to attack me by abusing the Intervention Order process. In one month and a week, under instructions from her lawyer, she will threaten to sue me for $100,000 - expressing resentment for every moment of my illness and all that it cost.
One month later, she will threaten to sue for $20,000, and to have me charged with crimes she could not specify.
She was instructed by her attorney to make these threats only when the two of us were alone. Her attorney realized she had no case for abuse, and intended to attack me in court by calling me a liar over these threats. He hoped to persuade the judge that I was the liar, when in fact he and his client were planning and rehearsing lies to present to the court.

The concept of a lawyer as an officer of the court and must help the court seek justice is petty irony.

I cannot remember the time leading up to Christmas. I spent most of it in constant physical pain from my back, hip, and knee. I stayed away from the house as much as possible to let my ex and her family have as normal a time as possible. When I was in the house and she or her daughter were there, I stayed in my room studying, or sleeping.
I knew there was to be no Christmas for me that year.
The most recent spate of abusive arguments had made even the couch I had to sleep on something to be avoided if they were around. There was no energy to endure the barely audible jeering and disdainful looks. My leg swelled up, and part of the bottom of my foot went numb. At those times, I would ignore the pressures and just go lie on the couch to elevate my foot.

My energies in those days were still consumed with trying to learn to walk and simply heal, mentally and physically. I had no energy to join in the arguments my ex sought whenever she could; much less the games she would play later.
A bitter moment at that thought turns in my stomach - The games. - makes my mind numb: I would never have believed that a court would support such vindictive cruelty.

Philosophically, Life is full of bitter lessons. We learn to accept them and put them into perspective amongst all the other aspects of living. Thinking on perspective usually leads to seeing that the most bitter facts of life are less important amongst the many small joys. - There is a point where the perspective fails, however.
All I wanted of that time was to be able to heal from my wounds in my own home. But the Australian courts had decided long before I came to Australia that that would not be.
My ex simply knew her country better than I did.

The thought runs through my mind that perhaps writing these thoughts has helped to ease the pressures inside me. It has eased, but not erased the feelings. The gross injustice and its effects are still with me.

Paul Donley

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