UPDATE: “Suburb Wakes In Fright”, the piece to which I was objecting in this blog post, was for some reason removed from the linked page mere hours after this post was published. However I am sure there is no causal connection … :) … and as I write this, the original article, including that piece can still be found here.
Like most people I am deeply appalled by the stabbing and shooting incident at the police station in Endeavour Hills today. My heart goes out to the police officers and their families, and I am not in any way, shape or form, condoning the actions of the young man who was shot.
AND I am also appalled (though not to the same degree of course) at the type of “reporting” we see under the heading “Suburb Wakes in Fright” lower down on this web page.
I very much object to this kind of sensationalism and fear-mongering! Terrorism is real. Hatred and fear are indeed alive and well in our communities – everywhere.
But you who seek to add fuel to the fire and make us even more afraid … you who exaggerate the threat and thereby inflame latent visceral xenophobic fear … you who jump on the sensationalist hyperbolic bandwagon to ‘make the news’…. You don’t speak for me!
This type of ‘reporting’ serves to fuel and feed global conflict and hatred, not diminish it.
Remember the story of the two wolves:
An old Cherokee told his grandson: “My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, and resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth.”
The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”
And finally, though on a much lesser note, as for taking some of your copy (even though not verbatim, it’s true) from Wikipedia? That may not be appalling, but it’s very lazy journalism!
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