ANZAC DAY MESSAGE: 25.4.24_ AFL Legends, Legacy Family, Kerls, Baras, say ‘No’ to war - to remind us - never again – Lest We Forget!
When Ron Barassi and wife Cherryl, joined Neil Kerley and me for one of our many catch-ups, possibly one of the most profound conversations between these two Legacy lads was the notion of the evils of war.
Excerpt from page 215-217 of my memoir, scribed in 2004 and published in 2017:
“Wats (Neil) and I were having an intense discussion only weeks after Lee's passing with friends Ron and Cherryl Barassi, all agreeing that war is bad for an economy and that if there was something we could do to make this a better world we should - a view that seems to be in direct opposition to power hungry governments who have been known to use war to fuel a sagging economy…
… I relayed a comment I had heard Ron make on his regular Monday morning spot with radio 3AW's Neil Mitchell. ‘I thought it was great when you said that we should, or could all try to be better human beings.’
"Ron couldn't quite recall the comment but he went on to say that we just can't sit back and let bad things happen and that he was not going to either.
"So many of us accept what is thrust at us by governments, institutions, authorities and individuals that is all about their interest to the detriment of common man's good. And, unless people like Ron who are admired, respected and have holistic views on life act on those feelings, we will all continue to spiral downwards, including those ignorant entities who are making those laws, decisions and determinations.
"It is much like the notion that so many governments have on war, believing that it is good for an economy.
"How can it be argued when you add up what it costs on top of who it kills. Of course no one around the table was disagreeing with that. As I outlined in my feature article on the war in the Middle East, it clearly is not good for anyone.
"Wats and Ron are legacy boys and they know only too well how war affected them and their families.
"How much does it cost when we ignore human growth and potential and starve ourselves of life's most precious gift of greater consciousness and knowledge that leads to greater understanding and respect for all mankind that translates into love and peace?…
… And as we well know, you can't buy love, respect, dignity and peace.
"Just take a closer look at what is happening in our hospitals, our schools, the workplace and our outer and inner world to see the impact and negative fallout for all.
"Think about it for one moment and ask yourself if you think it's possible to sustain life if matters continue to become worse, as they well will unless we all take some responsibility to create change…
…There is a lot of work to be done - so where do we start?
"It is time for individual action and positive positioning to either influence governments or take over from government and corporate mismanagement.”
When eminent human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson was asked in an on-air interview, 'The Weekly' with Charlie Pickering on 13 March 2024, if he still prescribed to optimism, he responded: “I am not as optimistic as I used to be”.
International author of ‘Igniting the Soul at Work’, Robert Rabbin, quotes Gandhi: “Each of us must be the change we want to see in the world”; adding:
“Wherever there is abuse of power, fraud, corruption, violence, lies, deception, and repression of freedom, know that there is soullessness. …The history of war is the history of soullessness; leaders will have to reclaim their soul… must understand how soul alienation corrupts their minds with fear and anger, and how those emotions become their calling cards. They cannot live in their reasons and justifications: those are only masks… If they remain the puppets of buried decisions, how can they ever create new behaviour, new solutions? Until we understand our own weird failures, we are nothing but terrorists to ourselves and others brutalising the world to compensate for soulless…. there can be no love, no joy no peace in this world.”
Food for thought for thinking Australians who see where we are as a humanity that sits on the precipice!
As I repeat my commentary of June 8 2023 – further to sharing the below video - if you would like to view a deeply comprehensive analysis of what is happening in our world, and why – which you may have ignored back then?
Coincidently, around the same time I learned firsthand, just how, alleged, corrupt current governments had been behaving with scandalous abuse of power; deception, repression of information, cover-up. Soulless leadership is no way to ‘fix a turbulent world’.
Sadly, with the current state of worldly warring interests, in among a dialogue of wiser words that would best serve peaceful solutions - for all the reasons world visionaries the likes of Gandhi, Mandela and other great mystics world see, confirm what few ‘see, warn’. All while realities expose ‘show pony’ politicians, self-indulgent empty words – not for ‘man’, or ‘country’, but for ‘self’, that will set us all up for greater dangers.
So let me tell you a story of positive ‘tactical’ warring power… not mentioned in my memoir.
When President Clinton sent the most senior US Consul General, the late Tex Harris, to Australia in 1997, lauded a ‘hero’; not only did Tex become a guiding light for me - always supporting my Godly prescribed initiatives - we also became great mates.
Harris subsequently introduced me to many eminent world visionaries, and influential strategic ‘movers and shakers’, including Dr Don Beck who had assisted Mandela/Apartheid, and who used sport - such as the 1995 Rugby World Cup - ‘as unifying force for a nation fragmented by racial strife’.
Sadly, Harris and Beck passed away recently – a massive loss to me - and to our world.
These international visionary greats actively supported the AFL-led mental health mission, United Action For Life (UAFL) – suggesting the US would be interested in combining this inhouse, integrative mental health care centre model, not currently available.
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All appalled at the current ‘lock-up’ hospital ED that sees ‘troubled souls’ handcuffed to a bed with paid security at their door - reported to be costing us multimillions - while contributing to exacerbating our overwhelming mental health drug-driven crisis.
The stand-out occasion, over 30 years of friendship, sits alongside one of my most memorable moments. It was the time, Tex invited me as his guest aboard the most powerful warship that ever entered Australian shores, while it was anchored at Port Melbourne.
I invited my brilliant, high-tech-minded young nephew, believing he would enjoy this rare privilege along with other invited guests.
As soon established, the ‘most powerful warship’ to visit Australian shores did not have any armament onboard. Its mission? Purely to collect Intelligence.
On that visit, my nephew and I were personally chaperoned by the Captain and his senior naval officers.
When all guests departed, we were given exclusive access to other areas of the ship, and treated with the utmost personalised attention; followed by an invitation to join the Captain and senior officers for dinner.
Because my brother had arrived to collect his son, whose brilliance and rare capabilities now see him heading up futurist Information technology in private enterprise, I made a polite excuse to decline.
The choice was mine; like many other wonderful, rare invitations that have been offered. I make decisions on a ‘soul level’, never always understood - then, or now – as I also continue to do with many daily activities.
So wasn’t I surprised when the Captain, having obtained my email address, wrote to gauge my opinion of various ‘matters’.
It quickly became apparent that my opinions were being sought by significant parties – which left me feeling uncomfortable. I know how my insights have helped in previous ‘world affairs’, as did they, over my entire adult life; having been gifted with abilities that even scare me sometimes. Particularly Kerls, my great love – who often called me a ‘witch’, over our 34 years – which also helped keep him in line, haha!
I have always done what I believed in the best interests of the collective whole; given as much as I can to many. But my choice now is to ‘disconnect’, since the sudden passing of the great love of my life. Such is my despair, my deep regret; not-acted-upon instinct, seeing so many ‘danger signs’, terrified of losing him – knowing that 29 June 2022, was not his time to leave; but for that which transpired behind closed doors!
So, I come back to one comment I will make on this grandiose attempt to drag Australia into World War III. A comment I repeat, in my email to the White House leading up to the 7 October 2001 decision not to go into Iraq; quoting the opinion of post-warring military might.
“Many of your leaders/military might have been quoted recently as saying all past wars have occurred as a result of misunderstandings - will they say the same of this war in future years – I wonder?"
- Memoir, pages 188 – 191
Yes, sadly, we all now know going into Iraq was a ‘BIG’ mistake’ as Blair and Howard committed to a ‘hidden’ agenda. A tragedy that befell many, and continues to impact war veterans, their families, society, the suicide rate… our world.
What happened to ‘think globally, act locally’, which urges people to consider, ‘the health of the entire planet’, and to take action in our own communities and cities?
All while the blind continue to lead the blind, leading to another ruthless world war, also commenced on 7 October, that will end badly for all of humanity – if we ignore discriminating ’intelligence’, designed to prevent wars, not create them.
How I loved ANZAC DAY footy at the MCG. Always my favourite game day I hold dear in my memory for its significance while living in Melbourne for 22 years - before returning home to Adelaide for ‘live-in-love’, now on another level!
Please feel free to pass on the above article to interested readers...
Yvonne Nicolas
Mental Health Advocate
Author: ‘Making Sense of Life Before We L’Eve …Those Were The Days'
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