Unrealized compassion is the silver lining in a very dark cloud

An often unrealized understanding of the broad compassion communities have for its people quickly becomes clear when a road collision kills or injures one of its number.

Inattention coupled with a
 multitude of other ingredients can
 lead to collisions.

In what seems like only moments, news of the collision and it consequences ricochet around the respective community and this hitherto unseen, and often unrealized, compassion, sympathy and eagerness to help erupts.
Should we search in desperation for the silver lining in this dark cloud that settles upon us after a road collision then it is this – the astonishing community bonding that emanates when a collision brings death or injury, turmoil and tragedy.
People, some often remote from the tragedy itself, respond in what is a very human way bringing in anyway they can to those involved, warmth, support, reassurance and the personal contact that is known to be critical in repairing the physical or emotional damage arising from the collision.
Collision survivors are often strikingly alone for while the event might have left them with certain, and obvious, physical difficulties, it is frequently the unseen emotional changes that trigger a pervasive sense of isolation.
Many survivors often tell about the evaporation of friendships once it becomes obvious they are longer able to participate in the spontaneity often demanded by personal relationships.
However, and importantly, some in our communities willingly take up that responsibility and so provide that essential human contact that the welfare each of us hinges on.
The recuperation and renovation of a person depends upon many things, but few, beyond the intricacies of medicine, have move impact than social contact and that is often to be found in the work place.
Work, regardless of what it is, has a social value that far exceeds whatever financial reward it may or may not attract.
A “Cool Heads” program at Shepparton’s Harder Auditorium on Wednesday night was structured with the aim of encouraging young drivers to avoid the road collisions and subsequent personal dilemmas that bring on the aforementioned community compassion.
Walking home after the event allowed time for messages and graphic images to expand and provide another reminder that safe road use is about attitude and an understanding of the consequences.

Talk about women in uniform is ill-directed

Discussion about the rightness or wrongness of women joining men in the violence of frontline military roles is seriously ill-directed.
It is neither, rather it is a conversation that avoids good sense and in being irresponsible is simply the confirmation of our infatuation with patriarchal views.

Rather than see women doing
 this, we would like to know
 why it seems we must fight.

Really, we should be discussing why we go to war and feel the need to fight at all – either men or women?
It’s easy to holler “yes, fight” and brandish a finger, as if it is a sword, pointing to moments, illustrated by libraries of books, in which we either fought or died.
Mankind has always preferred black and white solutions – simplistic kill or be killed-like answers – for despite claims of our sophisticated thinking, we are, in moments of crisis, less than intellectually adventurous.
And rather than adhere to that naive live or die tactic, we owe it to the human race, or more specifically ourselves, to expand our thinking, allowing ourselves to consider why we fight and what we can do to avoid such dilemmas.
Our societies have evolved to become behaviourally masculine, which, in particularly defined moments, has been invaluable.
Humanity, however, would never have emerged from the mists of its past without female love, care and nourishment being added to the mix, a subtle essential ingredient we are about to spill, and waste, on our battlefields.
The endurance of humanity depends upon many attributes, first among them being equality among all people and, importantly, men and women.
Stripped of all its finery, there is, therefore, no rational argument against women joining men on the battlefield – unbridled equality.
That supposition, however, overlooks two central questions about whether or not women should be allowed to die with their male counterparts on our battlefields.
Equality is about the notion of people generally, not exclusively men and women, having free and open access to the same advantages and, naturally, disadvantages.
Why, it must be asked, is it that humans appear to have a bent for bellicose behaviour that manifests itself in conflicts?
So rather than investing obscene amounts of money, time and effort into how we can subdue the other with violence, we need to refurbish our thinking, renew our philosophies and learn afresh that even though something might look dire, the best outcome will be arrived at through the embrace of collaboration, kindliness and sensitivity.
Equipped with such feelings and carrying only care and compassion in their hearts and reinforced by the principle of human well-being, the traditional idea of a soldier,  either male or female, would wither.  
Women seeking equality on the battlefields that the minds of men have wrought chase a chimera; their efforts, and time, would be better spent first understanding why we go to war at all.