Yves Rees: 'Let’s have the courage to know less and listen more', On Courage event - 2024

16 June 2024, Brunswick Ballroom, Melbourne, Australia

Clementine Ford presented this event at which five speakers gave their views on courage. Dr Yves Rees is the author of ‘All About Yves’, a timely and thought-provoking memoir about the trans experience.

Back when I was a kid, I read a lot of fact books. You know the type—those hardcover books from the 90s that had oversized font and bright illustrations attached to quirky little factoids. ‘1001 Facts about the Amazon’ or ‘Discover the Human Body’.

My mum gave me a new fact book every Christmas and birthday, and I read and reread them until I knew the contents by heart. From them, I learnt about the world. I learnt about dungeons in Medieval castles (grim), the mating habits of King Penguins (serially monogamous), and the fashions of ancient Rome (wonderfully camp).

But more importantly, these fact books taught me something about knowledge itself. They taught me that the world was knowable. It could be seen, understood, and served up on a platter for my delectation. In their pages, I learnt that rational minds could study people and places and uncover all their secrets. If you tried hard enough, the unruly world would submit itself to the knowers’ gaze.

This was a seductive feeling. In a lonely childhood in which I was the third wheel in my parents’ failing marriage, a childhood coloured by unspeakable feelings about wanting to kiss girls and look like my brother, it felt wonderfully comforting to have facts to lean on. They were sturdy, they were reliable. They gave order and structure to an unruly world. Knowledge became my safe space, my favourite way to self-soothe.

Fast forward three decades. That anxious kid who sought security in knowledge became the academic with three degrees who’d spent their entire adult life hiding inside universities. Universities were kind of like a three-dimensional fact book – an ordered world with clear rules that allowed me to disassociate into a realm of pure abstraction. Hmmm, bliss.

There was only one small problem. This tidy world, this world of knowing and ordering, was not so abstract after all. Turns out, it had blood on its hands. The crisp white pages of the fact books were in fact sharp knives that had left deep wounds on the world.

The late great Palestinian thinker Edward Said was one of the first to help us see how knowledge can harm. In his classic book Orientalism, Said showed how Western knowledge of the so-called ‘Orient’ was essential to colonial conquest and rule. He showed us that to claim to know is to objectify, to control. In Said’s words, “To have such knowledge of such a thing is to dominate it, to have authority over it.”

The fact books taught me to think that knowledge is objective. Just plain facts, just how it is. But in truth knowledge is always embedded in culture—and Western knowledge systems, as Said and other showed us, are structured around hierarchy and classification and objectification. Everything is separate, everything is ranked.

Far from being neutral, these ways of knowing quite literally made a world of empire, capitalism and white male supremacy. They allowed colonisers to bend the rest of the world to our will. They’ve allowed us to centre our own humanity at the expense of others.

We can see this in the ongoing violence of settler Australia, where our fantasies of terra nullius and settler progress mean we still refuse to countenance that First Nations people could and should be in charge of their own lives and their own land.

We can see this in our bloody-minded extraction of fossil fuels from a dying planet, a planet we insist on viewing as a resource to be exploited rather than an extension of ourselves and our only home.

And we see this with the genocide in Gaza, as the ‘sensible’ Western media use calm facts and orderly paragraphs to create a dystopian reality in which the mass slaughter of children is allowed to continue before our eyes.

It is not easy let go of the safety net of knowledge. Western knowledge, for all its undeniable violence, has been the scaffold that has constructed the world for me and so many of us. It’s hard—even inconceivable— to imagine a world without it.

But when I think about what courage means here and now, for someone like me—a white settler on stolen land—this surrender into not-knowing is the one idea that rings true. Real courage is not repeating old scripts of leading, dominating, taking charge. Real courage is not cosplaying narratives of individual heroism that keep us believing a messiah is coming to save us.

Real courage, for someone like me, is to finally acknowledge our hubris and admit we have no fucking idea. Western knowledge, the knowledge we’ve been hoodwinked into thinking is universal, has enabled centuries of imperialism, slavery and genocide. It’s destroying human connection. It’s actively devasting the planet. It’s killing us and everything we love. Our knowledge sucks.

We need to have the courage to admit this and let go of the reigns. We need to have the courage to step aside and make space for other ways of knowing and being. To concede that we don’t have all the answers and never did.

For starters, we could start taking seriously the wisdom of the cultures that thrived on this continent for tens of thousands of years – a continent that we settlers took only a few centuries to trash beyond repair. If only we were brave enough to give these other knowledges a chance, we have nothing of value to lose and everything to gain.

As I was thinking about tonight, I kept returning to a song by Jen Cloher, who says it better than I ever could. In their song Being Human, Jen tells us: ‘Being human is learning how to let go of what you think you know. Staying human is listening, listening, listening.’

Tonight, as I speak to you on stolen and unceded Wurundjeri land, I want to leave you with this message: let’s have the courage to know less and listen more. Let’s have the courage to step out into the unknown and trust that something will be there to catch us. Let’s have the courage to divest from hierarchy and domination, and instead be humans together.

Speakers ‘On Courage’: Nasser Mashni, Clementine Ford, Sissy Eileen Austin, Catherine Deveny, Dr Yves Rees, Jen Cloher,

Scarlett Lewis: 'Jesse was real. I am a real mom!', Testimony at Alex Jones defamation trial - 2022

5 August 2022, Travis County District Court, Texas, USA

Transcript slightly edited to remove courtroom back and forth

Judge Maya Gamble: Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury, that all the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Scarlett Lewis: I do.

Judge Maya Gamble: Thank you so much ma'am. Come have a seat in the witness chair and I know you've heard me say it a bunch of times: there's water, there's tissues, we need to be able to hear you so please speak into the microphone, let the lawyers ask their question and then answer. Answer out loud and in words. Can you do that for me?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes.

Judge Maya Gamble:  Thank you so much. You may begin.

Mark Bankston (Lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis): Thank you. Ms. Lewis, if you would please introduce yourself to the jury.

Scarlett Lewis:  My name's Scarlett Lewis and I am first and foremost the mom of two boys: Jesse and his surviving brother, and I'm the founder of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement.

Mark Bankston: We're going to talk about that in a little bit. Before we do though, I would like for you to tell us, please, where you were when you first became aware of this disgusting conspiracy, that Jesse's murder didn't happen.

Scarlett Lewis: After the firehouse, the firehouse is where we congregated to find out if Jesse was coming back or not, I actually went to my mom's house. I'm a single mom and I didn't want to go back to the house that I had raised Jesse in. So, I went back to my mom's house who lives nearby, and all my family and friends since high school flew in. So, it was a crowded house and

I was in shock and just trying to maintain, but I do remember that there was some hushed whispering going around about people talking about something and they didn't want me to know. So, of course, I wanted to know and they were telling me that there was someone saying that the tragedy hadn't happened which was so crazy to me because I was living it.

Mark Bankston: Is this the first time you became aware of  Alex  Jones and his associates?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes.

Mark Bankston: Tell me when the first time it is that you became aware that this general conspiracy, this disgusting web of lies, began to spin about your son's murder and Sandy Hook in general.

Scarlett: Well, other than that first time, I guess it would be a couple of months later when the third and fourth grade choir from the Sandy Hook Elementary School had been invited to the Super Bowl to sing, I think America the Beautiful with Jennifer Hudson, and such a beautiful invite for them and kind of exciting experience after what they've been through. They had been in the Sandy Hook Elementary School at the time of the shooting so they're considered survivors and I knew that they were going down and I watched them and then I saw the picture with the overlay of the- afterwards-  circulating with the kid’s names on them, Jesse being left front.

Mark Bankston: The picture that you're talking about, the Super Bowl, you heard about this picture before seeing it?

Scarlett Lewis: I heard about it before seeing it. I can't remember. I can't remember. I don't know. Things circulated back then.

Mark Bankston:What was your understanding about this, and how did it make you feel?

Scarlett Lewis: It was deeply unsettling what people were saying about the December 14th shooting, that it didn't happen, that these children from the Sandy Hook School were actually the victims alive, older. It was deeply unsettling to me because it's so out of touch with reality that it's scary. It’s scary to think about who would think like this.

Mark Bankston: Sure. Did you understand this picture, this conspiracy here, to be coming from Alex Jones? Pushed by Alex Jones?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: I want to take you back even before this. Was there anything about your understanding or, did you learn, was Jesse's wake interrupted in any way by this conspiracy? This web of lies?

Scarlett Lewis: Yeah, so, Jesse was murdered on a Friday and the following Wednesday we had a wake for him at a local funeral home and people were lined up outside and then coming in. We had an open casket and we were blessed to be able to have an open casket because of the lack of damage done to the body. So, people would walk in, they would sign something, they would walk past the casket, and then to me. And so I'm just meeting people as they're coming through and I remember looking up and seeing the Hell's Angels there and I thought well at the time I was in shock and so I just thought, you know, it was surreal anyway, but then I found out later that they were there to, ironically, keep the peace which was also surreal to me, to make sure that there wasn't a disturbance at the wake.

Mark Bankston: Your understanding is that this came from the beginning of this conspiracy and web of lies that Jones is pushing?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes.

Mark Bankston: I want to talk to you a bit about other encounters that you've had with the public as it concerns this web of lies, what Jones is pushing. Have you received, I'm not going to go into every one of them, but have you received emails, threats, death threats and the like as it concerns this?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: I want to talk to you a little bit about this email. It first says, “Neil Heslin is not Jesse's dad unless you can send me his birth certificate.” How did that make you feel?

Scarlett Lewis: It's not the only time that Jesse and his birth certificate have been questioned. It was deeply unsettling if you read the rest of the email. It's pulling names from different parts of my life: all my family, my friends, previous relationships. It's deeply unsettling

Mark Bankston:  What is it like having people associated, or Jones and his associates, asking you for birth certificates? How does that make you feel?

Scarlett Lewis: I remember a different email asking me for Jesse's birth certificate and I'd actually been on the phone with a school in Texas who had had a child that had died by suicide because of continuous bullying and I sat down, I opened the email, and I read that. They were asking me to come in and talk and help their student body, and I sat down, I opened up the email, and I thought, I have a connection with that little boy. That's how it made me feel.

Mark Bankston: Go on down this page. I'm going to read something for you, and I'm going to apologize first because I know that this must be tricky. It says, “I have been avoiding Scarlett because I find her appalling and disgusting. If the Arkansas Democrat published a spin article on Scarlett and her beginnings in Fayetteville, then further research is warranted into this woman's past and her extended family. We know she is a fraud, but how deep it goes we may not know yet.” What is it like reading those words after what you've gone through?

Scarlett Lewis: ---Deeply unsettling--- The Arkansas Democrat Gazette was actually doing an article on me because I was there speaking in schools about a movement that I started in my son's honor and I'm actually from Arkansas and so it was deeply deeply deeply upsetting and then also upsetting that you have people that are thinking that of you: appalling and disgusting. It's in your face. It's scary.

Mark Bankston: How does this make you feel as it concerns your own security and safety?

Scarlett Lewis: I feel compromised. I mean, you can look at this email and you see that they have done research on me and I guess through social media and maybe websites to do searches on people they have all the different names that I've ever used that I use now, they have people that they've dragged out from my past. It's, I know I'm using this word a lot, but it's deeply unsettling to your very core.

Mark Bankston: You reference research that they're doing. Let's look at the next page, page 3.

At the top of the page, it reads, “Neil Heslin, 57, reportedly, is the father of Jesse Mccord

Lewis. Not very likely. Perhaps JT stands for Jordan Trent.” and then there is a picture of you with other people in your family. How does this make you feel? Explain this for us please.

Scarlett Lewis: Well I'll go back to the previous page for a second, and it says that I attended in 1984. So, I was in high school at a concert and I did, but that's not my name and yeah those are the names of my brothers. So, it definitely makes me feel victimized and it's not just me. It's not just my son. It's interesting, the ripple effect. This is now my entire family. It's my friends. It's people that I've known in my past. It goes far beyond just me and Jesse and my surviving son.

Mark Bankston: The next page. Having pictures sent to you by someone you don't know who is clearly mentally unstable, what does that do to your psyche? To your trust in the outside world?

Scarlett Lewis: I mean this is supposed to be me, but it's not. It's actually another victim's family.

Supposedly, they think it's me. It's different than losing a son, having a son murdered. We didn't lose him. He was murdered. It's different than having a son murdered because, as shocking as that was, that happens. People go through that, but then being a victim's parent and having someone victimize you in a different way, and you try to process the death of a child, and people have done that, but you can't process this. You can't make sense out of nonsense.

Mark Bankston: This is one of many emails you have received, is that fair?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Is this representative of the other emails the other communications that you have received?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Again, I'm not going to talk about every one of them, but I want to talk about a few others. Plaintiff's exhibit 128. Does this refresh your recollection of questions further that were sent to you from this Wolfgang Halbig? That Alex Jones over and over again referred to on his radio show?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: 128 if we could please, put that up, Melissa? I want to read the bottom of it, “a criminal faction is manipulating your thoughts and feelings by withholding information regarding the Sandy Hook school shooting of December 14, 2012. My friends and I want specific and complete answers to the following questions. We would be pleased if you too would be curious enough to desire answers to these 51 questions.” This is something that was sent to you?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Does it reopen the wounds that were created as a result of your grief?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Does it make them difficult to heal?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Tell us about that.

Scarlett Lewis: Healing from having a child murdered is possible. It's a life-long life-long journey. It's like losing a limb, and you know there's phantom pains-- evidently I don't know, but when you lose a limb, you always feel it. It’s like it's always there because you're so used to having it. You should have it and you probably reach out for something with a hand and that's how I kind of compare losing a child like that. He should be here and he's not, but it's something that you can process. This, I think-- the fear and anxiety and unsafeness -- that this -- that all of these-- this just continuous and it doesn't even have to be that many. It's just, you know, this element that's always in the background of fear keeps you from keeps me from healing. It definitely -- it definitely negatively impacts the healing process.

Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, by the way, where do you live?

Scarlett Lewis:  I live in San Diego.

Mark Bankston: Do you live in the same house that you live in with Jesse?

Scarlett Lewis: I do.

Mark Bankston: And have you had people come to that house make you feel unsafe there because of these lies and conspiracy that Jones has been pushing?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Tell us about that.

Scarlett Lewis: There was a Christmas and we usually now go over my Mom's for Christmas because I don't put up a tree anymore, but it was Christmas morning and I had a car drive into my driveway and a man got out and started taking pictures and so I walked outside and I said excuse me and he took pictures and then got back in his car and drove away. Unsettling.

Mark Bankston: Do you feel unsafe at your own house?

Scarlett Lewis: I have, yes.

Mark Bankston: We heard briefly -- I just need to address it-- we heard briefly that you own a gun at your house. Is that because of the safety fears that you have?

Scarlet Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston:  If you'd like to explain a little further…

Scarlet Lewis: I'm a single mother and responsible for the safety of both of my boys and I was not able to keep one of them safe and so I'm going to keep my surviving son safe. You know, you can tell by these emails that the people writing them are not grounded in reality and that is deeply concerning. And you can tell, I could tell, by the two people that testified from Infowars as well as Alex Jones that they don't care. That's also deeply unsettling.

Mark Bankston: When Infowars… I think you've seen on the screen and others from Infowars would come to town -- and Sandy-- and Newtown -- The Sandy Hook community, would you hear about it?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: How?

Scarlett Lewis: The mayor, at the time, would send out an email to the parents advising us of the fact that they were coming to town telling us to stay in our homes, stay safe, just be aware, and so I would.

Mark Bankston: How did it make you feel when someone told you that these people were coming into town knowing what they were saying?

Scarlett Lewis: It was frightening. You didn't know what to expect. You didn't know what they were going to do. They would show up at different places, make outlandish allegations and accusations and threats, and you felt limited by that.

Mark Bankston: Are you aware of other parents in the community living these same nightmares and death threats that you're talking about?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: And does knowledge of what others in that community who have lost a child affect how you feel and go about your day?

Scarlett Lewis: Absolutely, I mean we're almost like a family. I mean we are bonded forever, the 26 families, by what we've been through. So, if something happens to one of them, we hear about it, and it is like it's happening to us.

Mark Bankston: Do you share with them what has happened to you in that same regard for that same reason?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston:  There are death threats that you're aware of to other people that you believe apply to you as well?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Are you aware of a particular person, her name is Lucy Richards?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: What is your awareness and understanding of who Lucy Richards is?

Scarlett Lewis: Lucy Richards is a woman who made threats to the Pozner family, both Veronique and Lenny on their voicemails and she was later arrested and jailed for those death threats.

Mark Bankston: Are you aware that one of the punishments that she was given is she couldn't listen to the Alex Jones show?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes, I am aware of that.

Mark Bankston: And knowing that someone was punished and that they're not allowed to listen to the  Alex Jones show, how does that affect the way you react to further harassment from his show?

Scarlett Lewis:  You see the type of-- some of the people that listen to his show and take everything that he says at face value.

Mark Bankston: You have heard the actual death threats from Ms. Richards?

Scarlett Lewis: I have.

Mark Bankston:  Would hearing one of those death threats better help us to understand how you receive them and the anxiety that's given to you?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Voicemail Recording: “What are you going to do about it? You should do absolutely nothing. You're a loser. You're going to run. C***. And what are you going to do about it? You should do absolutely nothing. You're a loser. You're going to rot in hell the way you just think death you're going to die. Death is coming real soon, mother f*****.  You're going to die.

Mark Bankston: The fear and anxiety that comes from this, can you please explain that to us?

Scarlett Lewis: It's fear. Fear for your life, but I guess it's not even mostly fear for mine. It's fear for my surviving son. It's fear for the other people that have been brought into this: my family and friends. It paints everything. I paint and I've described it. It just it's one more layer you you have  a painting and then your son is murdered and that's a varnish on it and then this is another varnish, a darker varnish on top of all of that. It's just with you all the time. It's just a thought in your head all the time.

Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, can we continue what we were talking about earlier?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Okay, before we do that though, are you pleased that you at least now finally get to look this man in the eye?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Then I would like to put some context to what we have spoken about before we continue, okay? As if you would bring up plaintiff’s exhibit 3: Photograph of Jesse? Jessie Lewis, your son, tell us about him.

Scarlett Lewis: I like to share the story of when Jesse was born, and Neil shared a little bit of this earlier, but he was 11 pounds. So, he was a c-section, and the first time that I saw him I actually walked to the nursery and there were all these nurses gathered around the window taking pictures and I asked them, “What are you taking pictures of? And they said, “There's this enormous baby and he's trying to crawl out of his bassinet!” So, he had literally crawled down to the bottom and he was trying to get out and I like to share that story because that's how he was his entire life. He was larger than life. He was loud. He was bouncing off the walls. That's my first memory.

Mark Bankston: Tell us more about Jesse. How was his personality?

Scarlett Lewis: He was very bold -- he was very bold for his age. He would walk up to a group of people and he'd introduce himself. A group of men, “Hi, my name is Jesse Lewis! What's your name?” He was very protective of his family and I have a little farm. He would put on an army helmet that my friend had given him, and he would, we called it patrolling. He would walk along the walls, all the corners, and then wait for people to come in at the gate.

Mark Bankston:  And what was some of the-- let me ask it this way, what is your understanding of  Jesse's last day?

Scarlett Lewis: So, Jesse is actually known for that, during his final few moments, the shooter came into -- He shot his way through the glass doors of Sandy Hook Elementary School and then he made a left and he shot his principal and guidance counsellor. They were coming out of a meeting on the first door on the right of the hallway. Now he, Adam Lanza, had been to this school. So, he knew the layout. He knew that this was the first grade hallway and so they heard the gunfire. They came out of the room. They were murdered right outside of Jesse's classroom and then he made a left into the classroom door and was firing adult height and hit his teacher who he was standing right in front of. Then his gun either jammed or ran out of bullets and during the short delay he actually stood up to the shooter and he saved nine of his classmates' lives before losing his own. For that act of bravery he was actually given a commander-in-chief funeral, reserved for heads of state and returning war heroes, and Jesse was actually considered a war hero because his first grade classroom was a literal war zone.

Mark Bankston: This man through his show and his lies has denied the very existence of your son, Jesse Lewis. How does it make you feel being able to come in today and tell him to his face your story?

Scarlett Lewis:  I wanted to tell you to your face because I wanted you to know that I am a mother first and foremost and I know that you're a father and my son existed. You're still on your show, today, implying that I'm an actress, that I'm deep state. You have this week and I don't understand. Truth-- truth is so vital to our world. Truth is what we base our reality on, and we have to agree on that to have a civil society. Sandy Hook is a hard truth- hard truth. Nobody would want to ever believe that 26 kids could be murdered. Nobody would ever want to believe that. I understand people not wanting to believe that, actually. I don't want to believe it, but I've, since that day, dedicated my life to keeping kids safe. It's our responsibility. I used to think it was the school's responsibility. It's actually our responsibility and I've dedicated my life to that, and having a quarter of Americans doubt that Sandy Hook happened or doubt the facts around Sandy Hook is not conducive to keeping our kids safe. It's not and it's our responsibility to keep our kids safe. This happened almost 10 years ago. We've had over 350 school shootings since then. We have to keep our kids safe. Jesse was real. I am a real mom. There's nothing out there, nothing. There's records of Jesse's birth, of me. I mean I have a history and there's nothing that you could have found because it doesn't exist. That I'm deep state. It's just not true. I know you know that. That's the problem. I know you know that and you keep saying it. You keep saying it, why? Why? For money? Because you've made a lot of money while you've said it. I know you're-- I mean -- I know you believe me and yet you're gonna leave this courthouse and you're gonna say it again on your show. You're saying, “No.” You just did it.

Mark Bankston:  Over the break, Ms. Lewis, did you have an opportunity to hear what Mr. Jones had said on his show about what Mr. Heslin was? Or about Mr. Heslin and his testimony?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, You have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress do you not?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston:  And when this man says bad things and lies about your son's father, Mr. Heslin how does that affect you?

Scarlett Lewis: It affects me because that is the father of my son. That is, you know, we're bonded forever through that connection, through Jesse, through Jesse's spirit and that that impacts me. If you have the capacity to put yourself in my shoes. Do you have empathy? because the two people that work for you don't seem to have empathy or care. They really don't. I was looking for some caring. I did not see it. Do you?

Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, does it continue to cause you emotional distress when you hear this man peddle the thought that you are in some way or another an actor, or controlled by other people, or like thoughts?

Scarlett Lewis: Or that Sandy Hook was a total hoax, that it was a false flag, that it never happened, that there were no children killed? And you know that's not true. You know that's not true, but when you say those things there's a fringe of society that believe you that are actually dangerous.

Mark Bankston: The video that you saw over break from Mr. Jones’s website radio show, Infowars, did that cause you or affect you emotionally further?

Scarlett Lewis:  Absolutely

Mark Bankston: And are you aware that the video was created during or shortly after Mr. Heslin's testimony?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Okay, And did that video come from the Infowars website?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: And did you personally see that the video came from the Infowars website?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Alex Jones Recording Plays: I thought it was an act when I saw some of the stuff on TV just because he came off as so- let's just say he's a nice man and he's not an actor. He is being manipulated by some very bad people, but I'll just say, because I got to be honest, he's slow, okay? And his ex-wife is not. I don't think he's stupid. I'm just saying he's … I've got family members that are really smart in a lot of ways, but they're just real kind of quiet and have this way about ‘em and they  move a different pace like they're fast in some ways and slow in others and he's, I mean. I think Heslin acts like somebody on the spectrum. That makes me feel like an even bigger jerk, but when I saw him, I was like there's something about this guy that doesn't look--  and now that I've been around him for over a week, I'm like okay. Now, I know. Folks, I don't have some calculated point just bringing that up here. It's just that I'm around these people, and I'm looking at it, and I'm watching what's being said, and what's going on, and it really then makes it clear what happened.

Mark Bankston: How does it make you feel knowing that that was said today by this man on his radio show while Jesse's father was testifying in that same seat you're sitting in?

Scarlett Lewis: I've had a hard time finding words today. It makes me feel astounded in a bad way. It's horrific, horrific, horrific.

Mark Bankston: Tell us, if you would please, one of your last memories of Jessie.

Scarlett Lewis: So, I'm a single mom and I work full time and so mornings are hectic with two boys getting them out the door. Neil was picking up Jesse that morning, and so I bundled him up, brought him outside, walked him outside to meet Neil, and we were gonna make gingerbread houses with him with their class at 2 pm that day. I worked a lot and so I had taken the afternoon off that day and so Neil and I were finalizing the -- you know, “I'll meet you at the school for the gingerbread houses” and I turned around to give Jesse a hug and I noticed that he had written in the frost on the side of my car, this was Connecticut, December 14th is very cold,

“I love you” with his fingernail in the frost and he’d drawn hearts in all my windows and I knew that that was one of life's special moments and so I told him, “even though,” running late, “he's late, stay right here I'm gonna go get my cell phone.” I ran into the house, got my cell phone, came back out. I remember taking him by the shoulders positioning him so he'd be right by his message, taking a picture. I remember it was overexposed, so I deleted it and then I took another picture and then I took a close-up picture of the I love you and then I gave him a hug and sent him off to school. That was the last picture that was ever taken of him and that was the last time I ever saw him.

Mark Bankston: Is Jesse honored for his heroism that day?

Scarlett Lewis: He was. He was honored for his heroism at his funeral. He was given a commander-in-chief funeral and my last memory really is driving him to the grave site from where we held the funeral at a church to the actual gravesite graveyard. I was in a car behind the hearse that contained the casket and I was in the car with my son and a couple other family members and we had, I guess it's called a cavalcade,  multiple motorcycles in full uniform were in front of us and behind us. Lots of first responders showed up from multiple different states to honor his bravery. When we approached an intersection, the back would come up to the front and they would block off the intersection and cars, this line of cars, pulled over to the side. People had gotten out of the cars. They were kneeling on the ground praying-- saluting for his bravery and that's a special memory.

Mark Bankston: How does this man's lies interrupt those memories?

Scarlett Lewis: I mean because then Alex gets on there and says that it didn't happen. That it was a false flag. That there were no kids killed and you cater those to those people that are not grounded in reality. You're not telling the truth. You know the truth, as a father, and as someone that said they researched Sandy Hook and there was lots of things on there and so to come on and say that  Jesse never existed, that it was a hoax, that it was a hoax. I know there are hoaxes that are out there but this was an incredibly real event and I lived it and it's unbelievable that you would continue to say that it didn't happen.

Mark Bankston:  How does it affect your breathing process? What a mother has to go through when she loses a son?

Scarlett Lewis: Having a six-year-old son shot in the forehead in his first grade classroom is unbearable. Unbearable. You don't think you're going to survive, but there are people that have and then to have someone on top of that perpetuate a lie. A lie!  That it was a hoax, that it didn't happen, it was a false flag, that I'm an actress. Then you get on and you say, “Oh, sorry but I know actresses when I see them.” Do you think I'm an actress?

Alex Jones: No, I don’t think you’re an actress.

Scarlett Lewis: I don't think you understand the fear that you perpetuate to not just the victims' families, all of us and others, but our family, our friends, every survivor from that school. The ripple effect is enormous because of the platform that you have and the fear that comes from that, the fear stops the healing of and the mourning process, because you're afraid. I don't think the two can happen at once. I don't think that you can heal from the loss of your child and be afraid at the same time. The fear stops everything.

Mark Bankston: How do you recover from someone saying your child wasn't murdered?

Scarlett Lewis: I don't think you can recover. I don't think you do recover unless it stops, unless it's retracted, unless there's accountability and responsibility and that hasn't happened.

Mark Bankston: What you've seen today, the video today, what does that do to your hope for this man's accountability and responsibility for it?

Scarlett Lewis: I don't understand. I don't understand. I can't. I cannot even make sense that's one of the problems. I can't make sense out of nonsense out of why you would say it didn't happen. it's not happening, I'm an actress, I'm part of the deep state, it's a hoax it was a false flag, it never happened, there were never any children. I don't understand. Yeah, I'm stuck.

Mark Bankston: One of the things that you have done, Ms Lewis, to aid in your recovery is the Choose Love Movement.

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: If you could, tell us what the Choose Love Movement is.

Scarlett Lewis:  Yeah. When I did come home to my house, I saw a message that Jesse had left on our kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died. He had written three words.  Alex, I want you to hear this too. He'd written three words: ‘nurturing healing love’. This is what Jesse wrote on our kitchen chalkboard. Three words; nurturing healing love, phonetically spelled because he was in first grade and just learning to write, but I looked at those words and I found a solution for what had happened. I knew that if Adam Lanza had been able, Adam Lanza is the former recent student, a recent graduate of Sandy Hook elementary, the newtown school system — If he had been able to give and receive nurturing healing love, the tragedy would never have happened, and so I dedicated my life to spreading that message. I have it on my body at all times. I believe it was a spiritual awareness that he had. That he wasn't going to be on Earth very much longer and he wanted to leave a message for his family and friends of comfort but also inspiration. I believe that that message is where we need to turn in order to survive and thrive - keep our kids safe. It helped me. It helped me determine how I was going to respond knowing that we are responsible for our children's safety. That what we had been doing wasn't working. Obviously, my son was dead and so I decided to take a completely different course. I decided to address the root cause of the pain that led up to Adam Lanza doing what he did, the root cause of the isolation, loneliness, pain, suffering, bullying, even the root cause of substance abuse, and a lot of mental illness and so I started the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement and I started that movement and we say it started at Jesse's funeral because I got up and I got up and talked about how an angry thought started that whole tragedy and that an angry thought can be changed and I asked everybody to choose a loving thought over an angry thought and that changed people's lives and so I I took that foundation and Jesse's message and his courage that he showed and I created a movement I wanted it to be a place where- because there so much polarization after Sandy Hook. It was polarized into anti-gun pro-gun. That was the conversation. All the blame went on Adam and his mom and that didn't make sense to me because if it was all their fault it would never have happened before obviously and it would never happen again. So, I wanted to create a space where everyone can come together and what we all have in common, even you and I, the want and need to love and be loved. We're all the same in that and so I created the Choose Love Movement because I wanted to bring both of the sides together. Of course we're more polarized now than we ever have been as a country. You know that some of that is because of you and I am trying to bring us all together in what we're the same in, which is the want and need to love and be loved. All of us are the same in that. All of us feel pain. You've felt pain in your life. I know I have too and we have to teach our kids how to process that pain so that they don't turn into an Adam Lanza and they don't take it out on other people and that's what the Choose Love Movement does. It's free programming for schools, homes, and communities. It's comprehensive. There's nothing else like it out there, and that's what I've done every day since I started this, which is very shortly after the funeral, is I focus on the Choose Love Movement and I focus on being part of the solution.

Mark Bankston: Have you made it your life goal?

Scarlett Lewis:  Yeah, it's absolutely my life goal to make sure that our children are safe and to safeguard their safety and well-being. It's our responsibility. I didn't know that before the tragedy. I didn't know. I mean, I'm a single mom. Both my son's safety was my responsibility and I knew that, but I wasn't aware that our children's safety, our children’s, including your six-year-old son or daughter, is our responsibility, and we have to do something to safeguard them especially in schools. We keep our money safe. We can keep our kids safe and that is my life's goal.

Mark Bankston: This has been going since 2013?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes

Mark Bankston: Has it been a way for you to try to continue to heal?

Scarlett Lewis: It has. Yes

Mark Bankston: How has what this man has said about you and your family and Jesse affected Choose Love and the way that you are attempting to heal?

Scarlett Lewis: I've literally dedicated my life to trying to keep kids safe and to spread a message that we can thoughtfully respond in any situation, circumstance, or interaction by choosing love and you are spreading lies and fear and falsehoods and deception and untruths. There is a truth and I believe that you know it and this is so important. I feel like we're at odds with our missions.

I'm trying to spread love. I'm trying to keep kids safe because I couldn't do it for my own and you were saying that it didn't happen and you're taking away the credibility of what I'm trying to do.

A quarter of Americans believe that Sandy Hook didn't happen or they doubt the facts surrounding it and you continue to peddle that conspiracy theory and that is not conducive to keeping our kids safe. It's not conducive to keeping our kids safe.

Mark Bankston: The way that you have used Choose Love to help yourself heal. Has the lies that he has given you, has that interrupted that feeling?

Scarlett Lewis: It has. It has because you can't heal when you're afraid.

Mark Bankston: Talk to me about apology and compare that to paying for the damage that has been caused the way you feel about those two.

Scarlett Lewis: Well first of all, there has not been a sincere apology, but if there was ever, I liken it to being in a car accident and you run over someone and cause tremendous bodily damage and you look at that person lying on the ground and say, “I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, but I'm not accountable or responsible for any of the damage that I just caused but I'm sorry.” That's how I see it.

Mark Bankston:  Would you, at this moment in time when you're sitting on that stand now, be at the stage where you would be able to accept an apology? Would it mean anything to you?

Scarlet Lewis: No.

Mark Bankston: As to the other side of this, the damages that you're asking this man to pay for, why are you asking for those damages? What do you hope will be accomplished?

Scarlett Lewis: Alex has been asked to stop and he hasn't. He's still doing it today. You've been doing it last week, every day this week, or at least, I don't know, shows you've had while you should be in here, you've been on your show and you've been talking about this. Your counterpart has been talking with you about this and so you're not going to stop. I don't even think my pleading with you up here is going to get you to stop, and all of the damage that you caused, the fear that you've put people in from your following, the way that you've impacted so many lives. I think that there has to be accountability for that. I don't think you understand. I don't. I think you know that Sandy Hook is real and that it happened. I know you're shaking your head no, but I know that you think that it's real. I know that you know that it's real, but I don't think that you understand at all because the people that work for you don't understand the repercussions of going on air with a huge audience and lying and calling this a hoax and a false flag. You don't understand the repercussions to individuals' lives. You don't understand the net that is cast in a negative way. You don't understand that. You don't understand and I don't think you will understand unless there's some form of punishment that is significant that would make you understand that this is real. This isn't staged like one of your people said. This is a real event. It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this. That we have to implore you, not just implore you, punish you, to get you to stop lying saying it's a hoax. It happened. It's like, surreal what's going on in here. I think everyone in here probably feels that way. I lost my train of thought.

Mark Bankston: Is that what you hope to accomplish?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes.

Mark Bankston: Through this process?

Scarlett Lewis: Yes, I hope to accomplish an era of truth- an era of truth. Please.

Mark Bankston: How difficult has it been for you waiting for this day, literally for this very moment where you're sitting in that chair right now, this reality? How difficult has it been for you waiting for that?

Scarlett Lewis: In some way you've impacted every single day of my life negatively almost since Jesse's murder. Since 2013, when your videos were going around in my house in my mom's house about starting to say that this didn't happen and I'm so glad that this day is here. I'm actually relieved and grateful to everybody that's here in service to our society and I'm grateful that I got to say all this to you, and that I got to speak my truth, and I just I'm really looking forward to this being over so that I can get back to healing and spreading my message, spreading Jesse's message of love.

Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, I cannot thank you enough for sitting and being so great on that chair.

Scarlett Lewis: I want to thank you for representing us.

Judge Maya Gamble: If you don't hear your questions, it is because I made the decision that it wasn't appropriate for some reason. So, you can't direct your frustration at me now. Ms. Lewis, I am going to ask you a number of questions, and I'm going to ask you to respond to them to the jury and if you'll just listen carefully and answer the question. I can't explain it. So, you have to answer the question as it is, okay. How has Jessie's passing affected your parenting of your other son JT?

Scarlett Lewis:  that's a good question it has impacted my parenting obviously I think that when you have one son that's murdered you want to bubble wrap the other son so that they never feel pain and that's obviously impossible and I think that I've done that a bit with JT trying to be overly solicitous and trying to keep him safe.

Judge Maya Gamble: And how has  Alex  Jones and Infowars affected your parenting?

Scarlett Lewis: I think that question relates to the first question. As a parent, it's your responsibility to keep your kids safe, and I wasn't able to do that with my first child, and so I am probably overly zealous in trying to do that with JT, and so I've taken measures that might seem over the top to some but to me I don't want to fail my surviving son, and I know consciously that I didn't fail Jesse. When he was murdered at Sandy Hook because he was where he was supposed to be by law, but you have a little bit of guilt that you sent them to school that morning. So, I think that is definitely impacted by parenting and it's negatively I would say. Unfortunately, I think that he would agree, but you know, I was doing the best that I could with the skills and tools that I have at the time.

Judge Maya Gamble: How many lives has the Choose Love Movement touched and how has it made them better?

Scarlett Lewis: The Choose Love Movement has impacted millions of lives all over the world.

In fact, our last conservative estimate was over three and a half million children that have received this type of essential life skills programming. This type of programming enables them to thoughtfully respond to any situation, circumstance or interaction by choosing love. We have a powerful formula that we teach, and this formula leads you. It's a pathway to flourishing and it starts with courage. Courage to tell the truth, the courage to be present with whatever is happening in your life, the courage to do the right thing. Then gratitude is the next formula. It's the courage to be grateful even when things aren't going your way. I try to live my life this way. It's the courage to forgive even when the person who hurt you isn't sorry, doesn't care, or may not even know. And then compassion in action which is the courage to step outside of your own pain and suffering even your own busyness and distraction to help other people. And then the beautiful thing is when you help other people that helps and heals yourself and I have certainly felt that these are just some of the things that we teach kids. This type of programming was priced out of the market for my son. The school that he went to when I asked them about this type of programming they said they spent so much money on this type of program that they couldn't afford to train the teachers in this. So, I thought wow this would have saved my son's life. So, I created a program and I made it free because every child, actually every parent, every grandparent, every human being should have access to these essential life skills that are backed by science and that we know can create a safer, more peaceful and loving world.

Judge Maya Gamble: Would you include Alex Jones and his family in the Choose Love Movement if he was inclined to join?

Scarlett Lewis: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Judge Maya Gamble: Would you forgive Alex Jones if he truly apologized and compensated monetarily and stopped the propaganda on or off the Infowars platform?

Scarlett Lewis: I'm so glad you asked that question. Whoever did, it's a great question. Forgiveness is something that I've learned so much about since the tragedy and I didn't know much about before and it's really Instrumental in my own personal healing. I think a lot of people are going to learn about it today with me speaking about it, but actually I have said that I forgive

Alex. I've said that I forgive Adam Lanza and I feel compassion for him, and I forgive Alex and I feel compassion for you, but forgiveness starts with a choice and then it becomes a process. That doesn't mean that everything goes away, that you make this decision to forgive and then everything's okay. Forgiveness starts with a choice. Choose love. It is choosing love. Forgiving starts with a choice, but then it becomes a process depending on who you are and your situation and your story and your level of pain. It is something that you might have to do every single day, multiple times a day, and it's a way to let go of some of the pain and to get your personal power back to enable you to live your life. Forgiveness is a powerful healing tool,

but it's something that I have to work on every day. It doesn't mean that you don't hold the person that you're forgiving accountable. They're still responsible for what they did. It has nothing to do with accountability. This is maybe a bad example, but if someone was raped you could forgive your rapist, but you would have to hold them accountable because if you didn't

then they would continue doing that to other people. So, you have some amount of responsibility in your forgiveness to continue to hold somebody accountable because if you don't then they will continue.

Judge Maya Gamble: Ms. Lewis, thank you for your time and your testimony. We all appreciate it at this time you can go back down to where you've been sitting. Thank you.

Support the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement .

Kitty Tabak: 'When I was 6, I began to struggle to speak', speech to school assembly - 2023

23 August 2023, St Margaret’s Berwick Grammar, Berwick, Victoria, Australia

Hey, I’m Kitty and I’ve been asked to speak to you all and bring some awareness to my neurological disability. 

So to give you some backstory, I was born a normal healthy child. I was speaking and forming sentences like any other young child - in my American accent thanks to Dora the Explorer - when everything changed. When I was six, I began to struggle to speak, I would hold onto my words, repeat syllables, stand there with my mouth wide open while nothing came out. My mother took me to get testing done and it was concluded that I have the brain abnormality that affects 5 to 10% all of children. Stuttering.

We all hoped that I was like the 80% of child stutterers who get a stutter when there are around 2 to 6 then grow out of it within a year or so. With a stutter there is no exact cut off year for when stuttering goes from temporary to permanent. Childhood stuttering has 8-10 as the prime years for it to go away. But really it is fair to assume that once you turn eighteen, it will almost definitely be a reoccurring issue for the rest of your life as a long-term stutter. Now, boys are 2-3 times more likely to stutter than girls and also 3-4 times more likely to continue stuttering than girls. So originally, I thought I would be normal again.

So every birthday that passed I just hoped that I would wake up and it would be gone because I knew every set of candles I blew out meant I was closer to it being permanent. Even though I had accepted it, deep down I still wished it would go away. By fourteen I was certain it wasn’t going to go and now at seventeen it’s here for the long run. I am now a part of the 1 percent that stutter. A part of the 80 million out of all 8 billion people.

I’m not going to lie and say that I have grown to be accepting of this and don’t let it hold me back, because that isn’t true. It is something I battle with every waking moment. Watching everyone I know talk and act like it is nothing and take it for granted when I can only wish to be like them and be ‘normal’. It also sucks knowing that my own emotions are betraying me every day as well. When stuttering certain emotions make it worse, and by certain, I mean almost all of them. Whether I am tired, angry, anxious, excited, or sad, those emotions make stuttering a lot worse and a lot harder to hide. The only emotion that doesn’t make it worse is when you’re totally calm, but how often, especially in the presence of other people, are you completely calm and almost numb? Taking those emotions in, and also having to deal with the ticks that stuttering causes is difficult. Trying to stop the leg tapping, hand movements, finger clicking, neck jerks, constant blinking and still be able to feel peaceful and calm is basically impossible. Now sometimes my stutter goes unnoticed by me, and that is pretty often when I’m alone or with people I’m comfortable with. But when in front of a customer at my retail job, speaking to an audience, speaking on the phone, its draining.

I use so much more energy that the normal person just to function like everyone else. During the semester exams, I would get in the car and almost be unable to talk or keep my eyes open. I used so much energy trying to talk fluently because of my stutter, and read and write fluently because of my severe dyslexia and illegible handwriting as well as just having to study and then focus for hours of exams that I would be physically and emotionally exhausted. Like physically unable to move or talk or express myself, if I try it just ends in me holding back frustrated tears from exhaustion.

Every single day is a challenge. Years of speech therapy never worked for me. Every technique failed on me and one day after a session I met my breaking point and told my mum that I would never go to one again and after some hesitation she agreed and accepted my choice. Something as simple as ordering a coffee is embarrassing and difficult for me and speech therapy never made it any easier. Doing this speech and the two other speeches I did in recent weeks for house and music captain was one of the most stressful and scary things I did this year. Speaking to large groups of people is fine usually for me, the girls in house extrav sport all know how loud and talkative I can be, but the second I have something like a speech or book in front of me that I have to read, or am being assessed, my fight or flight kicks in and my brain shuts down my ability to speak. That’s why me standing here right now talking about something so raw and personal is a really big deal for me.

Growing up knowing there is no cure for my disability kills me. There is no surgery for stuttering or medicine that can cure it. Speech therapy only teaches you ways to cope and ways to hide it or will help a child grow out of a childhood stutter. For a long-term stutterer, it is 50/50, either helps you or doesn’t at all. I’m one of the unlucky ones.

I’ll end by mentioning one celebrity I love, not solely because of his movies but because of how he goes about his stutter. Samuel L. Jackson. He has stuttered all his life and even went mute for over a year because of how bad it was and how severely he was bullied in school. He has gone on to have a successful acting career, yet his stutter was never cured. The first article to come up when you google his name and stuttering it is “how Samuel L. Jackson cured his stutter” because we never see him stutter so it must be cured. But a director never uses the scenes the star messed up their lines and the same goes for when an actor stutters. He still has his days but is able to move forward and be successful in life. I strive to be like that and be able to have a career where I’m more comfortable with my speech impediment.

Right this moment, I’m still not overly happy about my stutter. I know that deep down I will always have that hatred for it. My goal today was to just spread awareness of it and share a little bit of my struggles and my stories as well as prove my terrified younger self that I can do a speech in assembly like everyone else. Thank you for listening.  

Matt Taibbi: 'We Americans once cherished independence!', Freedom Fest - 2023

You can find speech at 3.56.06 on video above

13 July 2023, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

A brief story sums up my theory of journalism:

In 1991 I was trying to work as a freelance reporter in newly ex-communist St. Petersburg, Russia. I heard a hot rumor. After decades of deprivation, gorillas at the city zoo were to be given bananas.

I thought Western editors would go crazy. I’d been rejected for more negative stories about the arrival of heroin, or gun violence. Bananas were positive!

I went to the zoo, and interviewed a zookeeper. Then I did what journalists do: I hovered around the gorilla cage looking creepy before mustering the courage to ask a few strangers in broken Russian what they thought about gorillas and bananas. (The newly ex-Soviet Russians had funny answers, like, “How come nobody’s given me bananas?”) When this man on the street portion was done, I stood wondering what to do next. I remember having the thought, “Well, I can’t interview the gorilla.”

I shrugged, went home, wrote it up, and got rejected, but that’s not the point. The point is, journalism isn’t rocket science. You show up, talk to a few people, give your best guess at what you’re looking at, and when you get to the “there’s no one left to interview but the gorilla” moment, you move on.

Thirty years later — at the end of last year — I was in San Francisco looking at content moderation requests sent to Twitter by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. Obviously, the degree of difficulty had gone up a bit, but the job was more or less the same: “Tech Company Gets Unpleasant Bananas.”

I’d learned a trick over the years. If something about a story doesn’t make sense, you probably got something wrong. Something about the Twitter Files story was off.

It wasn’t hard to understand why the FBI was organizing a censorship scheme, or why companies like Twitter and Facebook that lived off lucrative regulatory subsidies were going along with one. The motives of the powerful actors in all this were never mysterious. The part that didn’t compute was why so many in the general public were accepting of the situation. This included people I knew. Many people in America are not just accepting of digital censorship, they believe it to be vitally necessary.

Growing up I was very influenced by organizations like Nadine Strossen’s ACLU. Liberals I knew were as proud of having fought to let Nazis march in Skokie as they were ashamed of the FBI and police in cities like Memphis having spied on Martin Luther King.

Suddenly the same political contingent in America was okay with the government running both mass surveillance programs of the type uncovered by Edward Snowden, and a sophisticated censorship operation in partnership with 25 of the biggest tech firms in America?

It didn’t make sense. What changed?

A few weeks ago I read a draft of a new book by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, called The Cancelling of the American Mind. They quoted Judge Learned Hand, who wrote in 1944, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”

Justice Hand had a hard time defining this thing that “lies in the hearts of men and women.” But, as an American, I believe I experienced it growing up. As Nadine said, it’s that “right not to remain silent,” something in which I believed almost religiously. It was something fiery and motivational, which I felt gave me an advantage over people from other parts of the world.

Later, I was fortunate as a reporter to be able to travel all over the world, and I met people from less free societies who weren’t taught to stand up for themselves or their rights as I had been. They also couldn’t shake the deference they’d been trained to feel toward people with money or celebrity or power. I felt sorry for those people. I was also proud that I’d been taught not to be impressed by kings or princes.

This reflexive way of thinking is disappearing.

Many in this room this week are rightly celebrating Judge Terry Doughty’s decision in the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, striking down government censorship on the internet.

But if that spirit of liberty Justice Hand talked about dies, no amount of lawsuits or congressional hearings will revive it. In their book, Lukianoff and Schlott suggest that just as a person’s natural instinct is to slouch, society’s natural instinct is to censor. Is that true?

If so, that would make the last few hundred years of our history, a history of defiant political movements, astounding scientific invention, and vast outpourings of great music, art, literature, movies, even standup comedy — it would all be an aberration. But why?

I spent months thinking about this. It troubled me from the beginning of the Twitter Files story. Now, I believe Americans are not just being censored. I believe there’s an equivalent effort on the front end of Internet culture to rob people of their will to be free. I believe this is the hardest part of the Internet censorship story to understand, but also the most crucial and most dangerous.

Here I would like everyone to pause for a moment and indulge a corny exercise. If you could, please close their eyes. Imagine that instead of Google, we invent in the near future an internalized search engine, one in which our thoughts can move a cursor. A thought occurs to you: what was the name of that road-trip movie you watched ages ago with Dom Deluise, Burt Reynolds, and Farrah Fawcett?

You ask yourself the question, and mixed in with your own organic memories come machine-aided search results. In a second as it would with Alexa at home, the answer flashes behind your eyes: it was Cannonball Run! Right up there with Citizen Kane.

You can open your eyes now.

Now imagine that instead of trying to remember a silly movie, it’s something more serious. You’re walking down the streets of Washington and you visibly encounter a demonstration in front of the White House.

It’s a gang of Boogaloo Bois, or maybe people from the Green Party, or campaigners for someone like RFK, Jr. It could be anyone. Instead of flashing labels for “harm” or “age inappropriate” content, this new app tinges certain images it finds dangerous with the same warning colors animals use in nature to warn others to stay away, like yellow or red. These protesters therefore look a bit like poisonous insects to you, bathed ever so slightly in visual menace.

Then, when you try mentally to remember what you know about the group you’re looking at, you again get the search engine, which calls up a string of condemnatory headlines and words like “fascist” or “extremist” or “antivax,” which are just the verbal equivalents of black and yellow stripes, transparent code for “threat.”

With this app you’ll also have internalized access to communications services like texting, Zoom, Signal etc. Do you silently capture an image and forward it on social media to tell people what you’ve seen? Likely as not, you won’t, unless it’s to attach a negative comment, which you may do instinctively, in search of the dopamine hit of return affirmation the Internet has already proven so effective at delivering.

This is what Napster inventor Sean Parker once said about Facebook: “We need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while.”

This seemingly far-out situation I’m describing that would go on entirely inside your head is not different from what people already experience. As we found in the Twitter Files, we lean more and more on machines to do our thinking for us. However, the worst part is, we often do not distinguish between thinking that is ours, and thinking that is someone else’s.

We Americans once cherished independence, and lived off folk tales about going off on one’s own, on the open road. Think about Ishmael, or Huck and Jim, or Chuck Berry, who picked up a guitar and sang about setting out with “no particular place to go,” creating a dazzling sound that touched a nerve with the whole world.

That was then. Now instead of giving the world something invigorating and freeing like rock n’ roll, we’re exporting mass neurosis. At home we’ve become afraid to walk even a few steps without our electronic helpers. Our sense of self is now inextricably tied to a huge global entourage of prying commentators who live in those phones of ours that are always in our pockets and whose good opinion we never stop seeking, whether we admit it or not.

This was never us before. We long celebrated the individual, even if the individual was crazy. One of my heroes growing up was a man named Plennie Wingo, who tried to walk around the earth backwards. He made it from Santa Monica to Istanbul.

I mentioned this once to a friend who asked me, “Why would he do that?” I scrunched up my nose. “What do you mean, why? Because!” That’s what we Americans do. It’s why for every fifty idiots who leaped to their deaths off cliffs flapping homemade wings, we had one Wright Brothers. That’s how this country has always worked. The line between outpatient and inventor here is and always has been thin, as is the line between con artist and marketing genius, as PT Barnum discovered. Outlandishness, difference, boldness. We’ve celebrated that from Patrick Henry to Hunter Thompson to Liberace. The freethinker was always a cherished archetype.

But thinking for yourself is hard work, and political interests in the Internet age have preyed on another very American instinct: laziness. Their sophisticated programs begin with the premise that the Internet always punishes difference and rewards conformity. This is the core principle at work in shadow-banning and de-amplification algorithms. These automated surveillance tools look for phrases like “Open-minded” or “I like to do my own research” or “I’m generally apolitical” and don’t score the people saying such things as tolerant, creative freethinkers.

What the algorithm instead detects is someone harboring a dangerous willingness to embrace unorthodox ideas, or look at a forbidden thing and not flee.

It was once a virtue for Americans to say, when asked about their politics, “None of your damn business.”

Nobody thinks that way anymore, either. Young people especially are worried to the point of mental illness about their likes and ratios. We not only want people to know what we think, we’re terrified of people not knowing what we think, lest we be suspected of harboring something unsavory underneath.

This is how it is for Americans trying to be themselves now. First they became addicted to the Internet as a tool of convenience. Then it became a cheap substitute for real-life interaction. Finally they learned to submit to the wisdom of crowds, which on the Internet, as we also found out, is really an artificial representation of a crowd, generated by political and social engineers from the FBI, DHS, the Pentagon, Meta, Google, and other bureaucracies. These groups are letting loose algorithms on that “Spirit of liberty” Justice Hand talked about. The results have not been good.

If they can preemptively extinguish that fire in us, formal censorship will become unnecessary. The population will become too fearful of difference to ever risk punishment in the first place. That moment is close at hand. This is why I’m so grateful for events like this and to people like yourselves. I believe you all know the patriotic importance of preserving that spirit.

Meanwhile, these people who would have us glued to our phones, perennially afraid of electronic whispers, they’re as American as redcoats. We need to find a way to send them home, for good, before it’s too late.

Thank you.

Gloria Steinem: 'It really is a revolution', Address to the Women of America, founding of NWPC - 1971

10 July 1971, Washington DC, USA

This is he only text and audio excerpt I’ve been able to find of this famous speech

This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.

Lady Gaga: 'You are the definition of courage', Stonewall Day - 2019

I love you so, so much. Happy World Pride. Happy 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. This is a historic day. You should be so, so proud of yourself. I have thought a lot about what I wanted to say to all of you today. It’s been running through my head like a freight train. What is my intention? How can I inspire you? How can I inspire you the way that you’ve inspired me? How could I possibly portray my love for you? And the truth is, after a lot of thought, I came to this. Wow. Look around you. Look at what you have done. You deserve a round of applause. It makes me cry. I’m so emotional today. This community has fought and continued to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance, and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage. Do you know that? I feel so honored and privileged to even be asked to be here.

I feel that privilege and that honor because today what it truly is, is this is a celebration of all of you in every single way. Four million people in New York City to celebrate their pride. I may not to some people, some people, I may not even be considered a part of this community even though I like girls sometimes. I would never degrade the fight you have all endured, the adversity that you have all been through to truly be seen, to be heard, or the struggles that you’ve been through to love yourselves and to seek that love from other people. But, honestly, I really, really love you. You are strong. You are so strong. You welcomed me into your community in the most beautiful of ways that I will never forget. My whole life changed because of you. I’m trembling speaking to you. You’re making me nervous.

The universe brought us together in the spirit of kindness. And we together, we’re a powerhouse. And I hope, I really, really hope you celebrate every inch of who you are today. You were born this way and you’re super strong.

My mom’s here today. [‘Cynthia!] My Dad [Joe!]

I’m a New Yorker. The Germanottas are out in full force. We’re all here for you. And I thank you, mom, for running the Born This Way Foundation. I look at the older generation and how you have fought to create a safe, more tolerant space for our youth. It used to be unheard of to even come out of the closet or be expected in any way to declare who you are. But now, children at very young ages are saying, “Mommy or daddy, I’m gay. I’m a lesbian. Mommy or daddy, I’m Bi.” They’re saying, “Mommy or daddy. I’m not a girl. I’m a boy.” They’re saying, “I’m not a boy. I’m a girl.” They are telling their friends how to identify and speak to them. Many but not all, of course, are aware of their ability to discover and name their own sexual identities, their own gender identity, gender identities. They are finding themselves and they’re not as afraid, and you did that. You created that space.

So I have one question for you, are you ready? What is your pronoun? How do you prefer that I address you? You deserve to be addressed as you feel comfortable, respected, and loved. I could refer to you as the LGBTQ Plus Community, but then I would be missing so many people in between. I will continue to fight every day during shows, even when I’m not on stage, to spread a message that’s actually quite simple, be kind. And guess what? That kindness, it belongs to you and it always has belonged to you. Even when the world was not kind, it belonged to you. All the galaxies, stars, and even God, for me, I know, I know it all had your back. So today, and I hope every day, dance. Sing. Rejoice. Worship yourself, worship each other. Thank you, [inaudible 00:09:00] and Stonewall for producing this amazing tribute. Isn’t this amazing?

To the brave souls who came before us, Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Harvey Milk, Audre Lord, and igniting the fight for all of us. It is said those who threw the first brick on that historic night were members of the trans community, and while we have made tremendous progress, we find ourselves also at a time where attacks on the trans community are on an increasing rise each day. I will not tolerate this. And guess what? I know neither will you. That distance, that distance between us and them, those who are not listening and who do not understand, that is the space for an important dialogue as a community and how we’ve all move forward together to change the system of an extremely oppressive administration.

And I know that you will not stop. You will never give up. And I know that because I’ve watched you closely for over a decade and I know that. You don’t back down. You don’t shrink into shame, although there are days sometimes that we all feel that way. Be bold and embrace the Stonewall legacy. Love each other, raise your voice and, my gosh, vote. Don’t forget to vote. If we keep injecting the world with this message of unity and passion, imagine where we’ll be in another 50 years from today. I will still be alive and I will still be here, if you’ll have me. I will always be there for you. We are real, real friends now. And I love you. I really love you. This is your freedom. This is your joy that you have deserved always. I will not stop in pursuit of this liberation. I wish to see no more homeless youth from this community.

I denounce ostracizing people for who they are. I wish for there to be mental health provided around the country to teach people the importance of kindness and passion. Every race, every religion, every color, every age, there must be five generations here today, every kind, you are it. You have the power and you are so, so powerful. And I hope you feel that power today. You are the ultimate power and you have never been so visible in the world and that beautiful light and that rainbow is shining all around you. Stand in it, basket, allow yourself to glow on it as we grow up. Just take that spotlight that belongs to you. This, this is my mothership. And you are my leaders and I will follow you. And I surrender, I surrender to all hatred, because you know what? I will kill it with kindness. True love, true, true love is when you would take a bullet for someone and you know that I would take a bullet for you any day of the week. Thank you again. I truly, truly love you and thank you for inviting me. I feel so blessed. Go celebrate yourselves.

Happy Pride.

Muhammad Ali: 'Just take me to jail,' conscientious objector speech - 1967

22 March 1967, New York City, USA

My conscious won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father... Shoot them for what? ...How can I shoot them, the little poor black people, poor little babies and children and women … Just take me to jail.

Mehdi Hasan: ' I urge you all not to fuel the arguments of the phobes and bigots', Oxford Union debate - 2013

4 July 2013, Oxford Union, Oxford, United Kingdom
The debate topic was ‘That Islam is a religion of peace’. Mehdi was arguing for the affirmative.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. As-salaam 'alykum. Lovely to see you all here tonight. We are having a very entertaining night, are we not, with some very interesting things being said from the other side of the House tonight.

Let me begin by saying as a Muslim, as a representative of Islam, I would consider myself an ambassador for Islam, a believer in Islam, a follower of Islam and its prophet. So in that capacity, let me begin by apologising to Anne-Marie for the Bali bombings. I apologise for the role of my religion, and me, and my people for the killing of Theo van Gogh, for 7/7... Yes. That was all of us. That was Islam. That was Muslims. That was the Quran. I mean, astonishing astonishing claims to make in the very first speech tonight - on a day like today - where the conservative prime minister of the United Kingdom is having to come out and point out that these kind of views are anathema. And I believe you're trying to stand for the Labour Party to become an MP in Brighton. If you do, and you make these comments, I'm guessing you'll have the whip withdrawn from you. But then again, UKIP's on the rise. They'll take you. The BNP, they might have something to say about your views.
Anne-Marie:
This is what Mehdi Hasan always does. It's what you always do. It's what you always do.

By the way, just on a factual point, since we heard a lot about the second speaker about how backward we Muslims all are. On a factual point, you said that Islam was born in Saudi Arabia. Islam was born in 610 AD. Saudi Arabia was born in 1932 AD. So you're only 1,322 years off. Not bad, not bad start there.

Talking of maths, by the way, a man named al-Khwarizmi was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, a Muslim, worked in the golden age of Islam. He's the guy who came up with not just algebra, but algorithms. Without algorithms, you wouldn't have laptops. Without laptops, Daniel Johnson tonight wouldn't have been able to print out his speech in which he came to berate us Muslims for holding back the advance and intellectual achievements of the West, which all happened without any contribution from anyone else other than the Judeo-Christian people of Europe. In fact, Daniel David Levering, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Golden Crucible points out that there would be no Renaissance. There would be no reformation in Europe without the role played by Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd and some of the great Muslim theologians, philosophers, scientists, in bringing Greek texts to Europe.

As for this being "our university," I will leave that to the imagination as to who is "our" and who is "their." I studied here too.

An astonishing, astonishing set of speeches so far making this case tonight. A mixture of, just, cherry-picked quotes, facts and figures, self-serving selective, a farrago of distortions, misrepresentations, misinterpretations, misquotations. Daniel talked about my article in the New Statesman, which got me a lot of flack where talked about the antisemitism that is prevalent in some parts of the Muslim community, which indeed it is. Of course, I didn't say in that piece, that it was caused by the religion of Islam. In fact, modern antisemitism in the Middle East was imported from - finish the sentence - Christian-Judeo, Christian Europe, where I believe some certain bad things happened to the Jewish people. In fact, Tom Friedman, Jewish-American columnist of New York Times told me in this very chamber last week that he believed, had Muslims been running Europe in the 1940's, six million extra Jews would still be alive today. So I'm not going to take lessons in antisemitism from someone who's here to defend the Judeo-Christian values of a continent that murdered six million Jews. Moving swiftly on. Moving swiftly on. Yes?

Speaker 3:
Aren't you doing exactly what the opposition [inaudible 00:03:58] .
Anne-Marie:
Absolutely.

Well, I'm about to make that point. No, no, no. I'm about to make the point. You're right. I agree with you. I agree with you. I agree with you 110%. That is my point. I don't think Europe is evil or bad. I'm a very proud European. I don't want to judge Europe on that basis, but if we're going to play this gutter game where we pull out the Bali bombing and we pull out examples of antisemitism in the Islamic community, then of course I'm going to come back and say, well, hold on. I mean, look, let's be very clear. Daniel here was a last-minute replacement for Douglas Murray who had to pull out, and Douglas and I have our well-documented differences, but to be fair to Douglas - as to be fair to Anne-Marie and to Peter - atheists!

Atheists, see all religions as evil, violent, threatening. What the problem I have with Daniel's speech is that Daniel comes here to rant this robust defence of Christianity forgetting that his fellow Christians, people who said they were acting in the name of Jesus, gave us The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the anti-Jewish pogroms, European colonialism in Africa and Asia, the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, not to mention countless arson and bomb attacks on abortion clinics in the United States of America to this very day. I would like a little bit of humility from Daniel first, before he begins lecturing other communities and other faiths on violence, terror, and intolerance.

But I would say this: to address the gentleman's very valid point here, I'm not going to play that game. I don't actually believe that Christianity is a religion of violence and hate because of what the LRA does in Uganda, or what Crusaders did to Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem when they took back the city in the 12th or 13th, whatever century it was. I believe that Christianity, like Islam, like pretty much every mainstream religion, is based on love and compassion and faith. I do follow a religion in which 113 out of the 114 chapters of the Quran begins by introducing the God of Islam as a God of mercy and compassion. I would not have it any other way. I don't follow a religion which introduces my God to me as a God of war, as some kind of Greek god of wrath, as a God of hate and injustice.

Not at all. As Adam pointed out, you go through the Quran and you see the mercy and the love and the justice. And yes, you have verses that refer to warfare and violence. Of course it does. This is a motion about passivism. I'm not here to argue that Islam is a pacifistic faith. It is not. Islam allows military action, violence, in certain limited context. And yes, a minority of Muslims do take it out of that context. But is it religious? We've talked about Willich, Daniel and Anne-Marie have suggested that it's definitely religion that's behind all of this.

Well, actually what I find so amusing tonight, is we're having a debate about Islam and the opposition tonight have come forward - we have a graduate in law, a graduate in modern history, a graduate in chemistry. And you know, I admire all of their intellects and their abilities, but we don't have anyone who's actually an expert on Islam, a scholar of Islam, a historian of Islam, a speaker of Arabic, even a terrorism expert or a security expert, or a pollster let alone to talk about what Muslims believe or think. Instead, we have people coming here putting forward these views, putting forward these sweeping opinions.

Listen to Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, one of America's leading terrorism experts who, unlike our esteemed opposition tonight, studied every single case of suicide terrorism between 1980 and 2005. 315 cases in total. And he concluded, and I quote, "There is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world's religions. Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists considered to be their homeland." And the irony is, when we talk about terrorism, the irony is that the opposition and the Muslim terrorist, the Al-Qaeda types, actually have one thing in common because they both believe that Islam is a warlike, violent religion. They both agree on that. They have everything in common. Osama Bin Laden would be nodding along to everything he's heard tonight from the opposition side, he agrees with them!

The problem is that mainstream Muslims don't. The majority of Muslims around the world don't. In fact, a gentleman here has started quoting all sorts of polls. Gallup carried out the biggest poll of Muslims around the world of 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries. 93% of Muslims rejected 9/11 and suicide attacks. And of the 7% who didn't, they all - when polled and focus grouped - cited political reasons for their support for violence, not religious reasons.

And as for Islamic scholars and what they say, well, Daniel talks about our University of Oxford. We'll go down to Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, get ahold of a man named Shaykh Afifi al-Akiti who is a massively well-credentialed and well-respected Islamic scholar who has studied across the world, who in the days after 7/7, published a fatwa denouncing terrorism in the name of Islam, calling for the protection of all non-combatants at all times, and describing suicide bombings as an innovation with no basis in Islamic law. Go and listen to Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri, one of Pakistan's most famous Islamic scholars who published a 600-page fatwa condemning the killing of all innocents and also suicide bombings unconditionally without any ifs or buts.

There's nothing new here. This is mainstream Islam, mainstream scholarship, which has said this for years - you don't go out and kill people willy-nilly in the High Street or anywhere else, on a bus or a mall based on verses of the Quran that you cherry-picked without any context, any understanding, any interpretation or any commentary.

Point of information
Mehdi Hasan:
Please.

What about the stoning of women, for example in [crosstalk 00:09:31]
Anne-Marie:
It doesn't happen, apparently.
Mehdi Hasan:
I didn't say it doesn't happen at all. I never said it didn't happen. I don't blame Islam. Yes. It's a very good point. And a lot of us, a lot of us are campaigning against that and we're campaigning against it in the name of Islam. We're campaigning against it in the name of various interpretations of Islam. Anne-Marie comes and scares us with her talk of Sharia Law. I would like to see the book of Sharia Law. It doesn't exist. People argue over what Sharia Law is. And you empower the extremists by saying there is only one version. You empower them all. I don't believe you took any interruptions, Anne-Marie -

Anne-Marie:Several countries. Several countries -

Mehdi Hasan:
- so I think you should stay there for a moment.
Anne-Marie:
Several countries, not a tiny minority. Several countries.

Here's what we're dealing with. We are dealing with - I took your point. I took your point. Here we are dealing with a fourteen-hundred-year-old global religion followed by 1.6 billion people in every corner of the world. A quarter of humanity of all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and yet the opposition tonight wants to generalise, stereotype, smear, in order to desperately win this debate. And here's my question, if we're going to generalise and smear: if, okay, people say yesterday's bombers and we've got to be careful, there's a trial going on. Were yesterday's attackers, sorry, motivated by Islam. Big debate. I don't believe they were. Let's say they were. Let's say Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber was motivated by Islam. Let's assume for sake of argument that Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber," was motivated by Islam. If Islam is responsible for these killers, if Islam is what is motivating these people and Islam is therefore not a religion of peace but a religion of war, then ask yourself this question: why aren't the rest of us doing it?

Why is it such a tiny minority of Muslims are interpreting their religion in the way that the opposition claim they are? Let's assume there are 16,000 suicide bombers in the world. There aren't. Let's assume there are for the sake of argument. That's 0.001% of the Muslim population globally. What about the other 99.99% of Muslims who the opposition tonight, either ignore or smear? The reality is that the rest of us aren't blowing ourselves up tonight. The reality is that the opposition came here tonight, not worried about the fact that me and Adam might pull open our jackets and blow ourselves up tonight because we're followers of a warlike, warrior religion, which wants to take over Europe and Daniel's university. The issue is this. The issue is this.

Unless the opposition can tell us tonight - and Peter Atkins is here, one of our great atheist intellectuals, can tell us tonight - can they answer this question tonight? Why don't the vast majority of Muslims around the world behave as violently and aggressively as a tiny minority of politically motivated extremists. Then they might as well give up and stop pretending they have anything relevant to say about Islam or Muslims as a whole. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just say this to you. Think about what the opposite of this motion is. If you vote no tonight, think about what you're saying the opposites motion is. That Islam isn't a religion of peace. It's a religion of war, of violence, of terror, of aggression. That the people who follow Islam - me, my wife, my retired parents, my six year old child, that 1.8 million of your fellow British residents and citizens, and 1.6 billion people across the world, your fellow human beings - are all followers, promoters, believers in a religion of violence.

Do you really think that? Do you really believe that to be the case? They say that in the Oxford Union the most famous debate was in 1933 when Adolf Hitler looked out for the result of the King and Country motion where they voted against fighting for king and country and Hitler was listening out for the result. Well, tonight, 80 years on, there are two groups of people around the world who I would argue are waiting for the result of tonight's vote. There are the millions of peaceful, nonviolent, law-abiding Muslims both in the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa, and beyond who see Islam as the source of their identity, as a source of spiritual fulfilment, of hope, of solace. And there are the phobes, the haters, the bigots out there who want to push the clash of civilizations. Who want to divide all of us into "them" and "us" and "ours" and "their."

Ladies and gentleman, I urge you all not to fuel the arguments of the phobes and bigots. Don't legitimise their divisions, don't legitimise their hate. Trust those Muslims who you know, who you've met, who you hear, who don't believe in violence, who do want you to hear the peaceful message of the Quran as they believe it to be taught to the majority of Muslims. The Islam of peace and compassion and mercy, the Islam of the Quran, not of Al-Qaeda. Ladies and gentlemen, I begged to propose this motion to the House. I urge you to vote "Yes" tonight. Thank you very much for your time.

Jonty Bush: 'She was stabbed to death by her boyfriend' , Young Australian of the Year - 2009

26 January 2013, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Good afternoon.

Well, thank you for having me. I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, both past and present and respectfully thank them and yourselves for the opportunity to stand here today and to share with you part of my story, and my personal and very humble thoughts on what makes Australia remarkable.

Particularly, given I understand that Lance Armstrong today is, is running the whole confession. So, you know, quite an appealing thing to stay home and watch that Oprah run through. So thank you for coming out and making the effort.

So what does make Australia remarkable? It's a question I've been asked many times since receiving the Young Australian of the year award in 2009, and a question which is highly subjective, depending on who you ask. So yesterday morning, I did probably what every one in my generation does, and I popped the question onto Facebook, 'What makes Australia so great', and predictably there was a varied response. I dunno if everyone can read that but —.

[lists virtues] positive sunny people, the coffee, the beaches, the fact that AFL would always be on the front page of the paper even if world war III was breaking out ... how we're surrounded by an ocean patrolled by the deadliest sharks in the world, sense of community is something that really shone through for people, they really related to that sense of community that Australia seems to have, safety growing up in a community, swimming, water slides, water sprinklers, you know, people really reflected on their own childhoods a lot. What else have we got in there? healthcare system, obviously someone's over in London and a bit dirty at the healthcare system at the moment, the people, the passion and the environment, and then David, the fact that it's not America.

What becomes apparent from this is that people I think are essentially meaning making species and will identify with the Australian traits and the mannerisms which means something to us. We go about our lives witnessing events and actions, forming connections and conflicts with others. And the meaning that we attach to those events begins to form a picture or a story, If you like, around who we are as individuals and how we connect in the world.

I'd like to illustrate this to you by sharing parts of my personal story. Not only to showcase one of the 20 million lives that makes up the tapestry of Australia, but to highlight how our own personal experiences influence what it is that we notice in the world around us.

On the 30th of July in the year 2000, I received a phone call informing me that my 19 year old sister had been in an accident. She'd been out the night before with her live-in boyfriend of just three months. And as far as I knew, she'd been safely tucked away in a hotel room, sleeping off a big night. Within the hours that followed. I learned that my sister had been murdered, she was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, the man who professed to love her. This was my first real taste of violence. My first experience of losing someone that close to me and as I'm sure it's obvious to you, but wasn't so obvious to me at the time, was an incredible turning point in my life. What I didn't see at that time was this one event significant enough in its own right, would mark one of the turning points in my life, and would take me on a journey of both great isolation as I alone discovered who I was and what I valued, but also togetherness as I've walked with others that would teach me about humanity, strength, and optimism. These are the traits that I both remember and loved most about Australia and the people who populate it — humanity, strength and optimism.

Just four months following the death of my sister, my father was assaulted. He was punched twice in the face, collapsed at the scene and was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a subarachnoid haemorrhage, or bleeding in the brain. Now 2012 was an extraordinary year. In many regards, two events stand out for me in particular. One is that we reached our highest heights with Felix Baumgartner skydiving from an astonishing 24 miles above the Earth. And we also explored the depths of our ocean, with James Cameron being the first man to reach the Marianna trench, over 35,000 feet deep and a figure unattainable anywhere else in the ocean.

This day, nearly 13 years, since the death of my father, I still stand in wonderment of how we can and take our people to the edges of space and the depth of the oceans, and yet the mechanics of the human brain and in particular, how to heal it largely remain a mystery to us. On the 18th of November, 2000, just four months after my sister's death, my father's life support was turned off and he passed away as a result of his injuries. He was 49 years old, a father of three, his youngest being my brother who was just 13 years of age and a recent grandfather of an 18 month old.

I've always maintained that you never finish a book on a bad chapter, and the same can be said for our lives. You might tend to have complete control over the events in your life, but you are ultimately the author and narrator of your own story. We all choose where it goes next. For me, I wanted to write myself as the heroine of my story, not the victim. I wanted my life to tell a story of a young woman who experienced tragedy and yet rose above that to create the best life that she could, in a nation where opportunities are endless and where you go next is limited only by your own imagination.

Leaving a solid career in human resources. I journeyed into the victim support and advocacy area. Over the next decade, I worked with literally thousands of families who were bereaved through homicide. Many people I speak with outside of this field expressed to me how depressing this must be and how hopeless. To be honest, it's been anything but. There's nothing more inspiring than seeing another person standing strong in the face of adversity.

I've supported a man whose only two grandchildren were murdered, as at 80 years of age, he started a fundraising group in his local town of Emerald in Queensland, and every Friday night worked the pubs and clubs raising thousands of dollars to support children's causes. I've stood by the side of a mother of a murdered son, as the offender approached her to offer a teary apology. The strength that must have taken for him to make those dozen steps across the courtroom floor and to ask for her forgiveness is something that many of us can only imagine. And the courage that it took on her part to hug him and to say, I forgive you, formed a memory that made a lasting impression on me. As I decided that day, that if she could forgive that act, then there was nothing I couldn't work through.

Our nation's history and present are peppered by stories, just like these. Australia breeds resilience. On the one hand we're a nation with incredible gifts. We're a wealthy nation. In fact, one of the wealthiest nations in the history of the world. We're blessed with growth and opportunity and we are fortunate enough to have leaders in this country who convert these gifts into prosperity for many. But we're also presented with challenges. No one could forget days in our nation's history, such as the black Saturday bushfres in 2009. Over 300 fires burned through Victoria's heartland, affecting 78 communities and taking the lives of 173 people. Or the 2011 Queensland floods, affecting 70 communities and over 200,000 people. Thirty five lives were lost, and three quarters of the state was declared a disaster zone. These events, as catastrophic and devastating as they are, bring out something in the Australian people. Where other nations loot, panic and take advantage of the population's vulnerable, Australians are arguably at our most admirable in the face of adversity. The Red Cross Victorian Bushfire appeal received an unprecedented $378 million in donations, which is around about the equivalent of every Australian donating $20. it was the largest single charitable appeal in Australian history. Whilst more than 55,000 volunteers registered to clean up Brisbane alone during the 2011 floods with thousands more simply turning up, compromising their health and safety to help a stranger in need. It's no wonder with feats like these, that Australia consistently ranks as the world's number one nation on the World Giving Index.

I love that Australians don't take ourselves too seriously, that we believe in second chances, particularly when there's sports involved, and that we celebrate and aspire to be people of substance, rather than those of fleeting fame. (For those that dunno, that's the Kardashians.).

I love that we're encouraged to challenge the status quo, that we recognise that amazing things happen on the fringes. In 2007, I was honoured to become the first victim and youngest person to be the CEO of the Queensland homicide victim support group. One of the areas I wanted to tackle was society's attitudes around violence. At the time I and others were frustrated by the lack of voice and discussion given to the topic and what we could do to address it. For example, people being encouraged by our local city council, to ring up and dub in your neighbours if they breached their water restrictions, yes, you could have someone king hit from behind in Brisbane's entertainment, precinct, and not one witness would come forward. Further to that. I was concerned that this apathy towards violence was reflected in our criminal justice system in many ways, but notably through the 'accident excuse'.

The 'accident excuse' forms an integral part of Queensland's criminal code. In fact, it's in many criminal codes throughout Australia, and holds that a person cannot be criminally responsible for an event which occurs by accident. Critically. It asks jurors to consider whether the outcome from an act of violence, was reasonably foreseeable to the ordinary man. I first encountered this section of the legislation in 2002, during my father's manslaughter trial. The jury presiding in our case were asked how foreseeable was it that the two punches dealt to my father would result in a fatal outcome. On medication, and to my surprise, the jury reached a consensus that it was not foreseeable, that two punches could result in death and they delivered a verdict of not guilty with the offender walking free from court. I then encountered the accident section of the law soon after becoming CEO of the homicide group, where during the first 12 months, two cases, which proceeded through court were found to be not guilty because of the accident,excuse. Both cases involved seemingly minimal acts of violence, one or two punches, and in both cases juries determined that death was not a foreseeable outcome to the ordinary man.

These outcomes clearly had a devastating impact upon the surviving family. Imagine for a moment, not only losing someone you love suddenly and through violence, but then being asked to accept that even though the offender committed a criminal act when they assaulted the victim, because they didn't intend to cause death, and because to the ordinary person death isn't foreseeable, that offender now walks free from court.

It was this sense of injustice that led myself and others to do two things. The first thing was the lobby government to review and change the legislation surrounding the accident excuse. The second was to start an education campaign targeting our young people particularly, reminding them about the consequences of just one punch.

The One Punch Can Kill campaign was our solution to that social problem and has since been supported by the Queensland government. I know it's saved lives. I've had young people approach me to say how they place One Punch wristbands on their hands to stop them fighting with their peers. And it's also led to a national discussion around violence, its consequences, and what we can do to challenge the Australian norms, which support it.

Since embarking on this advocacy path, I've challenged politicians, spoken openly in the media against judges' decisions and implored people to raise our expectations of lawmakers. I've had incredible media support and, largely, community goodwill towards the campaign. In other countries throughout the world, I would've been lucky to make a headline. Whilst in some countries, as a woman protesting or challenging the laws, I would've been shot.

Late last year, I started a new project called Project 24, which aims to unite Australian women towards greater safety outcomes for other women, both nationally and globally. In just a few short months we've raised a considerable sum for our first project, a domestic violence shelter in the Solomon Islands.

And it was another great reminder of two things.

One is the beauty and the necessity of freedom. Australian nationals are born into it. We inherit it for no reason other than we were the lucky ones who happened to have Australian parents. And I reluctantly admit that many of us probably take it for granted. Whilst researching for Project 24, I was gutted by some of the stories I read, where women side of Australia were victimised often purely because they were women. I read of children under 10 years of age being sold as child brides, and of a woman who was gang raped only to be told by a judge that she was too old and ugly to be sexually assaulted. For these women, freedom is an aspirational concept, something to be desired, but never achieved. One of the greatest things I love about Australia is the freedom to be a woman, to be a young person, to speak my mind, to create waves and to create change without fear.

The second reminder I've had whilst working on Project 24 and the final point of my conversation with you is the impact that one person can make in the world. I grew up in a working class suburb in Tasmania, where most of my peers didn't graduate beyond year 10. Teenage pregnancy was the norm and unemployment was high. Despite two loving and hardworking parents, I spent my early years conditioned to believe that this was the future I had to look forward to. I've spent my adult life since challenging that deep-seated belief, expecting more of myself and believing that anyone no matter their origins can create a life they're proud of.

I love that in Australia, a small town Tasmanian girl who left home at 16 years of age and failed year 12, isn't typecast as a failure. That she could go on to complete a bachelor degree. And most recently her masters. That she can become the CEO of an organisation, that she can lobby and change the law, and change the way others view victims of crime. That one day she'd be recognised nationally for this and end up travelling Australia, speaking with communities about violence, whose opinions are published through the media, develops a career as a presenter and speaker, and most recently had dinner with Prince Charles and Camilla! That's me.

You can't really see it, but it is me!

Only in Australia. It's on this note, I'd like to sincerely thank the Australia Cay Council, its sponsors and supporters, for recognising the work of this small town Tasmanian girl, amidst the amazing work that's brought to your attention each and every year. I spoke earlier of meaning. You've given my life a whole new dimension of meaning, and I'm forever grateful that you saw and believed in me. So to the council supporters and sponsors, thank you very much.

I'd also just like to throw in a shameless plug for women. We are still always looking for women to join Project 24, to help us in our fundraising efforts to improve the safety and quality of life for women globally. So if there's women out there that would be interested in joining a good team, that's how you can get in touch with me. And if anyone wants to contact me directly, it's my details. So on that note, I'd like to thank everyone for listening. I hope it encourages you to consider the meaning that you attached to being Australian and have an awesome lunch.

Thanks very much.

Amy Poehler: 'Every child should believe they are the centre of the universe,' Wordwide Orphans fundraiser, Variety - 2013

October 2013, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Dr Jane Aronson: I've known Amy almost four years. At seven months pregnant she was huge. And I was scared to see her in that state. Now, mind you, I'm a paediatrician and shouldn't have been afraid since I've delivered many babies, actually, but there was a lot at stake at that night, and she was resting carefully in the back, with Abel inside of her uterus. And she's now right here by my side, as she usually is, laughing appropriately so that I can continue to be inspired in my work.

Amy Poehler: Thank you,. Dr. Jane, I had asked Dr. Jane to mention my uterus early on in her speech. And I appreciate that she did.

I was gonna say, it's hard to follow Dr. Jane Aaronson, but it's actually very easy to follow you, Jane. I'd follow you anywhere. And from the minute I met you, I knew we, we would be lifelong friends and we've gone from being colleagues to being real close friends. And that is a part of the work that people haven't really spoke of tonight, which is the idea of meeting like-minded people who become your travellers in life.

And yes, [applause] sure. Many who are here tonight. And it also proves my theory that you meet most of your closest friends over the age of 40. This award is shared obviously with Dr. Jane and every staff member, board member, person who's donated sponsor WWO staff member, and Orphan Rangers, who've changed the lives of children.

As an actress, sometimes people care about what I care about. If you don't believe that I'm an actress, just take note of the fact that this speech is written on the back of sides. But we are here in Beverly Hills, which let's face it is the moon, Is the weirdest place in the world. And for some reason I have some currency here, and the best thing I've done so far with it is to decide to join the wonderful people at WWO. And I am incredibly honoured to be included in this afternoon. There are so many incredibly talented, compassionate, curious open-hearted, and open-minded people in the room, women and men, and I'm thrilled to be a part of them. And so I'm going to I'm going to steal something that Jane did to me, which is, which is to speak from the heart and ask you all to close your eyes, just for a second.

So just take a minute, close your eyes and think about your children, right? So if you have children picture them, and if you don't have children, think about yourself as a child, and think about the things that made you feel warm and happy and protected. And think about what made you feel okay, and what makes your children feel okay. And take that warm feeling and put it into your heart, and I bet a lot of you are smiling and thinking about the beautiful faces of your children and the beautiful face of yourself as a child.

And now I ask you to open your eyes, realise that there are so many children in the world who have nothing. They have nothing. They have no one who lights up when they walk into a room and they have no clothes and safety and food. They have nothing. And so who are we to be in this room and, and to be living this life without helping them, you know, that's, that's it, that's the simple truth. And I'm sorry.

People don't talk enough about how good it feels to be of service. It selfishly makes you feel really good. It's good for your ego. And we should tell more people that, that it makes you feel really good. You should do it because it makes you feel good. And Jane's taught me that nothing is too big. All the stuff we're talking about today, and people will talk about feels really huge. And Jane is an example of nothing can't be tackled or approached in small ways.

So as I get older, I realise that I am old. But I, I also realise I don't know very much and all I have is the present moment. And I wanna be around people that do things. I don't wanna be around people anymore that judge or talk or talk about what people do. I wanna be around people who dream and support and do things. And I feel like I'm around those people today.

Every child should believe they are the centre of the universe. If your child believes that right now, you're doing a good job. We should teach children all over the world that they're beautiful and loved and deserve the simple, basic things in life. And our goal, I would say Jane's goal and mine is that someday an orphan who was helped by WWO, who was supported and encouraged and lifted up by WWO receives this award, because that is the goal, that what we're doing now lives on, that life continues, and that love wins.

So thank you very much for, including me. Thank you to all the beautiful, bossy, right amount of crazy women that are in this room. Thank you to my parents, who I'm lucky to have had and who inspire me. And if you thank you to Variety and Lifetime and NBC Universal, who are supporting me here today.

And if you take one thing from this event, please remember that giving to charity is good for your skin. And it makes your ass smaller. Thank you.

Jocko Willink: 'Take ownership, take extreme ownership', TEDx Nevada - 2017

27 April 2017, University of Nevada, Nevada USA

War Is a nightmare. War is awful. It is indifferent, and devastating and evil. War is hell, But war is also an incredible teacher. A brutal teacher. And it teaches you lessons that you will not forget. In war you are forced to see humanity at its absolute worst, and you are also blessed to see humanity in its most glorious moments. War teaches you about sorrow and loss and pain, and it teaches you about the preciousness and the fragility of human life. And in that fragility, war teaches you about death. But war also teaches you about brotherhood, and honour, and humility and leadership. And unfortunately war teaches you the most when things go wrong. And for me, one of the most impactful lessons that I learned from war was in the spring of 2006 In the city of Ramadi Iraq, which at the time was the epicentre of the insurgency. Where brutal and determined terrorists ruled the streets, with torture, and rape, and murder. And it was in one neighbourhood of that city, during an operation that I was in charge of when all hell broke loose, We had had multiple units out on the battlefield, fighting the enemy. We had friendly Iraqi soldiers. We had US Army soldiers and US Marines along with small elements of my Seal team.

And then the fog of war rolled in, with its confusion and chaos and mayhem, and with its gunfire and enemy attacks and screaming men and blood and death. And in that fog of war, through a series of mistakes and human error and poor judgement and Murphy's law and just plain bad luck, a horrendous fire fight broke out. But this fire fight, it wasn't between us and the enemy. This fire fight, tragically was between us and us. Friendly forces against friendly forces, fratricide, the mortal sin of combat and the most horrific part of war. And when it was over and the fog of war lifted, one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead, two more were wounded, one of my men was wounded and the rest of my Seals were badly shaken . And it was only through a miracle that no one else was killed. And it was reported up the chain of command what had happened. That we had fought and wounded and killed each other. And when we got back to base things didn't get much better. There was a message waiting for me from my commanding officer. And it said, 'shut down all operations'. It said that the commanding officer, the master chief and the investigating officer were inbound to my location.

And they told me to prepare a debrief to explain exactly what had happened on the operation, and what had gone wrong. Now, I knew what this meant. It meant that somebody had to pay. It meant that somebody had to be held accountable. It meant that somebody had to get fired for what had happened. So I began to prepare my debrief, and in it I detailed every mistake that was made and who made it. And I pointed out every failure in the planning and the preparation and the execution in the operation. And I pointed out who was responsible for that failure. There was plenty of blame to go around. There were so many people that I could incriminate with guilt, but something wasn't right. For some reason, I just couldn't put my finger on who was at fault and who specifically I should blame for what had happened. And I sat and I went over it again and again, and I struggled for an answer. And then when I was about 10 minutes from starting the debrief, that answer came and it hit me like a slap in the face. And I realised that there was only one person to blame for the confusion, only one person to blame for the wounded men and only one person to blame for the dead Iraqi soldier. And I knew exactly who that person was.

And with that knowledge, I walked into the debriefing room with my commanding officer and the master chief and the investigating officer were sitting there waiting for me along with the rest of my men, including my Seal that had been wounded, who was sitting in the back of the room with his head and his face all bandaged up. And I stood up before them and I asked them one simple question, 'Whose fault was this?' One of my Seals raised his hand. And he said, 'it was my fault. I didn't keep control of the Iraqi soldiers I was with. And they left their designated sector and that was the root of all these problems'. And I said, no, it wasn't your fault. And then another Seal raised his hand and said, 'it was my fault. I didn't pass our location over the radio fast enough. So no one knew what building we were in. And that's what caused all this confusion. It was my fault.' And I said, 'no, it wasn't your fault either'. And then another Seal raised his hand. And he said, 'Boss, this was my fault. I didn't properly identify my target. And I shot and killed that friendly Iraqi soldier. This was my fault.' And I said, 'no, this wasn't your fault either. And it wasn't yours or yours or yours. I said, as I pointed to the rest of the seals in the room. '

And then I told them that there was only one person at fault for what had happened. There was only one person to blame. And that person was me. I am the commander. I am the senior man on the battlefield and I am responsible for everything that happens. Everything. And then I went on to explain to them some new tactics, techniques, and procedures that we were going to implement to ensure that this kind of travesty never happened again. And I will tell you something, it hurt, It hurt my ego. It hurt my pride to take the blame. But I also knew I knew that to maintain my integrity as a leader and as a man, I had to take responsibility. And in order to do that, I had to control my ego so that my ego did not control me. And you know what? I didn't get fired. In fact, my commanding officer, who had expected excuses and finger pointing, when I took responsibility, when I took ownership, he now trusted me even more.

And my men, they didn't lose respect for me. Instead, they realised that I would never shirk responsibility and I would never pass that heavy burden of command down the chain and onto them. And you know what? They had the same attitude. Unlike a team where no one takes ownership of the problems and therefore the problems never get solved, with us, everyone took ownership of their mistakes. Everyone took ownership of the problems. And when in a team takes ownership of its problems, the problems get solved. And that is true on the battlefield. It is true in business and it is true in life.

So I say, take ownership, take extreme ownership. Don't make excuses, don't blame any other person or any other thing, Get control of your ego. Don't hide your delicate pride from the truth. Take ownership of everything in your world, the good and the bad, Take ownership of your mistakes. Take ownership of your shortfalls, take ownership of your problems, and then take ownership of the solutions that will get those problems solved. Take ownership of your mission. Take ownership of your job, of your team, of your future and take ownership of your life

And lead. Lead, Lead yourself and your team and the people in your life. Lead them all.

To victory.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Taylor: 'The world needs you to live!', Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert - 1992

20 April 1992, Wembley, London, United Kingdom

Don't worry. I'm not gonna sing.

We are here to celebrate the life of Freddie mercury, an extraordinary rock star who rushed across our cultural landscape like a comic shooting up across the sky. We are are here also to tell the whole world that he like others we have lost to AIDS died before his time.

The bright light of his talent still exhilarates us even now, that his life has been so cruelly, extinguished. It needn't have happened. It shouldn't have happened. Please. Let's not it happen again.

Each day around the world, 5,000 people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Just last week, it was reported in the United States alone that there are 9,000 actual cases of AIDS among teenage and young adults with thousands more that probably don't even know they're infected.

I'll get off in a minute. I'll get off. I have something to Say!

There's 70,000 people in this stadium tonight. Look at yourselves, look at how many you are! In just two short weeks there be as many new infections as there are people here tonight.

Please don't let it happen to you. You are the future of our world. You are the best and the brightest. You are the shining light that will illuminate a better world tomorrow.

Protect yourselves. If you have sex, every time you have sex, use a condom. Every single time, straight sex, gay sex, bisexual sex, use a condom, whoever you are. And if you share drugs, don't share a needle.

Tonight we are here to raise money, to help those living with AIDS. Tonight, we're here to send them a message that we care,

But I'm also here with a message for each and every one of you. Protect yourselves. Love yourselves, respect yourselves, because I will keep on telling you until you do. And I won't give in. And I won't give up! Because the world needs you to live!

You see, we really love you. We really care. God bless.

Queen Elizabeth II: 'Without preserve of human life or weaalth', Unveiling plaque to Australia-US Memorial in Pacific - 1954

February 1954, Canberra, Australia

It is with a sense of deep gratitude that I unveil this monument, that has been set up by the Australian people, in acknowledgement of America’s part in the Second World War.

The help was given, without preserve of human life or wealth, and to the magnitude of the sacrifice, and the spirt which prompted it, this soaring memorial shaft plays silent but eloquent tribute.

Helen Voisey: High School students against the war in Vietnam - 1970

Date Unknown, 1970, Sydney Town Hall, New South Wales, Australia

A clip from the documentary ‘Or Forever Hold Your Peace’. I can’t embed it but it is archived here.

It’s now my great pleasure to introduce Helen Voicey of Castle Hill High School

The High School administration didn’t like it when we took the moratoriums into the schools. It bugged them to see the kids they are training for their society, turn around and question values of that society.
Not only did they not like it, they tried to suppress it.
They tried their hardest to stop us bringing just basic democratic rights, like discussion, like wearing a moratorium badge into the schools.
As we are here in numbers, we want to stop this rotten war in Vietnam, we are doing our best within our schools to talk about this, to show other kids what we think is the truth about Vietnam.
Support us.
We need your support in fighting against the administration tat is trying to keep discussion and debate out of the schools.

Thank you.

Dylan Alcott: 'I love my disability', Australian of the Year acceptance - 2022

25 January 2022, Canberra, Australia

Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

I think standing ovations are one of the most ironic things in the world, by the way. But I'll take them, without a doubt.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land as well and pay my respects to [elders] past, present and emerging, to the Prime Minister, thank you so much.

I honestly thought I was no chance tonight. I honestly didn't. I got off the court at 1:00pm today. I won my semifinal at the Australian Open, luckily.

I thought I was no chance and then I got here and I saw this really good-looking ramp and I thought, 'I might have a chance here'.

Have you noticed? It's a good-looking ramp. I thought 'oh, I'm underprepared'. I'm shaken.

To everybody that's nominated for the Australian of the Year category but absolutely everybody here tonight, congratulations on what you're doing.

I feel ridiculous sitting up here, to be honest.

I was looking at everybody's profiles and what you're doing. You don't need this to keep changing this country. You really don't, and I'm extremely honoured to be among all of you and to get the nod, as I said, congratulations on everything that you're doing.

And I feel, I mean, the last two years have been so tough on so many people and, I feel honestly ridiculous being here, to our front-line workers, our nurses, our doctors, people running our vaccines, our ambos, our firefighters.

You deserve this much more than a guy who hits tennis balls and likes talking, you know what I mean? I really mean that. It's such a huge honour.

And I know I guess she has officially finished her turn as Australian of the Year but it would be remiss of me without shouting out Grace Tame on an absolutely incredible year.

Tamey, you are fierce and I love it and you have done so much for your cause, and if I could be one-eighth of the Australian of the Year that you were, I think I've done my job.

I remember when I won the US Open I skolled a beer out of my trophy and you put it up on Twitter, saying, 'if I got to pass the mantle over to this guy I'd be honoured, but the only thing is we have to skol the beer together.' Give me a couple of days and then we can do it. Not just yet.

I've been in a wheelchair my whole life. I was born with a tumour wrapped around my spinal cord that was cut out when I was only a couple of days old.

I've known nothing but having a disability, and if I'm honest with you, I can't tell you how much I used to hate myself.

I used to hate having a disability. I hated it so much, I hated being different and I didn't want to be here anymore. I really didn't.

Whenever I turned on the TV, or the radio or the newspaper, I never saw anybody like me.

And whenever I did, it was a road safety ad where someone drink drives, has a car accident and what's the next scene? Someone like me in tears because their life was over.

And I thought to myself, 'that's not my life', but I believed that was going to be my life.

And I'm so lucky that I had one of the best family, some of the best friends, my beautiful partner Chantelle and my whole team who told me that I was worthy and that I was allowed to be loved.

And when I reached the end of my teenage years, I started seeing people like me.

I also stand on the shoulders of giants, not literally, um, still can't stand. But Paralympic athletes like Louise Sauvage, Kurt Fearnley, Danni Di Toro, people that are the reason that I got into sport, advocates like Stella Young, they paved the way so I can be here tonight.

They should have been Australian of the Year as well. And I'm honestly so honoured to be up here and it's because of them and everybody in my life that I sit here as a proud man with a disability tonight.

I love my disability. It is the best thing that ever happened to me. It really is, and I'm so thankful for the life that I get to live.

I get sent stem cell research on all this stuff and you can honestly not pay me enough money in the whole world to ever do it, because I love the person that I am and the life I get to live and I'm the luckiest guy in this country, easily.

But I know for the 4.5 million people in this country, one in five people that have a physical or non-physical disability, they don't feel the same way that I do and it's not their fault.

"But it's up to all of us to do things so they can get out and be proud of their disability as well and be the people that they want to be.

We've got to fund the NDIS, first and foremost, and listen to people with lived experience and ask them what they need so they can get out and start living the lives they want to live and remind ourselves that it is an investment in people with disabilities, so they can get off pensions and start paying taxes, just like their carers and their family members as well.

As we start opening up from this pandemic, which is awesome, we've got to think about and prioritise people with disability. Some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

We've got to get them the vaccines and the tests and whatever else they need so they can get out there and start living their life.

If a person with a disability needs a free daily RAT test so they feel confident going out and doing things that we all might take for granted, they've got to get that RAT test.

We've got to keep improving more employment opportunities for people with a disability as well. Of those 4.5 million people, only 54 per cent of them are involved in the workforce.

The unemployment rate is double that of able-bodied people. Both figures haven't moved in 30 years.

And, guess what? We're not just ready to work, we're ready to take your jobs, alright? We are coming. We are coming. But we've got to get those opportunities.

And lastly, we have to have greater representation of people with a disability absolutely everywhere. In our boardrooms, in our parliaments, in our mainstream schools, on our dating apps, on our sporting fields, in our universities, absolutely everywhere, so we get the opportunity to start living our lives just like everybody else and I promise you, you won't just enrich the lives of us, but also yourselves in the process.

Before I go, I want to leave you with this — one of the number one questions I get asked by people is 'Dyl, mate, what is your advice to a young person with a disability or anyone with a disability so they can start living their life?'

And my advice is this: you don't need my advice. You know what to do, and you've had people telling you what do your whole life.

My advice is to you, non-disabled people. It's time for you to challenge your unconscious biases, leave your negative perceptions at the door and lift your expectation of what you think people with disability can do. Because it's always more than you think.

Now, unfortunately, I heard the Australian of the Year afterparty is one of the best afterparties ever. But unfortunately I've got an Australian Open to try and win in about 36 hours.

I really hope I make you proud out there. But, winning grand slams and gold medals isn't my purpose. It's like the 30th priority of my life.

My purpose is changing perceptions so people with disability, people like me can get out there and live the lives that they deserve to live.

It was my purpose yesterday, today and it will be my purpose as your Australian of the Year for the next 12 months and beyond, and I really hope I make every single one of you proud.

Thank you very much.

Connor Long: 'Do all the good you can', The Arc's Catalyst Awards - 2016

29 October 2016, Orlando, Florida, USA

Thank you Marlio and Wilfred for that very nice introduction! You are two great friends and examples of the awesome Catalysts we have in Colorado's thirteen chapters of The Arc.

Thank you all for this great honor. I am humbled to be in the company of this evening's other awardees and even more to follow in the sure steps of last year's advocacy recipient, Adonis Reddick.

While many of us here did not know Adonis, certainly he lives on, tonight and every day in the hearts of those who did and those who will be touched by his service and his story. He lives in the mission of each of us who call ourselves “advocates” and service providers. He lives on in us as a joyful and better angel. Adonis did his job and we must continue to do ours, as best we can, while we can, for our time to do so is, simply... unpredictable.

While you are here to help honor me, you should know that I am here to honor you. The work you do, the commitment you bring, the love you show to your community members.

Thanks to your work, more and more People with developmental challenges are doing wonderfully ordinary things, each and every day. Our future is brighter than ever as we work together to raise our standards of healthcare, our networks of social supports, our educational and workplace opportunities, and our rightful place in communities of our choosing.

My path to a brighter future has not been, is not now, and will not in the future be "easy." BUT I know that I am not alone as I continue to work hard to be the kind of person we all want to welcome into our schools, our businesses, our places of worship and our neighborhoods all across the country and indeed, around world.

I am here not as a singular “winner” of an award, but as a representative for many millions in the US and around the world. I appreciate this recognition of what my supportive family and friends and I do to advocate for others. We try to live in the spirit of John Wesley who said:

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

Now, that is not always easy or achievable, but always important and worthy of our best efforts. I am here because someone believed in me, in my abilities, my potential, my humanity, and my right to not only exist, but flourish … as Me.

Imagine how much better our entire world would be if every community was a community of Believers. Imagine!

IF it is possible – and we must believe it to be as possible as it is necessary – then we should strive to be catalysts for not just change, but for a belief in… love. Yes, “catalysts for love.“ Imagine that!

Imagine if we were catalysts for a love that fosters sharing over scarcity and greed, help instead of hindrance, justice instead of retribution, clear-eyed understanding instead of blind-hate, war, abuse, neglect, and indifference. Imagine... that we can do more, and do it better, because we have love in our hearts, warmth in our embraces, compassion in our words, kindness in our eyes and smiles on our faces.

You are here because you are people with great heart and commitment, who on a daily basis give service to others in need of supports, respect, kindness, compassion, fellowship and community. You are great “catalysts” because, even without a cape, sword or shield, you wield a hero's heart, a believing human heart.

SO, TONIGHT, let's celebrate the human catalysts within us and around us, in this room and those still out in the community. AND TOMORROW (or maybe Monday), let's get up, go back out and with humble hearts, be courageous and committed, believing and loving in those small moments that add up to creating greater lives for our family, friends, and neighbors, and clients.

Let's imagine that. Let's Believe in that. Then... let's go do it.

Thank you.

You can find out more about Connor at his website.

Paramahansa Yogananda: 'Remember the best shelter is In the silence of your soul, The Purpose of Life - circa 1920-25

Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in Boston in 1920, he embarked on a successful transcontinental speaking tour before settling in Los Angeles in 1925.

When you look at your body, when you look at the world, it seems that you are engaged with everything, but you have no time for God, but every night it dissolves your body in the subconscious fear and makes you realise that you are not a man, not a woman, but a piece of consciousness, A reflection of His Consciousness, sleeping in space. Enjoy. The drama of sleep gave me the greatest faith in God. When anybody told me I am made in the image of God I laughed, because I couldn't see in this frail body the image of God, but Master said, in this subconscious mirror of sleep you find that you are infninite. That every night you become the infinitive. You are not man or woman, you are joyous and happy and consicous. For when you wake up you have always know that you were never unconscious in sleep. You exactly know how you sleep, only you are not conscious of your body, but you are conscious of your real self and the nest of your troubles starts with the body.

So all the gifts and kindness that you have given to me, I want to give this gift to you. Remember these two natures in you. The nature as a man, as a human being during the day and the nature as God at night. And I often say we are all gods at night, but we become devils during the day. And if we can be gods during the day, we are gods all the time. And this purpose of life must not be drowned in the various engagements. But matter. We must remember if God says 'I have no time for you and stop sticking in your heart.' All your engagements have to be cancelled immediately. For one of the great sayings in India is — he's the cleverest who finds God. He's the cleverest who gives time to find God. He's the cleverest who finds that Supreme happiness within. And he can who can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds.

He whose peace, the riches of peace cannot be taken away by all the robbers of circumstances and trials. For in this spiritual family, you all remind me by your actions of one who millions forget, and that's why they suffer.

I remember one day I was in the movies. Movies have one fascination because I see the whole world as movies. I was in the booth and I saw the operator was reading a novel. And I saw this automatic machine was going on and the beam was causing on the screen a terrible horror picture. And I said, 'Lord, how is it?' I have the whole show of the universe in front of me. You are this operator who is thinking of new plays and your nature is throwing this beam in this sky. And I see the hero and the villain are nothing but pictures. Nobody is killed. Many are being killed and shot in this picture but I saw from the booth, it was the light that had created the villain and the light had created the hero. And the voice said, remember, the villain is created so that you don't become the villain, but that you love the hero. If you become the villain, your throat has to be cut.

And now you see that there is no villain, no hero. They are both pictures of my beam. After getting away from the villain and evil or tasting poison honey, taste the honey of goodness and then come into the beam and you'll realise that all this world that you see of terrible wars and troubles, is nothing but a picture show, cosmic motion picture show in the sky, you'll be surprised. You never analysed that as soon as you sleep and dream, you can create a world like this, with people suffering from cancer and disease and wars, and some smiling babies born, old men dying —then when you wake up, you see that all those things were made of your dream consciousness. So remember this is the same, nothing different. And until you find that out, this world is a terrible show. I said to God, as he was talking to me, 'But Lord, look at the audience. They are howling and screeching downstairs at this horror show. I see that it's nothing but pictures and light. Cause I see the invisible beam. There are no murderers in the beam, no heroes, nor villains in the beam, but Lord, what about the audience? They don't know it.

Then the voice said, 'Tell them all to look at my beam within. And they will realise that this show was given to entertain them, not to get mixed up with it.' That's why remember, every night he makes you a God, every night he withdraws you from this movie, cosmic movies, and makes you realise you are the son of God You are made in his image. You cannot be violated or hurt by stones. Nor bombs, nor machine guns, nor atomic bombs. Remember the best shelter is In the silence of your soul.

And if you can develop that silence, nothing in the world, nothing in the world can touch you. And you can say [Hindi] ... 'having which no other gain becomes greater, then you can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds. Then you are not in any way touched by cold and heat, pleasure and pain. But as soon you are touched by these you are with the movies. So I realise this world with terrible wars and troubles, when I see the injustices, I cannot, I cannot uphold the fire. But when I see that light dancing around me, the picture show, then I take glory into the fire. So remember, on one little piece of thought is the whole universe resting and when we rub up that thought at night, the whole universe stumbles away, You do not realise that the ocean is present in every doubt and that great power of God is present in every heart. And I do hope that in your kindness to me, you remember this that I told you, 'Do not get mixed up with this movie, this terrible movies of God. There's one purpose, to get to the beam. Get away from the villain and villainess action and poison honey of evil. Drink with the hero, the good honey of virtue, then get to the bees. Then you will suddenly realise it was only a show. History has no meaning for me. Where God can divide the past and the present and the present and the future, there is no time, nor space. Everything is happening In your own thought.

If you realise that, you'll realise the infiniteness of God and the love of God.



Grace Tame: 'To my fellow survivors – it is our time', National Press Club - 2021

3 March 2020, National Press Club, Canberra, Australia

In April of 2010, I was battling severe anorexia. Truth be told, I still am.

This illness had nearly taken my life the year prior, and seen me hospitalised twice. Bone thin and downed in fine down hairs from malnourishment, I was picked on for the way I looked. My mum was eight months pregnant at 45. I was a 15-year-old student at a private girls’ school in Hobart.

I arrived later to discover the rest of my Year 10 classmates were attending a driving lesson off campus I had completely forgotten about. Lapses like this weren’t uncommon – I was barely there. One of the senior teachers saw me walking around aimlessly in the courtyard. He was very well respected, the head of maths and science at the school for nearly 20 years. He taught me in Year 9. I thought he was funny. He told me he had a free period and asked me to chat with him in his office. He asked me about my illness, I talked, he listened. He promised to help me, to guide me in my recovery.

As a teenager with no frame of reference, and thinking nothing odd of this, I told my mother about the conversation. My parents had a meeting with the school principal, requesting the teacher stay away from me. In (a) meeting I then had, I think to apologise to him for putting him in this position in front of the principal. I was told I had done something wrong.

Thus, the first seeds of terror, confusion, and self-doubt were sewn in my mind. Indeed, it didn’t make sense. In secret, he was adamant I still come to see him. To talk. My parents were against me, he insisted. I was not to tell them because they wouldn’t understand. Pregnant women, he said, were full of hormones. That must be why my mother and I were arguing.

He gave me a key in his office, where it was always music playing, and the same music always, Simon and Garfunkel. Over a period of months he made me feel safe. I was sexually abused as a six-year-old by an older child who told me to undress in a closet before molesting me. He told me he would never hurt me. Until he did. By way of a masterful re-enactment I didn’t see coming. With a closet. And an instruction to undress.

Most of you know the story from there. That is, how I lost my virginity to a 58-year-old paedophile and spent the next six months being raped by him at school nearly every day on the floor of his office. When I reported him to police, he found 28 multimedia files of child pornography on his computer. As per the lasting impact of and manipulative grooming and a four months after the abuse, I effectively defended him in my statement. I was terrified he would find out I betrayed him and he would kill me. He was two years in jail for maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under the age of 17.

Repairing myself in the aftermath of all this was not a simple, linear undertaking. For every step forward, there were steps back and to the side, and some almost off the edge. I saw counsellor after counsellor. But I also abused drugs, drank, moved overseas, cut myself, threw myself into study, dyed my hair, made amazing friendships, got ugly tattoos, worked for my childhood hero, found myself in violent relationships, practised yoga, even became a yoga teacher.

I starved, I binged, and I starved again. One of the toughest challenges on my road to recovery was trying to speak about something we were taught is unspeakable. I felt completely disconnected from myself and everyone around me. Many people didn’t know how to respond. That said, the ones who listened, the ones who were eager to understand, even when they couldn’t, made all the difference.

Still, the doubt lingered. How could I have been so stupid, as to not see what this man was doing from the outset? Was it my fault? Should I have known it was a lie when he said he learned more from me than any of his other students? Maybe I should have been more alarmed when he asked me if I knew where my clitoris was. It was when the perpetrator was released after serving 19 months for abusing me, correction, maintaining a sexual relationship with me as a 15-year-old, and then spoke freely to the media about how awesome it was, I realised we had this all around the wrong way.

Add the fact this man was awarded a federally funded PhD scholarship to the only university in my state. My mother was studying there. She soon dropped out because of his presence. In fact, he was put in student accommodation. Despite multiple reports to police by fellow students of his predatory behaviour, and once again convicted and jailed for his vulgar public comments during his PhD tenure, he was eventually awarded a doctorate.

After all this, it became quite obvious to me why child sex abuse remains ubiquitous in our society, while predators retain the power to get what they want, to objectify their targets through free speech, the innocent, survivors and bystanders alike, are burdened by a shame-induced silence.

I connected with groundbreaking fellow survivor and journalist, Nina Funnell. I needed to raise awareness and educate others about sexual abuse and the prolonged psychological manipulation that belies it. After months of recounting, retraumatising details, tearfully transposed by Nina, we discovered we were barred by section 194k of Tasmania’s evidence act, that made it illegal for survivors of child sexual abuse to be identified by the media, even after turning 18, even with their consent. Nina created the Let Her Speak campaign to reform this law. We were then joined by 16 other brave survivors who lent their stories to the cause. The law was officially changed in April last year, almost 10 years to the day from the beginning of my story.

It is so important for our nation, the whole world, in fact, to listen to survivors’ stories. “Whilst they’re disturbing to hear, the reality of what goes on behind closed doors is more so. And the more details we omit for fear of disturbance, the more we soften these crimes. The more we shield perpetrators from the shame that is resultedly misdirected to their targets. “When we share, we heal, reconnect, and grow. Both as individuals and as a united strengthened collective. History, lived experience, the whole truth, unsanitised, and unedited, is our greatest learning resource. It is what informs social and structural change. The upshot of allowing predators a voice but not survivors encourages the criminal behaviour.

Through working with Nina, finally winning the right to speak, and talking with fellow campaign survivors and countless other women and men who have since come forward, it has become clear that there is the potential to do so much more to support survivors of child sexual abuse to thrive in life, beyond their trauma. And more so, to end child sexual abuse. It is my mission to do so. And it begins right now. As a fortunate nation, we have a particular obligation to protect our most vulnerable. Our innocent children, and especially those further disadvantaged through circumstance, being part of a minority group, or geographical location. And there are three key areas that we can focus on to achieve this.

Number one, how we invite, listen, and accept the conversation, and lived experience of child sexual abuse survivors. You have heard me say it before, it all starts with conversation. Number two, what we do to expand our understanding of this heinous crime, in particular, the grooming process, through both formal and informal education. Number three, how we provide a consistent national framework that supports survivors and their loved ones, not just in their recovery, but also to disempower and deter predators from action.

So, what is it that we must do? First and foremost, let’s keep talking about it. It’s that simple. Let’s start by opening up. It is up to us as a community, as a country, to create a space, a national movement where survivors feel supported and free to share their truths. Let’s drive a paradigm shift of shame away from those who have been abused and onto abusive behaviour. Let’s share the platform to remind all survivors that their individual voice matters amongst the collective. Every story is imbued with unique catalytic educative potential that can only be told by the subject. Let us genuinely listen, actively, without judgment, and without advice to demonstrate empathy and reinsure it never was our fault. Further to this point, while I must express my unflinching gratitude for this new-found platform, I would like to take this particular opportunity to directly address the media with a constructive reminder – the need for which has become starkly apparent to me this past month.

Hosts, reporters, journalists, I say to you – listening to survivors is one thing – repeatedly expecting people to relive their trauma on your terms, without our consent, without prior warning, is another. It’s sensation. It’s commodification of our pain. It’s exploitation. It’s the same abuse. Of all the many forms of trauma, rape has the highest rate of PTSD. Healing from trauma does not mean it’s forgotten, nor the symptoms never felt again. Trauma lives on in ourselves. Our unconscious bodies are steps ahead of our conscious minds. When we’re triggered, we’re at the mercy of our emotional brain. In this state, it’s impossible to discern between past and present. Such is retraumatisation.

I cried more than once while writing this. Just because I’m been recognised for my story doesn’t mean it’s fair game anywhere, any time. It doesn’t get any easier to tell. I may be strong, but I’m human, just like everyone else. By definition, truths cannot be forced. So grant us the respect and patience to share them on our own terms, rather than barking instructions that take us back to your darkest moment, and ‘tell us about being raped’. The cycle of abuse cannot be broken simply by replaying case histories, we cannot afford to back track. Else, we’ll go around in circles, trapped in a painful narrative, and we’ll all get tired, both as speakers and listeners. We’ll want to switch off and give up. And retreat once more into silence.

On average, it takes 23.9 years for survivors of child sexual abuse to be able to speak about their experiences. Such is the success of predators at instilling fear and self-doubt in the minds of their targets. More so than they are masters of destroying our trust in others, perpetrators are masters of destroying our trust in our own judgment. In ourselves. Such is the power of shame. A power, though, that is no match for love. When I disclosed my abuse to another of my teachers, Dr William Simon, his absolute belief in me was the only assurance I needed to tell the police. It helped me recover a little of my lost faith in humanity. There certainly isn’t a single rigid solution. Solutions will naturally come in due course by allowing and enabling voices to be heard.

Certainly, talking about child sexual abuse won’t eradicate it, but we can’t fix a problem we don’t discuss, so it begins with conversation. Which brings me to my second point: from there, we need to expand the conversation to create more awareness and education. Particularly around the process of grooming.

Grooming – it’s a concept that makes us wince and shudder and as such, we rarely hear about it. To the benefit of perpetrators. While it haunts us, and we avoid properly breaking it down, the complexity and secrecy of this criminal behaviour is what predators thrive on. In turn, we enable them to charm and manipulate not just their targets, but all of us at once, family, friends, colleagues and community members, and this must stop. Our discomfort, our fear, and resulting ignorance needs to stop giving perpetrators the power and confidence that allows them to operate.

As a start, we should all be aware of what has been identified as the six phases of grooming, that certainly ring true in my experience. Number one, targeting. That is, identifying a vulnerable individual. In my case, I was an innocent child, but I was anorexic, with significant change happening at home. Number two, gaining trust. That is, establishing a friendship and falsely lulling the target into a sense of security, by empathising and assuring safety. For me, that is what I thought was listening to my challenges. Empathising with my situation, and providing me a safe space to retreat to when I needed it. Number three, filling a need. That is, playing the person that fills the gap in a target’s mental and emotional support. In my case, although I was surrounded by an incredibly attentive family and team of medical professionals, most of their support came in the form of tough love. The teacher thus assumed the role of sympathiser, telling me what I wanted to hear. Number four, isolating, driving wedges between the target and their genuine supporters. This involves pushing certain people away, but exploiting others. I remember studying the film Iron Jawed Angels in history. The main character is force fed, much like I had been. Aware of my distress upon seeing this, my history teacher quietly led me out of the classroom. I said nothing. But she took me straight to his office. Where she left me with him. Panicked, in tears. It wasn’t until many years later I questioned why she and other staff would take me to him when I was upset. Staff he privately mocked and referred to as ‘the menopausal virgins club’. He must have told them. Number five, sexualising. That is, gradually introducing sexual content as to normalise it. In my case, in conjunction with subtly explicit conversation, I was carefully exposed to material that glorified relationships between characters with significant age differences. There was one film in particular he made me watch, called The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the last line of which, ‘Give me a girl at an impressible age, and she is mine for life’.

And remember how I said Simon and Garfunkel was always playing? Their music was the soundtrack to The Graduate. He made me watch that too. It was, both literally and figuratively, The Sound of Silence. You know the lyrics. The vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within The Sound of Silence. Number six, maintaining control. That is, striking a perfect balance between causing pain and providing relief from that pain. To condition the target to feel guilt at the thought of exposing a person that also appears to care for them. Abusers scare you into silent submission. At over six foot, he towered above me. He once told me a story about a friend of his who sought revenge on a woman by digging her eyes out with a spoon. He told me he killed people as a soldier. He’d also sit outside on my street at night in his car, to watch me undress through the window. I was already embarrassed by my shape as a young teenager in eating disorder recovery. I remember standing naked behind his desk after he had just raped me, and asking him if he thought I was fat. He looked me up and down and said, ‘You could do with some more exercise’. Like I was a dog. But he also told me I was beautiful. See, how it is all stiflingly, painfully complex?

But as we talk more about child sexual abuse, our lived experiences and what we know, our understanding of this premeditated evil will continue to develop. We need to warn our children, age appropriately, of the signs and characteristic behaviours, while educating how to report it, should it happen to them, or to those around them. This is a serious enough topic, unfortunately too common in occurrence for us to hope that kids know this. So I challenge our education system to look for ways to more formally educate our children. Because we know that education is our primary means of prevention.

And finally, to my third point, we need structural change. A national system that supports and protects survivors and deals with crimes in proportion to their severity. Let’s start by considering the implications of linguistics related to offences. Through Let Her Speak campaign efforts, we saw the wording of my abuser’s charge officially changed from maintaining a sexual relationship to a person under 17, to the persistent sexual abuse of a child. Think about the difference in the crime according to the language of both of these. Think about the message it sends to the community. Think about the message it sends survivors. Where empathy is placed, where blame is placed, and how punishment is then given. We need to protect our children not just from the physical, mental, and emotional pain of these hideous crimes, but from the long lasting sometimes lifelong trauma that accompanies it. Whilst national structural change is no small feat, nor is educating our children on the dangers and the complexities of grooming, it is work that needs to be done and we need to start somewhere.

Let’s start by reviewing our linguistics and agreeing between ourselves. We have eight different state and territory jurisdictions and eight different definitions of consent. We need to agree on something as absolute as what consent is. We need a uniform, state and federal, national standard definition of consent. Only then can we effectively teach this fundamentally important principle consistently around Australia.

Since I was announced as Australian of the Year just over a month ago, hundreds of fellow child sexual abuse survivors have reached out to me to tell their stories. To cry with me. Stories they thought they would take with them to the grave, out of shame for being subjected to something that was not their fault. Stories of a kind of suffering they had previously never been able to explain. Stories of grooming. I am one of the luckiest ones. Who survived, who was believed, who was surrounded by love.

And what this shows me is that despite this problem still existing, and despite a personal history of trauma that is still ongoing, it is possible to heal, to thrive, and live a wonderful life. It is my mission and my duty as a survivor and as a survivor with a voice to continue working towards eradicating child sexual abuse. I won’t stop until it does.

And so, I leave you with these three messages – number one, to our government – our decision-makers, and our policymakers – we need reform on a national scale. Both in policy and education. To address these heinous crimes so they are no longer enabled to be perpetrated. Number two, to my nation, the wonderful people of Australia – we need to be open, to embrace the conversation, new information, and take guidance from our experiences so we can inform change. So we can heal and prevent this happening to future generations.

Number three, and finally, to my fellow survivors – it is our time. We need to take this opportunity. We need to be bold and courageous. Recognise that we have a platform on which I stand with you in solidarity and support. Share your truth. It is your power. One voice, your voice, and our collective voices can make a difference. We are on the precipice of a revolution whose call to action needs to be heard loud and clear. That’s right. You got it. Let’s keep making noise, Australia.”

Joachim Prinz: 'I speak to you as an American Jew', March on Washington - 1964

I speak to you as an American Jew.

As Americans we share the profound concern of millions of people about the shame and disgrace of inequality and injustice which make a mockery of the great American idea.

As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a two-fold experience -- one of the spirit and one of our history.

In the realm of the spirit, our fathers taught us thousands of years ago that when God created man, he created him as everybody's neighbor. Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept. It means our collective responsibility for the preservation of man's dignity and integrity.

From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say:

Our ancient history began with slavery and the yearning for freedom. During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe . Our modern history begins with a proclamation of emancipation.

It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience.

When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not '.the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.

A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.

America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. Not merely black America , but all of America . It must speak up and act,. from the President down to the humblest of us, and not for the sake of the Negro, not for the sake of the black community but for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself.

Our children, yours and mine in every school across the land, each morning pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands. They, the children, speak fervently and innocently of this land as the land of "liberty and justice for all."

The time, I believe, has come to work together - for it is not enough to hope together, and it is not enough to pray together, to work together that this children's oath, pronounced every morning from Maine to California, from North to South, may become. a glorious, unshakeable reality in a morally renewed and united America.

Larry Kramer: 'We are in the middle of a plague and you behave like this!' AIDS Forum NYC - 1991

7 October 1991, New York City, USA

SO! WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING PLAGUE!!! AND YOU BEHAVE LIKE THIS! SO! FORTY MILLION INFECTED PEOPLE IN THIS FUCKING PLANET!!! And nobody acts as it is! Nobody here either! Nobody in this hospital! Nobody in this city! Nobody in this world! [Begins banging on the podium.] [Bang, bang, bang] ... the fucking plague [Bang, bang, bang] ... all because of some stupid thing you didn't even call and ask me about! You don't know what I did!

We are in the worst shape we have ever, ever, ever been in! Nothing is working! None of that shit you saw on the screen is working! None of the shit that's in the pipeline that these people are studying is working! You heard what George Bush said ... when we went to Kennebunkport. He's more inclined, he's feels more sorry for the unemployed. That's what we're in. Every person I talk to -- in every city, in every agency -- gay, straight, AIDS -- is as despondent as they can possibly be. Nobody knows what to do next. Nobody knows what to do next. And we have a president who cares ... more about the unemployed ... setting people against each other ... just like these people are doing ... than he cares about us.

All those pills they're shoving down our throat -- forget it! All those treatments Mark mentioned -- forget it! My beloved Brad Davis took every fucking drug for MAI, and not one of them worked. Plus two that we got out of the White ... out of experimental ... that are so top secret nobody else has had them.

What does it take? Nobody knows. I don't know anymore. I helped start the two biggest organizations. They've turned to shit! Both of them! GMHC is a bureaucracy that's so ludicrous -- it's a joke. ActUp has been taken over by a lunatic fringe. They can't get together. Nobody agrees with anything. All they can do is steal. A couple hundred people at a demonstration. ActUp doesn't make anybody pay attention. [Unintelligible] ... millions out there. We can't do that. All we do is pick at each other. And yell at each other. [Banging on podium] I deserve a little fucking respect for what I've done -- in this room. [mixed applause and boos] These people like to write me love letters ... the essence of Larry should be bottled, and we should all drink it ... and suddenly I do one thing that they don't agree with. Then I'm Hitler. What kind of extremism is this? [Unintelligible]

I'm as depressed as I've ever been. I talked to Marty Delaney on the West Coast, a similar kind of guy. He doesn't know what to do. [Unintelligible] You know that Tony Fauci ... damned bungler that he is ... are not capable of the jobs entrusted to them. You know that! Fred, you know that the ACTG system is worth shit! Yes, you said that, you told me! ... The ACTG system has produced nothing of any value. The studies are all the product of second-rate, middle-of-the-road decisions that are not controversial. And everybody knows this. You all schlep down there, three times a year, at tax payers' expense, and you sit there, and you know it's all a load of shit.

Why are all the fights left to the activists? Why do we have to do all the fights? Why do we have to fight your fights? Have any of you gone back to Saul Farber, the head of this medical school? Have you gone to Larry Tisch and Bob Tisch, whose name is on this hospital, and said we have got a plague on? We have to get to George Bush. We can't get the fucking ear of George Bush. And he's the only person that matters. It doesn't make any difference to go to Cuomo, or Dinkins, or Moynihan. Forget it! It isn't going to do dipshit. George Bush is the only person, and we are closed off from him. The people who have the power won't go near him. You want to tell Dr. Farber ... the Tisches. Joan Tisch is on the board of directors of Gay Men's Health Crisis. [exclamation from the audience] You didn't know that? She is on the board of Gay Men's Health Crisis. Bob Tisch's wife. I have spent personally two years begging her to have a meeting with her husband. Her husband, Bob Tisch, was in Ronald Reagan's cabinet, as Postmaster General. And I said, "Joan, you're on the board of this organization. Get your husband to talk to George Bush. Tell him there's a plague on. Tell him nothing is working. Nobody has a master plan. You keep throwing all this money away. Has anyone planned. Does anybody have a plan? At NIH? NIH is a joke."

David Ho, you know the things that we have to learn -- before we can go forward. You network with our people; you can help make a list of all the things that we have in order ... to investigate. Why aren't we doing this? What does it take, to get, to perpetuate a master plan. You guys [unintelligible] ... and we have to do the fight. Ten years have gone. Ten years have gone ... stupid studies of the ACTG. I don't blame you for that. I blame the ACTG. We're getting nowhere. Nowhere! I'm so tired of looking at these stupid flyers. [Laughter] They insult you. [Applause] You come to these [unintelligible] and they trot out AIDS 101. We're in graduate school.

I want to read you something from the New York Times. [Reads article, "Medical Research is in Ruins", about how "the NIH is in disarray".] In other words, you guys ought to be fighting for your jobs. This litany is not new. Why then have the scientists been silent? Why then have the scientists been silent? Why then have the scientists been silent? Scientists have to speak out. If necessary, fight -- for health research. They have to tell the president and his administration that government priorities are signaled by unfulfilled positions and unkept promises. I don't make this up. That's the fucking president of Yale Medical School.

I don't know what to do anymore, and I never said that before. I think ActUp doesn't work anymore. I think the tactics it represents don't work anymore. I think the anger that is in us has fallen on deaf ears. And I don't know what to do next. I don't know what kind of organization to start. I don't know how to fight. I don't know how to lead anyone, should they want to follow. I don't know what to write anymore. I don't know how to write any part of this, because I have said what I have said to you tonight, in one form or another, for ten fucking years. And I say to you in year ten, as we fact the figure of 40 million infected people, the same thing I said in 1981, when there were 41 cases. Until we get our act together, all of you, until we learn to plug in with each other, and fight and make this president listen, we are as good as dead.

And in closing I would like to thank the gentleman in the rear [Bill Dobbs] for stirring me up, because I don't think I would have made such a potent speech otherwise.