Stephanie Dorwick | Author | Your Name Is Not Anxious
Stephanie Dowrick: Australia’s choice to “arm” the arms industries

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/secret-mens-business-of-the-arms-industry-needs-exposure-20180202-h0spx3.html

From the Sydney Morning Herald article. Stephanie writes, “We are global citizens – or should be. In a century when more people are displaced by violence than ever before, it seems indefensible for Australia to “export death and profit from bloodshed”, as World Vision chief executive Tim Costello has expressed it. Empathy would require us to acknowledge that our decisions affect other people. And in keeping one another safe, this matters.”

When governments make decisions that may offend or appall many of us, or that seem to be utterly against the public good, we can only assume they are relying upon our short attention span, or perhaps feelings of helplessness: “What difference can I make?”

Well, we can do a great deal. Not least, we can get ourselves better and better informed. Through our democratic processes, we can insist that governments make decisions that have social benefits. And do not add to the harm and violence that already destroys millions of lives. We can insist that governments make their big decisions far more honestly. But to do this, we need to speak up, act, engage – and care.

I am immensely grateful for the opportunities that I have occasionally to speak out on ethical matters that shape where we are going, collectively. And I really hope that you will feel that you can join in with this conversation also. The link above is to an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald. Please read, comment, share. You can write to the editor of the SMH. You can send it on by email to others. (There’s a whole range of communication links on the bottom of the page.) You can also comment on my public Facebook page – where I posted the article and where it is very easy to share it, and to read and engage with others’ comments also.

Your efforts count. I will always be engaging with you, supporting this conversation, as best I can. Engagement with peace issues has been my lifetime’s work. And perhaps yours also? I feel passionately that our purpose on earth is to make this a kinder, more peaceful and far safer world. Peace be with you today, wherever you are. And my deepest thanks for your care.

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

Rev Dr Martin Luther King