I wasn’t always an optimist – quite the contrary. When I was 14, I wrote this poem about climate change:
The earth heats up
The sea rises
And so we sink
Deeper into ignorance
It’s good, right?
Yeah, well, as much as there was something satisfying about writing emo poetry and listening to Linkin Park – and I still do both occasionally, though never at the same time – these days I try to keep it positive.
When we’re inundated with stories of violence, suffering, perversion, pain, fear and sheer lunacy, optimism might seem a pointless uphill battle. Indeed, it’s easier to be bleak about the future than to be hopeful about it. Somehow it’s not trite to say things are going to hell in a handbasket, the way it most definitely is trite to say things can only get better.
Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m rambling about my teenage years and the woes of the world.
All I actually wanted to do was ask you to join the positive campaign that my IJM colleagues and I are running this week.
We’ve dubbed it #PowerOfThankYou and really it’s about being grateful to politicians who do the right, noble thing.
For the thousand other times they cop (often deserved) flack for not doing anything on [insert your pet issue, eg. climate change, refugees, same-sex marriage], just this once let’s say something nice to them for the good they are doing.
Because this week Parliament will consider legislative amendments that include tougher penalties for paedophiles who livestream the sexual abuse of children, and for internet service providers that refuse to cooperate with police – to name just two of the important changes.
Championed by NXT Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore and formally introduced by Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, the amendments incorporate pretty much all of the submissions that IJM made to the Commonwealth Inquiry into Human Trafficking back in May. It’s a significant step forward in the fight against cybersex trafficking.
This is a big deal. So please give these guys some encouragement and sign our giant Thank You card.
To be precise, you will electronically input your name. And then when (not “if”, my dears!) the Bill passes, we will present a giant thank you card (yes, actually) to Parliament, containing a list of the names of everybody who signs online. This will show them that people out there – ie. you and me – care about ending cybersex trafficking and that we notice when our elected representatives do good stuff.
This will only work if we get LOTS OF SIGNATURES. Otherwise it will be lame. I mean, the card will look pretty bare.
So please, do this positive thing today. Sign the card to say THANK YOU.
Say THANK YOU to politicians championing tough new laws to protect kids from cybersex trafficking: https://t.co/LHfwEkqc4R #PowerOfThankYou pic.twitter.com/vImxlzKd6e
— IJM Australia (@IJMAus) 13 de octubre de 2017
