No B.S Friday: We did it. I was never sure we were going to make it…
Ok, today, I’m taking my hats off to Victoria.
Well done everyone. Well done.
Seriously, I know it’s been a big effort. I want to recognise that. It hasn’t been easy. Lockdown has been tough on everyone.
And for people who lost work or saw their businesses close, it was painful salt in the wound.
And it tested our resolve. Lockdown was only going to work if we all did it together. You only needed a few people to be doing the wrong thing, and we’d have to start over.
But it happened. Victorians sucked it up, did the lockdown, and got infections down to zero.
Massive.
I think we should be proud.
And I think we should take time to reflect on that success. We should really go into it.
Because I know that we’re not totally out of the woods just yet. The world isn’t. Resurging infection rates in the US and Europe show us that.
I pray it won’t happen, but there’s every chance that we could be asked to go into lockdown again. To go through the brutal grind again.
My fear is that when we hit that point, we’ve depleted our reserves of social responsibility.
In recent months, we’ve showed good community character. We’ve shown great social spirit by accepting what’s hard for the love of others.
These things feel like they’re in shorter and shorter supply these days. Watching the US election campaign, and you realise that the world is a just a more polarised and divided place these days.
Thanks Facebook.
And I know those divisions live here too.
And yet, despite that, we did it. We pulled together and go through it.
And really, it’s nothing short of a miracle.
So let’s celebrate that. Let’s celebrate the stuffing out of it. It’s a huge achievement.
When future generations look back at us and wonder what on Earth we were thinking with all the plastic and stuff, at least they’ll be able to know that we did this.
In the face of incredible odds, at a time of incendiary division, we pulled together and protected our most vulnerable.
Today, I’m proud to be Australian. I’m proud to be Victorian.
Good on you all.
Go get on the beers.
JG.