Monday, September 6, 2005As an exchange student from the United States, my semester here in Australia has been one filled with ups and downs. I love Australia and have met some of the most awesome people here. Hurricane Katrina hit the southern states of the US last week and the devastation has been horrific. It’s been difficult for me to watch places I’ve come to love in such dire conditions.
One morning sitting in the office before starting my day as an ActNow intern, a fellow intern and I are looking at the Sunday paper. The front page featured a picture of a women and her baby, who you could assume have just been saved from New Orleans. The headline of this day’s paper was ‘America’s Shame’. I am not saying that the American government is perfect, or that they didn’t do a whole lot wrong in their handling of the crisis, but I feel that instead of focusing on the shortcomings of the American government, maybe we should be focusing on the victims. While the exact death toll may not be known for weeks or months, the numbers being thrown around are staggering. Shouldn’t we be focused on that? There is a refugee crisis the likes of which the United States has never seen, so why isn’t this given the most prominent place on the news?
My anger was building while reading the paper until the point which my fellow intern had an idea. She suggested that I should write a letter to the editor. I dismissed the idea at first—who would want to hear from an exchange student from the US anyway? But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Even if my letter was never published, it would still help me vent some of the anger and frustration I had been feeling.
Sitting down to write a letter that could potentially be read by all of Australia was a stressful but exciting task. I wanted my letter to be clear and to-the-point without sounding like a lecture. It took some thinking, but the final draft of my letter turned out pretty well I think. Here it is…
Where the Focus Should BeI was shocked and saddened by The Sun-Herald’s big, bold headline ‘America’s Shame’ last Sunday (The Sun-Herald, September 4). Instead of focusing on the large-scale human tragedy taking place in the United States where tens of thousands are feared dead, the headline and article took the opportunity to trash America. When the tsunami hit Asia the entire world was sympathetic to the plight of the poor, but when a similar natural disaster happens to the United States your paper was quick to point out the problems with the relief effort while downplaying the magnitude of the tragedy. Had this disaster happened in another country, the focus would be on helping the refugees and remembering the dead not on using this as another way of promoting an anti-American agenda. As a visiting exchange student from the US, I am saddened to see the way your paper is portraying my home country. The United States is a generous country that went over and above with tsunami relief last year and now during our time of need is being bashed on the front page of your paper. My heart goes out to the people of New Orleans and I hope that the Australian people will keep the tragedy in mind instead of thinking about Bush’s shortcomings.
ASHLEY BERKLER
North Ryde
I guess all there was to do now was to sit back and wait to see if the letter would be published. I know that I felt better having put my thoughts in writing.
Friday, September 9, 2005Since I turned in my article on Monday I thought on and off about whether or not it would make the cut for Sunday’s paper. I was sitting in my apartment Friday afternoon when I got a phone call from a number that I didn’t recognise. I answered it and it was a staff member from the Sun-Herald asking me to verify the spelling of my name because they were going to publish my letter in the Sunday’s paper. I don’t think it was possible for me to be more excited. After the excitement died down though, I started to feel a bit of panic. What if people didn’t accept my argument? What if I got a lot of negative feedback? This is a drawback of putting yourself out there, but I felt that in this case, it was worth it, because the message was so important.
Sunday, September 11, 2005I went right to the newsagency to buy the Sun-Herald to see my work actually published. There was something special about seeing my name and what I had written in newsprint. Feeling confident in what I had written, I showed the letter to everyone who would listen. I really feel like this was an action that made an impact and I will continue to speak up on issues that I feel are important in the future.
