‘Life is about actions and interactions’: Adam Goodes’ Australia Day speech

There has been an awful lot of talk about the Adam Goodes saga over the past few weeks.

Talk about the booing being racist.  Talk about the booing not being racist.  Talk about banning booing at football games.  Talk about Goodes needing to harden up.  Talk about the treatment of Goodes being akin to national bullying.

People seem to have forgotten that Goodes is an Australian of the Year.  People seem to have forgotten that you don’t just wake up one morning and inherit one of our country’s highest honours.  People seem to be dismissive of a life spent working tirelessly for the rights of indigenous Australians and likewise other minority groups.

What seems to have been lost in all this is the Australian spirit that oozes through Goodes’ pores. You would have to travel a long way to find a person more proud of his people, place and country.

Does it not then seem ironic that an Australian of the Year, who has devoted so much time to ending racism, is the victim of possibly Australia’s worst racist episode?

Goodes’ own Australia Day speech, provides as much insight as one needs to understand what drives and motivates him.

“Life is about actions and interactions.

“I believe our choices and how we interact with each other creates our relationships and this in turn creates the environment we live in, which shapes our communities and the country in which we all live in.

“You can choose to get angry…or not.  You can choose to help others…or not.  You can choose to be offended…or not.  But you must take responsibility for your own actions.”

Goodes makes a good point and it’s not directed at any one part of the community.  It’s directed at all Australian’s, all people from this land.  Is it not time for Australia and Australians alike to behave as one people?

Watch Goodes’ Australia Day speech below and tell us what you think.  Is it time to for Australia to stop acting as if there’s Australians and then there’s indigenous Australians?  How can we move forward of this issue?