On Remembrance Day. I remember.

In early May 1917 a 21 year old private called John Cornelius Hunt would with thousands of other Australians step of the jumping off spot near a small town called Bullecourt. This was in fact the second battle of Bullecourt. He would be very badly wounded and would eventually be sent home to Australia.

Banning something is a way for politicians to look like they are doing something and being tough at the same time. So when they ban under 16 year olds from social media, without including education about said social media, firstly all the teens will rush to instal VPN apps to try and get around it and parents will live in a false sense of security thinking their children are now safe. How will you prove your age? Is anybody seriously considering giving for example Facebook copies of your ID? This is such an ill conceived idea which absolves the social media titans from making their platforms better and safer for everybody.

Well I finished reading Jack Hibbert's play "Liquid Amber" last night. I must say I enjoyed it in particular its irreverence and as it says on the back cover its vulgarity. it poked fun at and tore strips off just about everybody and everything. The cast had an age range from 70 to 18 which means if it were done you could have a real cross section of ages I think making for a much richer experience.

If Trump wins, which is sadly becoming more likely, what lessons can Australia take from this? Populists like Trump thrive on issues like institutionalised inequality'. If people loose hope in democratic institutions then they turn to populists like Trump.

One thing I took away from The Georgy awards last night was the talent displayed by young people in that region. The exerts they performed from their shows were wonderful and I am sure some of them have very bright careers in Theatre. They obviously have strong school based performing arts programs in place, and it showed. What else I took away from the night and my reflections after was how proud I was and still am of the team of young people who worked with me on Kid Stakes. Ayshia and Oscar who ran the lighting and sound and the youngest member Jasper who played an important role in the stage crew. They all are as talented in their areas as any and in spite of not having the same opportunities as those who performed last night are as passionate about the performing arts as anybody I have seen in my forty plus year involvement.

I thought after we spent seven long years busting a gut to get the Performing Arts Centre built we would be able to partner with and support secondary school based performing arts in Mansfield but alas that is no longer the case. So it looks like MMuDS will need to step up to support our communities young people. We have done it in the past, I am an product of that, and we can do it again. I am confident that we have a group of younger committee members who also feel passionate about creating opportunities. This post was not a whinge. It is a half glass full post. Achieving this would be the best award of all.