I MUST say on seeing the omnipresent display of flags in and around Ballarat on Australia Day, I felt a sense of disappointment for the bearers of those flags.
There was a time when we as a nation did not need to display a flag — other than at ceremonies and sporting events — to affirm our patriotism.
We should therefore ask ourselves where this sudden inclination to air our nationalistic fervour comes from.
Could it be a manifestation of John Howard's dog whistle politics? ("We shall decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come ..." — code for we will keep the foreigners out).
And the multiplication of flags is acknowledgement of a perverted call to arms that still, to this very day, has an odious impact on those not fully sure of who or what they are, and in turn makes all refugees and immigrants feel marginalised.
Phillip Slade
Ballarat
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