The community seminar
I got to the office pretty early yesterday. I sent an email to the guy from LA and he replied, adding a thank you to Michael D and myself for our hard work. I forwarded the reply to DC and GS, and DC comes in saying “what the fuck about me? What about the work I’ve done?” Sometimes I feel that underneath his gregarious sense of humour and his sociability, there lies a blanket of insecurity about his own work performance. Personally I think he’s fine as a barista.
When court broke for lunch, almost everyone zoomed out of the courtroom, except the other side who were trying to hand things out to us, and only GS and I were there. The cute para and her friend were handing things out. GS said something, and then her friend said something about how everybody had left. I was standing up at my table packing things up, when I looked up to say “we’re here”. As soon as I looked up, the cute para, who was standing in front of me but a bar table away, smiled at me. It was as if she was waiting for me to look up. Far out, how can her reaction be so quick.
After work I met up with Kylie and Shadi for a public forum on sentencing. Bush was supposed to come, she was the one who told us about it, but she bailed saying she had to prepare for her husband’s birthday the next day. Anyway, I went with them for an early dinner at a Thai restaurant, and they were telling me about how hard it was working for the other side. They made it sound like they weren’t enjoying it at all. I wonder if they’re just being weak, or if it really is that bad. I mean, after all, they weren’t exactly the hardest working people at uni.
After dinner we headed over to the public forum. We looked around for people we may have recognised, and Kylie spotted her cousin. We stood around them talking, and it was like an awkward 20 minutes where Shadi and I would walk to the coffee table and back before she introduced him to us. Even then, he kinda snubbed us. I saw that girl from the other side who I was up against once when I was doing the list. Shadi didn’t recognise her, so maybe she’s changed jobs since then. She’s kinda pretty in that sensible, conservative way. I wonder if she’d go for me.
There were maybe about 30-40 people altogether who attended. I thought it was just going to be some crappy talk, but it actually turned out to be better than expected. I wasn’t very impressed with the State AG at first, as he just read his talk off the paper. I remember thinking, when he thanking us for attending, “why do you need to read a thank you line?”
The other speakers were a lot better, as they used slide show presentations and just talked, instead of read. One of them worked as a representative for victims, and I thought he was really fair. Even though he sympathised with victims, he understood that you couldn’t impose one’s prejudices and values on another. As an example, he said that even though he thought four years for the guy who shot his friend wasn’t enough, he couldn’t go around saying that every other murderer should get more than four years, or that some people might think four years was sufficient.
The last guy was pretty interesting too, he was from the jails. I just felt bad for him because I think by then everyone was tired.
The best bit came during question time. This was the only time I liked the State AG, because he managed to skilfully, and diplomatically, answer questions in a way that didn’t answer them at all. I’m a big fan of that.
I guess the fun started when some guy got the microphone and asked something like “you have this whole campaign about stopping male violence against women, but what about violence against men from women?” He asked another question, along similar lines, prefaced with “I promise this is the last question and then I’ll sit down” and then the MP, who was the host, said “you better” and laughed, but it was pretty obvious she was being stern. I was about to whisper to Shadi that the dude had obviously been abused by women, but thought that it may have been a bit too premature.
An old man asked why his friend, who had been the victim of fraud and lost a lot of money, couldn’t get a lawyer. When they started answering him, he obviously didn’t like the answer, and he walked out of the auditorium midway through, before they even finished answering, LOL!
There was a really sad moment when a woman had the microphone, with a toddler on her lap, and she asked, as she sobbed, “what’s the sentence for someone who sexually assaulted someone?” She was obviously a victim, and I felt sorry for her, but at the same time, I wondered exactly how she thought that that question could be answered.
Of course, the night couldn’t be finished without another question from the woman-abused guy, who asked another question along the same line, lol. I thought :just give it up mate”.
When we walked out of the forum, we talked about the statue of the blind folded woman holding the scales, and apparently Kylie had never seen it. I joked that when the host said “you better” to the woman-abused guy, he probably thought “another woman against me”, haha, and we all cracked up.
I had a pretty good time, much better than I was expecting.
When court broke for lunch, almost everyone zoomed out of the courtroom, except the other side who were trying to hand things out to us, and only GS and I were there. The cute para and her friend were handing things out. GS said something, and then her friend said something about how everybody had left. I was standing up at my table packing things up, when I looked up to say “we’re here”. As soon as I looked up, the cute para, who was standing in front of me but a bar table away, smiled at me. It was as if she was waiting for me to look up. Far out, how can her reaction be so quick.
After work I met up with Kylie and Shadi for a public forum on sentencing. Bush was supposed to come, she was the one who told us about it, but she bailed saying she had to prepare for her husband’s birthday the next day. Anyway, I went with them for an early dinner at a Thai restaurant, and they were telling me about how hard it was working for the other side. They made it sound like they weren’t enjoying it at all. I wonder if they’re just being weak, or if it really is that bad. I mean, after all, they weren’t exactly the hardest working people at uni.
After dinner we headed over to the public forum. We looked around for people we may have recognised, and Kylie spotted her cousin. We stood around them talking, and it was like an awkward 20 minutes where Shadi and I would walk to the coffee table and back before she introduced him to us. Even then, he kinda snubbed us. I saw that girl from the other side who I was up against once when I was doing the list. Shadi didn’t recognise her, so maybe she’s changed jobs since then. She’s kinda pretty in that sensible, conservative way. I wonder if she’d go for me.
There were maybe about 30-40 people altogether who attended. I thought it was just going to be some crappy talk, but it actually turned out to be better than expected. I wasn’t very impressed with the State AG at first, as he just read his talk off the paper. I remember thinking, when he thanking us for attending, “why do you need to read a thank you line?”
The other speakers were a lot better, as they used slide show presentations and just talked, instead of read. One of them worked as a representative for victims, and I thought he was really fair. Even though he sympathised with victims, he understood that you couldn’t impose one’s prejudices and values on another. As an example, he said that even though he thought four years for the guy who shot his friend wasn’t enough, he couldn’t go around saying that every other murderer should get more than four years, or that some people might think four years was sufficient.
The last guy was pretty interesting too, he was from the jails. I just felt bad for him because I think by then everyone was tired.
The best bit came during question time. This was the only time I liked the State AG, because he managed to skilfully, and diplomatically, answer questions in a way that didn’t answer them at all. I’m a big fan of that.
I guess the fun started when some guy got the microphone and asked something like “you have this whole campaign about stopping male violence against women, but what about violence against men from women?” He asked another question, along similar lines, prefaced with “I promise this is the last question and then I’ll sit down” and then the MP, who was the host, said “you better” and laughed, but it was pretty obvious she was being stern. I was about to whisper to Shadi that the dude had obviously been abused by women, but thought that it may have been a bit too premature.
An old man asked why his friend, who had been the victim of fraud and lost a lot of money, couldn’t get a lawyer. When they started answering him, he obviously didn’t like the answer, and he walked out of the auditorium midway through, before they even finished answering, LOL!
There was a really sad moment when a woman had the microphone, with a toddler on her lap, and she asked, as she sobbed, “what’s the sentence for someone who sexually assaulted someone?” She was obviously a victim, and I felt sorry for her, but at the same time, I wondered exactly how she thought that that question could be answered.
Of course, the night couldn’t be finished without another question from the woman-abused guy, who asked another question along the same line, lol. I thought :just give it up mate”.
When we walked out of the forum, we talked about the statue of the blind folded woman holding the scales, and apparently Kylie had never seen it. I joked that when the host said “you better” to the woman-abused guy, he probably thought “another woman against me”, haha, and we all cracked up.
I had a pretty good time, much better than I was expecting.
posted by toey | 09:36
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home