I was very much
taken by the following letter published in the letters column of today’s
edition of The Age:
Making a mockery of
the courageous
Our PM's use of the phrase ''you shall not pass'' to define
his policy of turning people seeking refuge back to sea - surely a crime
against humanity - is also a travesty against historical rhetoric. Mr Abbott
may think the phrase comes from The Lord of the Rings,
but more famously it was a challenge thrown down by the Spanish leftist Dolores
Ibarruri, ''La Pasionaria'', in July 1936, as Franco's forces besieged Madrid:
''No pasaran!'' (''They shall not pass!''). To use this noble charge as
rhetoric in our inhumane and illegal border ''war'' makes a mockery of the
desperate courage of those who seek refuge.
Marguerita Stephens, Clifton
Hill
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