ChilOut at the Sydney City To Surf
THANK YOU, SYDNEY! August 10, 2003.
Trying to highlight the plight of many families who continue to languish in our immigratrion detention centres, ChilOut staged a thought-provoking and well received protest along the route of the annual City to Surf community fun run on August 10, 2003.
Squads of supporters stood along the route with graphics bearing simple images and messages as 58,000 people ran or walked past.
ChilOut is thrilled at the fantastic response we received from the overwhelming majority of runners. The support and encouragement given along the route as we demonstrated the plight of children in immigration detention centres was beyond our wildest dreams. People cheered, clapped, gave us the thumbs up, thanked us for being there, shook our hands. Only a tiny number registered any dissent.
As long term campaigners we felt a huge shift in public opinion towards compassion and away from intolerance.
So, if we take it that the people who run in the City to Surf are a representative cross section of Sydney opinion, just who IS in favour of the indefinite detention of innocent children in harsh conditions where they are at risk of all sorts of psychological harm?
And those thousands of you who did cheer us last Sunday - please take a moment to write to John Howard and Philip Ruddock and tell them, "Please stop incarcerating children (and their families). It doesn't have to be like this".
