This text is from the website of The Pledge. We encourage you to visit it and sign it.
Inspired by the local group Bendigo for Refugees, we wrote the Pledge to bring some perspective to an issue that has become lost in politics. We hope that it will move people’s hearts, demonstrate the depth of compassion felt by average Australian individuals and groups, and inspire further action.
This Pledge has no political affiliations. It simply asks for the fair and just treatment of asylum seekers who come from desperate and vulnerable situations.
It supports kindness and understanding, and it acknowledges that this is a two way street: that we have a responsibility to assist and support people seeking asylum in Australia, and that those who come here have a responsibility to respect our values and contribute to our diverse community.
There is a rising groundswell of support to change the current hard line approach to asylum seekers, to find a better way that acknowledges people’s basic human rights.
What that way is, we don’t personally know. But we hope that those who sign the Pledge will think deeply about how we can do this better, act in whatever way they feel they can to make a difference, and find the humanity that lives within us all.
